2020-01-19 - Review: Salvation
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Title: Salvation
Author: Peter F. Hamilton
Genres: SF, space opera
Peter F. Hamilton and I have a fraught reading relationship. He has
written some of the best Science Fiction I have ever read, some of
the best concepts, some of the most lyrical evocation of those
concepts (Morning Light Mountain). He has also written some of the
worst dreck I have ever struggled through, he is obsessed with
harems, his worldbuilding falls back on regular and routine
patterns, he thinks he can write a sex scene.
And yet, and yet Morning Light Mountain. So I keep reading his
stuff, with a heavy hand on the DNF tiller. In that context then,
"Salvation" is certainly a book which I have finished, so its not
_as_ bad as much of his previous output.
In fact, there is plenty of this which is pretty damned good.
Hamilton has chosen this book to explore the Fermi Paradox, and
like most other decent SF writers, he has chosen to answer it in
the negative - there are plenty of other galactic civilisations,
they just know to be quiet.
His setup this time for FTL travel is, again, portals, but, in some
sort of weird nod to contemporary concerns, there are no trains
this time, just people walking. This is an immediate improvement,
as is the apparent lack of harems to be found in the pages.
Thing is though, this just all reads as standard Hamiltonian
worldbuilding, just with a few quirks as opposed to a radical
reimagining.
As someone else once wrote, there should be PhDs about
the socio-political structures of his novels. Here again a
post-scarcity society is contained by a monopolist interest in the
means of FTL - now monikered Connexion - albeit there is an
alternative viewpoint represented by the Utopials, an alternative
which comes with a price.
All that said, there is a decent story underlying the narrative,
which is presented like a "Pilgrims Progress", as each of the
initial group presents their own experiences of "odd" events which
peel back the layers of the society they inhabit. In that it reads
kind of like a "fixup", short stories within a common frame of
reference.
Thing is, it works as a novel, there is enough dissonance of
content and tone that this conceit delivers as an exploration of
the society shown. I have tried to avoid the usual "here's the
plot" shortcut of reviewing, but to be fair to hamilton, I can't
see how I could discuss any of the plot from the perspective
of someone who's finished the book without disclosing those
events/facts which make the book succeed.
The issues with previous Hamilton books still remain - female
characters are exclusively portrayed and represented from and with
the male gaze. The über-competent soldier woman is also a manic
pixie fuck machine, the sex scenes now feature badly written
same-sex relationships, but they're still badly written. I'll
probably forget everything about this book within a week.
But for that week, I'll consider it happily. There's a lot to
admire in Hamilton's writing, genuinely, but I'm not happy to
recommend any of his books to anyone without going through all of
the above. I wish this wasn't the case, but he continues to fail to
advance as a writer.
Base Score: 8/10
Adjustment: -1 for retreading the same old world
-1 for male gaze and sex scenes
Rating: 3/5 - decent, but be wary.