No. Just no. Flat characters. Sort of interesting plot (kind of reverse-Childhood’s End). But unconvincing and uninteresting dialogue and throw-away sNo. Just no. Flat characters. Sort of interesting plot (kind of reverse-Childhood’s End). But unconvincing and uninteresting dialogue and throw-away science-y terms. Finally, even though it’s YA, way to much Father-daughter huggy-bear. Heinlein wrote a double handful of juveniles, and none of the parents didn’t love their children. Yet, none of Heinlein’s families smothered their children....more
POSTSCRIPT BELOW ADDED OCT. 19, Review Changed to One Star
This is one Hella of a bad book. Avert your eyes.
David Gerrold may be the victim of his stunPOSTSCRIPT BELOW ADDED OCT. 19, Review Changed to One Star
This is one Hella of a bad book. Avert your eyes.
David Gerrold may be the victim of his stunningly early success, winning a Hugo nomination for his first ever work: the script for ST-TOS’s “The Trouble With Tribbles,”* then getting re-write credit on the ST-TOS episode about the cloud dwellers and the troglodytes, then publishing the best peek under the tent in his non-fiction “The Making of Star Trek.” I believe he did that all before he was 24 years old.
___________________ */ He lost the Hugo for best SF TV script to ST-TOS’s “The City on the Edge of Forever,” inarguably the best episode of that series. No shame to Gerrold there.
Anyway, Gerrold went on writing SF (rather than HAL, his computer brain was H.A.R.L.I.E., spelled with those ponderous periods). I’ve never much cared for his work—I should review some of what I’ve read. As near as I can tell, he’s gone downhill with every release.
Yet he’s a nice MAN. We met at a Star Trek(!) convention (I was a teenager), and carried on some correspondence on some subject I’ve totally forgotten. That must have been years later (it wasn’t fan-boy communication; it was some scientific inquiry) after Al Gore invented the Internet. He seemed to think I’d raised a good point, because he sent me—unbidden—a signed copy of his book “The Man Who Folded Himself.”
But to “Hella.” It’s being marketed as SF/YA. In fact it is a hella long, ponderous book, with cartoonish villains whose acts have little to do with Gerrold’s imagined worldscape. At times, it seemed more like a Jimmy Stewart movie.
The title refers to an Earth colony planet where everything is huge: each day is 36 hours; each year 651 days. The planet has a 30° axial tilt, making the equatorial zone uninhabitable year round, forcing a yearly migration from Summerstation (in the North) to Winterstation (in the South). Hella’s flora are weird huge tree-like things producing brightly colored (pink, purple, orange) depending—because each clump is tied to a single root system 2 miles square (that’s 17.4 square decaliters for my metric friends ;)>).
The fauna are, of course, dinosaurs. (This IS YA.). Well, a limited number of them. A T-Rex, a “catasaursus,” a Raptor, and several others—all dangerous to humans, if only because Hella’s lower gravity makes T-Rexs’ (and the rest) as large as if on steroids. And despite their small brains, these reptiles, too, must make the same biannual migration—the humans must avoid these reptiles at their peril.
Hella’s first person narrator is a 13 1/2 year old boy named Kyle. But he is “on the spectrum.” He had some kind of chip installed in his head when he was two to “regularize” him. The chip gives him access to the local Internet, making closed book exams a snap. Most important, in “regularizing” Kyle, the chip drains his emotions—he can’t recognize jokes and doesn’t like to be touched. So Kyle is taunted (for being irregular and flat) and hated (for being smart). And, BTW, his father died saving the colony from a Dino attack, so all he has is a workaholic mom and one half-brother who understands and helps Kyle.
That covers the first ten pages of the novel. The rest of the first half of “Hella” is seen though Kyle’s unique, but dimmed vision. And NOTHING OF CONSEQUENCE HAPPENS. Three days of reading to get anywhere.
The second half is stuffed to the gills with plot. Cardboard plot—any John Ford western had more “nuance” than this. Indeed, Gerrold uses that word more then John Kerry did in his failed 2004 campaign for the Presidency.
Speaking of John (“Holidays in Cambodia”) Kerry, Gerrold tosses in a few liberal tropes so unnecessary to the plot that they should have been blue-penciled long before publication. Such as avoiding use of fossil fuel, because it invariably runs out. Is Gerrold the last believer in “Peak Oil?” I’m 60+ years old, and we’ve always had a 20-year reserve. Some of the quotes are in my (few) highlights.
Harking back to “The Making of Star Trek,” Gerrold tells the story of his own “Tribbles” script, first written on his personal IBM Selectric (those born after 1975: look it up). But his Selectric used a 10 pitch font, so Gerrold turned in a first draft meeting the 60 page requirement. But the Studio used 12 pitch font. Suddenly, Gerrold had to cut 18 or so percent of his script. He was lucky: the reductions forced not only shorter scenes, but required Gerrold to tie actions to motivations of characters that remained—that’s where the “Tribbles don’t like Klingons or Romulans” idea developed: out of necessity.
Too bad there was no pitch confusion here. No one is editing Gerrold now, and it shows. If I was bored out of my mind, how long is some 13 1/2 year old going to stick with it?
Not long, I fear. Nice guy; bad book.
October 19, 2020 Addition:
I was bored. So I re-read all of Heinlein’s Juveniles. An early one of which is “Red Planet.” David Gerrold’s “Hella” uses EXACTLY THE SAME PLOT, though of course not any copied sentences or dialogue.
This proves what? That Gerrold’s book is Juvenile. But 70 years out of date. And un-original. Heinlein’s dialogue is much better. Yes, “Red Planet” had the same cardboard plot as “Hella,” but the palate of Heinlein’s vintage was far superior.
Giving homage to the SF Masters is one thing. Plagiarizing their plot-lines is another. I just yanked one star off my rating....more
At least Scalzi explained the Deus ex Machina that ended the previous book, but this time in a YA novel form. Not bad for YA, but the hard science gotAt least Scalzi explained the Deus ex Machina that ended the previous book, but this time in a YA novel form. Not bad for YA, but the hard science got drained in the process....more
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