Status
Collection
Publication
Description
"Written by a highly regarded expert on space travel and exploration, Arkwright features the precision of hard SF with a compelling cast of characters. In the vein of classic authors such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, Nathan Arkwright is a seminal author of the twentieth century. At the end of his life he becomes reclusive and cantankerous, refusing to appear before or interact with his legion of fans. Little did anyone know, Nathan was putting into motion his true, timeless legacy. Convinced that humanity cannot survive on Earth, his Arkwright Foundation dedicates itself to creating a colony on an Earth-like planet several light years distant. Fueled by Nathan's legacy, generations of Arkwrights are drawn together, and pulled apart, by the enormity of the task and weight of their name. This is classic, epic science fiction and engaging character-driven storytelling, which will appeal to devotees of the genre as well as fans of current major motion pictures such as Gravity and Interstellar"--… (more)
User reviews
If you're looking for a good, classic sci-fi story believe me when I say- this is not it! Go right now to your search function, lists, shelves, whatever and find something else! If I could give this a category, it would be called 'space-historical' or 'space-saga.' This
Why did I even finish it?? -I have no earthly idea! I think I kept hoping that it was going to switch over to a more hands-on, action based story (for lack of better words at the moment because it's 3 am in the morning) but it never did. I'm just glad to finally put it behind me.
Nathan Arkwright reached adulthood just before World War II. Like many youths of that time he was a devoted reader of the science fiction pulp magazines of the time. In the back of one he read about a convention taking place near to where he lived and he decided to go. There he met three other fans who would remain lifelong friends. He and one other wrote science fiction for a living. The sole female became a literary agent for both of them. The other person was a gifted scientist who helped the two authors write fiction that was grounded in scientific knowledge. Nathan became very wealthy and he decided to use his wealth to promote interstellar space travel. Just before his death he set up a foundation to achieve that goal. His three friends and his granddaughter started the process running. Successive generations worked to achieve the goal. In time a ship carrying genetic material to colonize a new world including the genes of the people involved with building the space ship took off for a distant planet.
I admit that the idea of using a science fiction premise to achieve scientific aims is unique. However, there was so much about the circumstances surrounding the time period that was glossed over that I just felt it was operating in a vacuum. I would have like to know, for example, how the ravages of climate change were dealt with and reversed because they certainly seem to have been. There are mentions of sea levels rising to flood coastal cities and towns but no discussion of the devastation that must have caused. As I said at the beginning it was disappointing.
One of the Big Four of the Golden Age of science fiction (along with Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke), Arkwright wrote the Galaxy Patrol series, which became a tv show and a movie franchise. In his waning years, he
He's also worried that an asteroid collision could cause another mass extinction, this time wiping out humans.
During the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939, Nathan and three friends formed a club they called The League of Tomorrow. In the early 2000s, it becomes the Arkwright Foundation, Estranged from his daughter and other remaining family, he leaves his wealth to the Foundation, along with an ambitious plan for human colonization of the stars.
The story is told episodically--Nathan's granddaughter Kate, and her descendants, tell the story of the rising and falling fortunes of the Arkwright Foundation and its ambitious plans. There's family conflict as well as the building and launching of the ship, and the struggle to maintain contact with it on its journey. And the last part of the story takes place on Eos, an super-Earth lit by three red dwarf stars.
All of this could be very dry. It's not. I connected with the characters and their stories in each section. They're human and relatable, and, heck, Nathan and his friends are fans! There are some very familiar names in Nathan's section of the book.
There's also a great, big, huge, hand-wave in the Arkwright project, which is never really addressed, possibly because it can't be. That's all right. Steele is a fine storyteller, and I'm willing to grant him his hand-wave, but honestly, I had to give it some thought before I did. Some people may find it a bridge too far.
Recommended, with that caveat.
I bought this audiobook.
Unfortunately, in my limited view (I really don't read a lot of SF anymore, but I've read damn near every one of the authors namechecked in this book), this story suffers the fate of almost every
In perfect Asimov fashion, any person with a problem immediately meets someone else who will solve that problem.
My other concern is, there's no conflict here. Things all come relatively easy. The only disagreements come from belief - belief in technology or religion. When a disaster happens, it's not even remotely engaging because the solution is there.
Finally, when we get to the last bit of the book (which, truth be told, I thought was going to make up the bulk of the novel), we're fed yet another faith vs. science question. I don't think I spoil a damn thing when I say I wasn't shocked that science wins. Don't get me wrong, I'm no believer in religion, and have a lot of faith in science overall, but did it need to be so damn one-sided and heavy-handed? Every outcome in this novel is a foregone conclusion.
I know they're out there, but I wish I could find a hard-SF author who pays the same amount of attention to their characters as they do to their tech. And I wish they could be a little less biased.
Not a horrible book, but yet again, not one I'd hold up as a solid example of the genre.
The references to e.g. Asimov and Heinlein are obvious, but others are less so (e.g. to Asimov's Foundation and Sagan's religious anti-project protesters/terrorists) but get to a point where I felt like, "Yes, I get it..."
I'm torn: two stars or three? But forced to pick, I'm saying two.