I'm catching up on some highly recommended science fiction that I missed. This one was on an "overlooked classics" list.
I enjoyed the book more as an artist than I did as a science fiction fan. It was novel to have an artist as the central character of the book - and not just a token artist, but one who actually is all about the creative process.
Pablo Cortez, our hero, is modeled too much after Pablo Picasso, which I found to be a bit of a cop out on the author's part to create a revolutionary freefall artist. There's a lot of art based ethics discussed in the book. I imagine many readers would be dismayed about the volume of narrative given to painting. As an artist, I rarely get to discuss my burning issues with anyone but another artist. I enjoyed hearing all about splatterpainting in freefall and enjoyed the rare treatment of having an artist be exactly the type of person suited to survive first contact with a totally alien sentience. Totally irreverent.
Definitely worth a read. But is it a classic? No, not in my book. But it is one-of-a-kind.
I enjoyed the book more as an artist than I did as a science fiction fan. It was novel to have an artist as the central character of the book - and not just a token artist, but one who actually is all about the creative process.
Pablo Cortez, our hero, is modeled too much after Pablo Picasso, which I found to be a bit of a cop out on the author's part to create a revolutionary freefall artist. There's a lot of art based ethics discussed in the book. I imagine many readers would be dismayed about the volume of narrative given to painting. As an artist, I rarely get to discuss my burning issues with anyone but another artist. I enjoyed hearing all about splatterpainting in freefall and enjoyed the rare treatment of having an artist be exactly the type of person suited to survive first contact with a totally alien sentience. Totally irreverent.
Definitely worth a read. But is it a classic? No, not in my book. But it is one-of-a-kind.
