Book Review: Black Star Rising, by Frederik Pohl
Frederik Pohl is one of the greats of Science Fiction, his work going back at least to the 1940’s. The man has a body of work so large that the mere list is probably as long as some aspiring authors’ portfolios. While I’ve yet to read some of his more famous works, I’ve greatly enjoyed The World at the End of Time and the first two books of the Eschaton Sequence (now that I think about it, there’s something of a theme in these titles). In light of his other works, Black Star Rising is something of an oddity.
Published in 1985, and thus written during the final years of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, Black Star Rising is clearly a product of its time. Inasmuch as science fiction supposedly attempts to predict the future, it is usually irrevocably bound to the concerns and ideals of the present, and this book is a perfect example. The set-up: The United States and the U.S.S.R. have essentially wiped each other off the map, leaving China to come in and pick up the pieces. There are survivors, but no government to answer when, about a century later, an alien ship blows up an island and demands to speak to the President of the United States of America.
It’s a decent plot, and there are a number of interesting pieces that go into the mix, but the result isn’t as strong as some of Pohl’s other works. The end is a bit abrupt, I was a little muddled by the distinction between the aliens and the humans on the alien world when it first appears, and it lacks some of the strong narrative arcs that I’ve seen in Pohl’s other books.
Some parts of this book really do draw you in and make you want to find out what happens. Some parts don’t. In a sense, it feels like Pohl has mashed together a bunch of smaller ideas: mutual destruction, China controlling Earth, the alien Erks, the character of Manyface (who has a whole chorus of people in his brain), and the social structures of the humans living with the Erks. There are lots of potential stories available in these puzzle pieces, and I’m not sure Pohl has managed to put them together in the best fashion.