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Contact us hereAuthor: Algis Budrys
Publisher: Baen Books
Year: 1991 (reissue)
ISBN: 0671720333 (1991 reissue); 0515034304 (1974 Pyramid)
Description: 211 pages
Edition reviewed: Pyramid Books, 6th printing 1974
First, I must warn you that I'm writing this review based on a 1974 printing of this novel, done by Pyramid Books of New York. Since the edition I have in hand only runs 152 pages in total, I'm afraid that the edition I have is an abridged one. I'll attempt to discern the truth in the future.
In the 25th century, an alien army invades the Earth, overwhelming its forces. The government of the day flees in a ship to the independent human colony of Cheiron in the nearby Centauri system. For 20 years, the government in exile attempts to keep itself alive and valid while its members are slowly being assimilated into the Cheironian culture. Virtually penniless, with a mere pittance from the local authorities to survive on, the government-in-exile has become nothing more than a weekly meeting of elderly men. The Cheironian government, while concerned about the invasion of their former homeworld, refuses to act overtly, worried that they might be drawn into a protracted war with a superior warlike civilization.
However, a sudden switch in policy is made. The Cheironians will provide weapons and training for the human rebels still attempting to resist the occupation forces. At first, the old men making up the government consider it their duty to return to Earth to lead the insurrection, but, eventually, they realize that they are physically incapable of such a task. The son of the president is sent instead to act as the government-in-exile's representative.
The young man, Michael Wiseman, is ill-suited to the task. While he has been brought up dreaming of freeing his homeworld from the brutal aliens, he has grown up in the civilian culture of Cheiron, and has no skills in fighting or leadership. In fact, on his first rebel mission, he ends up walking into the arms of the enemy in order to surrender, unable to bear the notion that the people of Earth had come to accept the yoke of the invaders, and that the noble forces of the rebellion were no more than fools and criminals.
Yet, we learn in the prologue that it was Wiseman himself who successfully started the rebellion that eventually overthrew the alien occupiers and united what had been a broken and weak people. This novel is the story of how Wiseman, one of the most unlikely of heroes, accidentally sparks the true seeds of rebellion against the tyranny, and, when he comes to recognize what he has done, manages and guides it into a worldwide uprising.
This book was written in the 1950s, and it carries the style and structure of many of the better novels of that time. Those used to contemporary writing styles will probably be mildly disappointed, but the story, I feel, is an important one -- a story of character and personality, rather than a story of war and bloodbath. Very different from what a writer of today would create.
Score: 74 out of 100. I'm loathe to criticize a writer whose typewriter I am unworthy to service, but if you're expecting heroic battle scenes and futuristic weaponry, don't read this book. If you're looking for a story of an ordinary man attempting to do an extraordinary thing, then you'll find this book somewhat interesting. A quick and easy read, once you get over the (unfortunately) dated style. (I'm sorry Mr. Budrys!!) Having said that, I think it could make a decent made-for-TV movie.
