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I just finished reading Survey Ship by Marion Zimmer Bradley, published in 1980. It was an interesting experience.
The basic premise is that Earth is training a bunch of kids to go out on survey ships to find new planets for humans to colonize. Each year, a crew of 4-10 select, lucky graduates is given a ship and sent out to find a planet.
(Spoilers ahead)
I find myself thinking that this is the female version of Ender's Game. Humanity is in serious trouble and they decide that kids, the best and brightest and fittest from all the kids in the world, are the solution. So they grab them at a really young age (I believe it's about 5 for both books) and bring them to school to train them up. And when they graduate, bam, go save the world kids.
The difference is, Card's kids are learning how to fight and kill so they can win a war. Bradley's kids are learning how to get along with each other, and avoid or resolve conflict, because they don't know who they're going to get put on that ship with in the end. When you're cooped up for years relying on your crewmates and living with your crewmates, you'd better know how to get along.
The crew of graduates in this book fall out as 3 young men and 3 young women.. I believe they're 17 at this point. They don't really know their own history, as once you're in this school, you belong to the world. They get nicknames that they're known by, and no country or family can claim them any longer. But we have one who's black, one who's Indian, and one who's at least part Asian. I think the other three are white. What I find most interesting though is that one of the young men is gay and was in a committed relationship before being split up from his boyfriend, while the rest of the crew is straight.
The book is very much about the interpersonal relationships at play, which is what I really like about it. But sometimes it was a little too much talking and not enough action. And the ending really didn't feel like an ending to me, until I gave it some more thought.
The bad/annoying bits:
Some of the dialog felt forced. A character would say "we have to work out in the gym for at least an hour a day at full gravity" and you'd think they would all know that already, but then he actually goes and says it again a few hours (or less!) later. There are many instances where you'd think they would've known something if they've been preparing to be on this ship for 12 years, and also many other instances of repetition of facts and opinions in dialog.
Clothing, and the lack of it. Supposedly the clothing is disposable and I think made out of some sort of paper-like substance. But at one point, they think.. well, why can't we go naked? It'd conserve our clothing material. And I'm thinking.. why is it disposable if you're not going to recycle it? There's talk of recycling other things, and you're on a self-contained ship for years for crying out loud, you'd better not just be burning up your clothes every 12 hours. So then several of them decide to go naked from now on, but it's not really pointed out after that. And considering half the story seems to take place in a zero-gravity situation, I think the guys might notice the effect that is having on that certain part of the male body. Good luck not sexualizing nudity in that situation. Especially when you're a bunch of fit 17-year olds.
Horrible stuff going wrong on the ship. So the plot, what there is of it, is that the gravity generators on the ship are doing weird stuff. And then they get hit by a meteor pebble and the gym decompresses. And then they realize the computer isn't doing the math right. And it seems the whole thing comes down to the computer failing to handle its numbers correctly. The 'float parameter' is all messed up. It's like they're being taken down by a Y2K bug. Except, later their only computer tech is checking the connections and fixing them, and I don't know what connections have to do with a bug in the programming. And the pebble holing their ship and shredding their sails was just.. an unrelated misfortune.
And none of that is resolved. They don't decide to turn around.. and they haven't actually left the solar system, so it's certainly a pretty viable option still. They can't call for help, because Earth didn't give them a radio?! The computer isn't fixed. The only real resolution to the story is that they've all decided they're on their own, they'd better make the best of it, and yea, they can probably all handle it if they try.
Not only did Earth just chuck them out into space, but they don't seem to have done it with as much thought and care as they could have. A back-up computer tech would've been good. Some more training would've been good. A computer system that didn't have a major gaping programming bug would've also been nice, along with a backup system. And like.. a medical bay. And yes, some of these points are brought up by the kids on the ship. They come to realize that Earth has really screwed them over. But did they have to get screwed over that blatantly for the point to have been made?
It's one thing if Earth did the best it could, and still failed. Maybe there weren't the resources to make a nice, new, shiny ship, and that's why it had problems. Maybe they didn't have the resources to send more than 6 kids this time.. so there wouldn't necessary be all the backup in skills. And maybe they didn't have the luxury to care about the sex lives of the crew. But none of that seems to be in play. Earth just seems to not care.
Finally, the pictures. Because the edition I read had illustrations. And they frankly shocked me for a book published in 1980. They're almost all sexualized, particularly when it comes to the women. And if there's a scene with the characters are having sex, or getting naked, or falling about together in zero-g, then you can bet there's an illustration of that. Just looking at the pictures, you'd think the book was about sex, and it's not. The women in particularly seem to like throwing their heads back with their mouth open, no matter what the situation.
The front cover is interesting, in that it shows a man and a woman, dressed more or less identically. The man is a good deal taller and could be dark-skinned, except that with his facial features I read him first as white. The woman is blond, and when you give the cover more than a cursory look, you realize you can see her nipple through the spacesuit. That's how you know it's cold in space. (It's more obvious on the original than in the photo I took.)
Overall, I did find it an interesting read. I didn't like it as much as I liked The Catch Trap, which may be the only other book of hers I've read to this point... oh wait, Lythande! I totally love Lythande. All right, there's no excuse why I haven't read any Darkover books or even Mists of Avalon (apart from my feelings on Arthurian legends), so I need to go fix this and read some more of hers.
(ObCredit: Photos are my less-than-stellar attempt to show you what I'm talking about. A scan would've been better. A non-library edition to scan from would've been even better. Artist's name is Stephen Fabian.)
