We Read Science Fiction

I’m not sure who recommended Pushing Ice to me (it might even have been Amazon), but whoever did — Thank You! I read this novel while on vacation at the cottage, and while it won’t get you thinking deeply about any topic, it was hard to put down for long.

Summary: This novel is a cliche, familiar and derivative space opera but with Reynolds‘ skillful writing, humor, and a minimum of invented techo-babble it is an undeniably fast and fun read.

The basic, unspoiled plot goes something like this: A crew of space miners is in the right place at the right time when one of Saturn’s moons (Janus) begins acting like a spaceship and leaves the solar system. Their ship, The Rockhopper, is the only ship close enough to chase it down and study it before it is completely out of human reach. Inevitably, things quickly go wrong and the story unfolds as the crew are isolated from humanity. Through relativistic effects, the crew lives for hundreds of thousands of years, though to them it seems like a few decades. They “endure and survive” while making multiple first contacts, though not in as predictable ways as you might think.

The story is inherently human and centers around the relationships of the main characters when faced with tragedy, isolation and stress. The characters are believable even if they are predictable. The aliens aren’t bipedal or familiar, though they aren’t special in any way either. Reynolds is relatively successful with these topics, though this isn’t destined to be a classic even if it will be memorable for most.

Also, I say this is familiar, cliche and derivative because it feels a lot like a number of other novels I’ve read, most written decades ago. Classics such as Pohl’s Gateway, Haldeman’s Forever War, most of Heinlein’s future history adventures all pre-date the big ideas in Pushing Ice, but it’s fun and entertaining just the same. Reynolds does put a few neat twists in here and there, and like I said, the writing is superb.

I’ll conclude by saying I’m a sucker for well written space opera and admitting this fact is all that stopped me from rating this 4/5 “Excellent”. So, you’ll probably enjoy it unless you utterly detest space opera.