Debatable Space

A note to the reader of this review: its intent is to warn of the dangers of reading reviews, so proceed with caution. I bought this novel on the positive recommendation of a (now lost) review, since I had not seen any short fiction from this author, and this novel is his first. That review was badly wrong.

This novel is awful on every front. I managed to read up up to 'Book 2' (page 63) before giving up. It purports to be science fiction but its tale of a tough band of space pirates seizing the daughter of the all-powerful Cheon for ransom, uses a hoary set of timeworn generic cliches (the wiley pirate captain, the secret weapon, the incompetence of the military and the skill of the rogue pilot) to defeat the Cheon's entire fleet. The show more writing is primitive in the extreme, with off the shelf stereotyped characters engaging in supposedly 'witty banter', over-stuffed with expletives. There are some strange typographic effects, which add nothing but do pad out the page count.

Of course, this novel could be a very clever parody of bad science fiction. Or it could be a failed attempt to emulate the style of writers like Neal Asher or Richard Morgan, Unfortunately, it feels more like it was dashed off as fast as possible by someone with very limited knowledge of, and interest in, science fiction.

Be warned. And trust this review. show less

This is a space opera about a band of pirates, led by an old man named Flanagan, who abducts Lena, the daughter of the ruler of the known universe and intends to hold her for a massive ransom.

The Cheo, the ruler, isn't fussed by this at all. No ransom for you! Numerous space battles and attempts at revolution ensue. Lena, due to the part she's played in the Cheo's cruel dictatorship, begins to sympathize with the pirates and even fall in love with Flanagan.

Pure space opera. It's action-packed and fast-moving, but I felt it to be without tension. This is over a thousand years in the future, and Flanagan seems able to pull almost anything out of his ship's arse to help them win the battle, or at least escape. And the fact that any injury show more including beheading can be fixed up in the medlab makes hand-to-hand combat much less exciting as well. They don't even seem to react much to their injuries, which should still be agonizingly painful.

The story rambles a bit, and alternates with sections of Lena recounting her long history, but it was entertaining enough for the most part. I enjoyed the creative typography (don't worry, it isn't [b:House of Leaves|24800|House of Leaves|Mark Z. Danielewski|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327889035s/24800.jpg|856555]); some of it cutesy, but most of it works, particularly the chilling phrase hidden in the back cover teaser text. show less

Took me a hell of a lot of time to finish this. About 3-4 days, actually, but admittedly I wasn't reading all that consistently. Anyway, midway through this one I was curious about what other people had to say about it, so I looked it up on Amazon and read a lot of reviews. Turns out people didn't like this one so much.

But maybe that effectively lowered my standards enough that I actually thought this was pretty well written. It was original, at least. I did get really annoyed with Lena’s mind diaries from time to time, but I suspect that was the effect he wanted to have on his readers. I mean, the point of it was that Lena was an annoying bitch, right? Some of the scientific concepts are a little hard to understand, and some are very show more vague altogether because maybe the author himself doesn't know what he means. The beacons, for example--the "science" is entirely glossed over. But, regardless of that, a lot of the characters are endearing enough to make up for anything else that might seem implausible.

The alien species introduced were really interesting. The bugs were properly horrifying, and the flame beasts are kind of awe-inspiring, and makes you really understand how small humans are in the larger context of things. The sparklers weren't really elaborated on, and I suspect that will change in the future, but what I understand as it is is that flame beasts are the prevailing sentient living form. And the "living" part might be questionable. Does that mean that flame beasts prevail over bugs and the like too? Or are they alpha and omega, one made from pure energy and the other... The opposite? The speculation is driving me crazy. Maybe it's that this is my first official venture into sci-fi lit, barring some crappier ones I read earlier that make absolutely no sense (Diana Palmer's "The Morcai Battalion"). I don't know why some Amazon reviewers gave it 1 or 2 stars, because it was certainly an interesting and entertaining read. I guess ultimately, it really does depend on initial expectation.

So anyway. His next novel is called Kelos, but about sea-dwelling humanoid creatures called the dolphs. What will it be like now that the beacons are down? I'm fairly certain there will be a more in-depth description of these sparklers too, and maybe introductions of new alien life forms? The way I see it, now that Lena and Flanagan are travelling into uncharted territory, they will certainly discover new wonders. I wonder if characters from this book will be making brief appearances too.

Oh, some additional details I just put together: if the flame beasts are sentient and everywhere at once, then what is their historic event of consuming their only sun really about? And I trust we won't be seeing the last of the bugs either. I can't say I’ll eagerly await the next one, but this first novel has certainly piqued my curiosity.

Edit: something else. If no one knows the composition of the bugs, then how can anyone possibly make a robotic replica? And if the bugs were only kept confined by the multiple layers of beacons, and now the beacons have been blown up all over the universe... They're not confined anymore, are they? And what about all those people who "guard" the bugs? It seems like somewhere along the way someone forgot about the area of debatable space... show less

Flanagan is the main character for half the book while the flash backs of his captive, Lena, comprise the other half. Debatable space is a sweeping story about the evolution of humans from an earth bound society to a galaxy spanning one. Along the way some of the oldest societal ills come back to prominence: slavery, despotism, piracy. Flanagan has a plan to right these wrongs, but at every turn his plan seems to be thwarted. As each twist unfolds this story drags you deeper. Debatable Space is an enjoyable book about a long heist set in a world spanning galaxy.

It's a bad sign when they start naming the technology in a book after science fiction writers. It smacks of uninspiration. The characters were flat, the stories overblown, the time wasted.

Reading Debatable Space is akin to being shoved into a washing machine while tripping your brains out - it is such a wild ride that I still find myself amazed that I survived it! Read the rest of my review here: http://davebrendon.wordpress.com/2008/11/01/review-debatable-space-philip-palmer...

Wildly unlikeable characters.