Have you ever read a thick trilogy of books and thought that there was a really good novel in there somewhere, only it's been drowned out with irrelevant filling and digressions just to make a series?
Well, that's what Ralph Kern's Endeavour is - a strong novel with so many ideas it could easily have been padded out into something much longer. It remains lean, concise, and compelling.
The downside is that the character development is very weak. Although Kern does make a brave attempt to develop the character of Karen, it's Harry and Tom who lead us through most of the story and there's little to differentiate them.
This is a story about space exploration, but there are no long chapters to explain the engineering, no plot arcs about the emotional insecurities of the crew - no struggles over love, hate, rivalries, missing family; or details of trivial incidents to make it seem like something is happening before the story begins. The crew just get on with their job, and the author just gets on with telling the core story - and it constantly surprises.
The main theme is about exploring space and time for intelligent life, and very much puts me in mind of a cross between Paul Anderson's Tau Zero and Arthur C Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey. It may not have the reputation of either, but it is visionary, and could easily sit on the shelf next to these classic science fiction novels and not look out of place.
This is a clever book, not simply asking questions about life in the universe, but also about the development of humanity - and it's ultimate, startling fate. It is also much more varied than I initially suspected, taking some very unexpected turns.
This is not a dark or dystopian book, but instead a novel full of bright ideas, and re-imaginings of classic SF technologies. At times the prose can seem a little prosaic, but the ideas behind it are full of energy.
This is written in the style of classic science fiction, with all the flaws and benefits of that, and the sum total is very positive. It is a cerebral book, written with hard SF in mind - and yet, it never threatens to overwhelm the reader with jargon or explanations.
In fact, it is the mystery element to the story that is one of the strongest, unfolding the puzzle of the Fermi Paradox of why, if there is intelligent life in space, why have we not seen it? Kern approaches - and finally answers this - in a very satisfactory manner.
And yet, though I did very much enjoy this book, I was still left wondering if perhaps it couldn't have been made just a little bit stronger - not least through the limited character development. However, it remains highly recommended.
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