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The Wreck of the River of Stars
The Wreck of the River of Stars
Author: Michael Flynn
Michael Flynn has written the best SF in the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein of the last decade. His major work was the Firestar sequence, a four-book future history. "As Robert A. Heinlein did and all too few have done since, Michael Flynn writes about the near future as if he'd been there and was bringing back reports of what he'd seen," said ...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780765340337
ISBN-10: 076534033X
Publication Date: 5/16/2004
Pages: 544
Rating:
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
 8

4.2 stars, based on 8 ratings
Publisher: Tor Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

Cissa avatar reviewed The Wreck of the River of Stars on + 40 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
A brilliant, classic tragedy. Every individual step is inevitable, and march the characters toward a tragic end. Brilliant- most modern "tragedies" are not as classical in structure. Plus- it's heart-breaking.
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maura853 avatar reviewed The Wreck of the River of Stars on + 542 more book reviews
Second reading, and it's just confirming my first impressions that this is a beautifully contrived and beautifully written novel that resonates much more deeply than its space opera subject matter and its jaunty tone might suggest.

Flynn cleverly strips away the artifice, and still manages to create almost unbearable suspense. He tells you exactly what's going to happen. Much of the time, he tells you exactly what's going on in the minds of each character, and exactly how they are fatally misreading what going on in the minds of any other given character. He creates a premise that requires massive infodumps â technical, historical, personal â to work. And IMHO, not only does it work, but it's a delight. And not only is it a delight, it has fascinating depths and insights â insights into human nature, insights into how endeavours (personal, professional, perhaps even societal) work, or more crucially, don't work. Insights into how one person can make a crazy, complicated system (again personal, professional, perhaps even societal) work, and how taking him/her away can result in the whole dam' pack of card collapsing.


I love Flynn's style, and the worldbuilding is fabulous. Flynn constructs a history. There is technology, there are societies, each with every different, and very plausible, norms and outlooks. There is biology, and prejudice. There are recipes, and sea chanties. There are great names, names that are so almost not weird, but still very SF â¦

I also love the way that Flynn plays with the tropes of other genres â this is a ghost story. It's also SF's answer to Patrick O'Brien and Horatio Hornblower.

I love this novel.


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