The basic premise is that Earth is training a bunch of kids to go out on survey ships to find new planets for humans to colonize. Each year, a crew of 4-10 select, lucky graduates is given a ship and sent out to find a planet.
(Spoilers ahead)
I find myself thinking that this is the female version of Ender's Game. Humanity is in serious trouble and they decide that kids, the best and brightest and fittest from all the kids in the world, are the solution. So they grab them at a really young age (I believe it's about 5 for both books) and bring them to school to train them up. And when they graduate, bam, go save the world kids.
The difference is, Card's kids are learning how to fight and kill so they can win a war. Bradley's kids are learning how to get along with each other, and avoid or resolve conflict, because they don't know who they're going to get put on that ship with in the end. When you're cooped up for years relying on your crewmates and living with your crewmates, you'd better know how to get along.
The crew of graduates in this book fall out as 3 young men and 3 young women.. I believe they're 17 at this point. They don't really know their own history, as once you're in this school, you belong to the world. They get nicknames that they're known by, and no country or family can claim them any longer. But we have one who's black, one who's Indian, and one who's at least part Asian. I think the other three are white. What I find most interesting though is that one of the young men is gay and was in a committed relationship before being split up from his boyfriend, while the rest of the crew is straight.
The book is very much about the interpersonal relationships at play, which is what I really like about it. But sometimes it was a little too much talking and not enough action. And the ending really didn't feel like an ending to me, until I gave it some more thought.
The bad/annoying bits:
Some of the dialog felt forced. A character would say "we have to work out in the gym for at least an hour a day at full gravity" and you'd think they would all know that already, but then he actually goes and says it again a few hours (or less!) later. There are many instances where you'd think they would've known something if they've been preparing to be on this ship for 12 years, and also many other instances of repetition of facts and opinions in dialog.
Clothing, and the lack of it. Supposedly the clothing is disposable and I think made out of some sort of paper-like substance. But at one point, they think.. well, why can't we go naked? It'd conserve our clothing material. And I'm thinking.. why is it disposable if you're not going to recycle it? There's talk of recycling other things, and you're on a self-contained ship for years for crying out loud, you'd better not just be burning up your clothes every 12 hours. So then several of them decide to go naked from now on, but it's not really pointed out after that. And considering half the story seems to take place in a zero-gravity situation, I think the guys might notice the effect that is having on that certain part of the male body. Good luck not sexualizing nudity in that situation. Especially when you're a bunch of fit 17-year olds.
Horrible stuff going wrong on the ship. So the plot, what there is of it, is that the gravity generators on the ship are doing weird stuff. And then they get hit by a meteor pebble and the gym decompresses. And then they realize the computer isn't doing the math right. And it seems the whole thing comes down to the computer failing to handle its numbers correctly. The 'float parameter' is all messed up. It's like they're being taken down by a Y2K bug. Except, later their only computer tech is checking the connections and fixing them, and I don't know what connections have to do with a bug in the programming. And the pebble holing their ship and shredding their sails was just.. an unrelated misfortune.
And none of that is resolved. They don't decide to turn around.. and they haven't actually left the solar system, so it's certainly a pretty viable option still. They can't call for help, because Earth didn't give them a radio?! The computer isn't fixed. The only real resolution to the story is that they've all decided they're on their own, they'd better make the best of it, and yea, they can probably all handle it if they try.
Not only did Earth just chuck them out into space, but they don't seem to have done it with as much thought and care as they could have. A back-up computer tech would've been good. Some more training would've been good. A computer system that didn't have a major gaping programming bug would've also been nice, along with a backup system. And like.. a medical bay. And yes, some of these points are brought up by the kids on the ship. They come to realize that Earth has really screwed them over. But did they have to get screwed over that blatantly for the point to have been made?
It's one thing if Earth did the best it could, and still failed. Maybe there weren't the resources to make a nice, new, shiny ship, and that's why it had problems. Maybe they didn't have the resources to send more than 6 kids this time.. so there wouldn't necessary be all the backup in skills. And maybe they didn't have the luxury to care about the sex lives of the crew. But none of that seems to be in play. Earth just seems to not care.
Finally, the pictures. Because the edition I read had illustrations. And they frankly shocked me for a book published in 1980. They're almost all sexualized, particularly when it comes to the women. And if there's a scene with the characters are having sex, or getting naked, or falling about together in zero-g, then you can bet there's an illustration of that. Just looking at the pictures, you'd think the book was about sex, and it's not. The women in particularly seem to like throwing their heads back with their mouth open, no matter what the situation.
The front cover is interesting, in that it shows a man and a woman, dressed more or less identically. The man is a good deal taller and could be dark-skinned, except that with his facial features I read him first as white. The woman is blond, and when you give the cover more than a cursory look, you realize you can see her nipple through the spacesuit. That's how you know it's cold in space. (It's more obvious on the original than in the photo I took.)
Overall, I did find it an interesting read. I didn't like it as much as I liked The Catch Trap, which may be the only other book of hers I've read to this point... oh wait, Lythande! I totally love Lythande. All right, there's no excuse why I haven't read any Darkover books or even Mists of Avalon (apart from my feelings on Arthurian legends), so I need to go fix this and read some more of hers.
(ObCredit: Photos are my less-than-stellar attempt to show you what I'm talking about. A scan would've been better. A non-library edition to scan from would've been even better. Artist's name is Stephen Fabian.)