Pushing Ice | ||||||||
Alastair Reynolds | ||||||||
Gollancz, 458 pages | ||||||||
|
A review by David Soyka
The basic plot: a crew of commercial "space divers" recovers water-rich ice comets that are "pushed back" to the inner worlds
for mining. Hence the title. However, other than as a symbol of the psychology of the crew -- unrelenting in the face of
enormous and coldly indifferent obstacles, with perhaps a tip of the hat to Albert Camus's Sisyphus -- the story doesn't
focus on this activity. Rather, one of Saturn's moons, Janus (named after the two-faced Roman god who presided over gates
and doorways, symbolizing beginning and ends and the transition between primitive and civilized life, another apt metaphor
for the novel's subject), is moving out of orbit and behaving like an alien spacecraft. Company mining ship
Rockhopper is the only vessel close enough to intercept for an intelligence mission. Trouble is, the company owner
isn't telling all he knows about Rockhopper's ability to return home. Determining the best response to arising
emergencies pits ship captain Bella Lind against her friend and ship's engineer Svetlana Barseghian. Stuck in an Einsteinian
warp in which time passes slower for the crew than "real-time" on Earth, the balance of power shifts back and forth
between the two women, who become irreconcilable, and a bit bitchy, in the struggle for power (so in addition to space
opera, you get soap opera).
Framing all this is an envoy from the far-distant future who we know from the opening chapter views Captain Lind as the
benefactor of humankind that has colonized the galaxies. Exactly how Lind comes to fulfill that role is the novel's
payoff. However, even what turns out to be a key event in human expansion to the stars is contextualized by the coda
provided by musician Nick Cave, "Stars have their moment, and then they die." In that respect, Pushing Ice
reminded me of fellow Brit and hard SF guy Stephen Baxter, whose Evolution deals with a similar theme in a
much different way. The difference is that Reynolds is much more entertaining and, in the end, more hopeful, even
while recognizing the underlying pessimistic nature of an inexplicable universe.
David Soyka is a former journalist and college teacher who writes the occasional short story and freelance article. He makes a living writing corporate marketing communications, which is a kind of fiction without the art. |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
If you find any errors, typos or anything else worth mentioning,
please send it to editor@sfsite.com.
Copyright © 1996-2014 SF Site All Rights Reserved Worldwide