I’ve never seen or heard of the Traveller RPG. I read about the book and picked it up after reading it mentioned in another blog, and noticed the cover as a nod to historical SF. It’s not what I expected.
It’s far, far, better than that.
The trouble with reading the current crop of mediocre SF is that you forget how thought evoking and mind expanding good SF can be. Kind of like eating fast food all of the time and then sitting down to a great steak. Or maybe commodity canoe beer versus a craft IPA. Marc’s Universe is just that good, and the writing is on point. I understand that it’s his universe, so you would expect him to own it. But let’s face it. Most SF today isn’t that good; it’s typically formulaic derivative of a half dozen general plots with the science merely a platform for the formula. But here, the Universe is the basis of the story, and the characters are exploring their own place therein. It’s the only book I’ve read in the last couple years, other than the Quantum Mortis books by Vox Day and Steve Rzasa, that has the sort of depth that makes me immediately start reading it again. The story, the characters, and the universe continue to get better with subsequent readings.
The “Decider” theme is rampant in the book. The protagonist is the Decider of the agents. The “assembly” of the empire, where decisions are made is called the Moot; a nod to the it’s historical significance. And with more than a little irony, adds into play the differences between American and British English where one use of Moot means that the point is settled (or irrelevant), and the other means that it is either arguable or impossible to solve (decide). Of further importance is that He does this without it descending into camp or silliness.
The early vignettes, used to develop character and background, are entertaining in their own right. And rather than building foundation up, you get the sense of a puzzle being pieced together, with the protagonist continuing to learn and improve his own art without abandoning the core of who he is/once was.
Highly Recommended. Worth reading again.
