Conference noted::sf

1190.0. "Algis Budrys' ROGUE MOON" by VERGA::KLAES (Quo vadimus?) Wed Nov 10 1993 17:41

Article: 425
From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: Belated Reviews PS#23: "Rogue Moon", by Algis Budrys
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: 10 Nov 93 01:12:03 GMT
 
	Belated Reviews PS#23: "Rogue Moon", by Algis Budrys
 
This is going to be a short one:  There's only one novel by Algis
Budrys that I want to review -- but I really do want to review it, and
it's not a novel that can comfortably be covered in a short paragraph,
or slipped in among the novels of two or three dissimilar authors. 
 
"Rogue Moon" (***+) is the novel.  The year is 1959 (ie, when the book
was written), and an alien artifact has been found on the Moon.  No,
it's not an alternate-history novel.  The public doesn't know that the
Moon is reachable via matter transmitter.  There are problems with the
transmitter:  The device doesn't move you; it duplicates you.  For a
short time, before differing experiences cause you to diverge, you and
your duplicate are so similar (call it nineteen decimal places'
similarity :) that you are telepathically linked.  Then there are two
of you.  One goes home for supper; one remains on the Moon. 
 
The artifact?  The artifact is *very* alien, incomprehensible.  And
people who enter it die.  For practical purposes, it's a maze:  If you
do the right things at the right times, you can get through it. 
Mapping that maze, however, costs lives at both ends.  The duplicates
on the Moon map out a bit more of the artifact before being killed --
and the telepathically linked originals on Earth are broken by the
experience. 
 
Edward Hawks, the developer of the matter transmitter, needs someone
who can survive the experience.  He turns to Al Barker -- an
adventurer with a bit of a death wish -- and talks him into joining
the project.  Again and again Barker goes through the maze -- farther
each time -- and dies. 
 
Oddly enough, particularly for the time, Budrys doesn't devote much
attention to the artifact.  The attention remains focused on Earth,
upon Hawks and Barker and their interactions.  The two represent
venerable cliches of science fiction -- the Scientist and the
Adventurer -- but Budrys digs into those cliches, and gives us a look
at what lies underneath. 
 
"Rogue Moon" is one of the best science fiction novels of its time.  
It combines novel ideas, nontrivial ethical problems, and a focus on
character interaction, rather than on nuts and bolts.  The decades
haven't been that kind to the novel.  By today's standards, it suffers
from long monologues, excessive exposition, and thin, if interesting,
characters, and we've come to expect smoother writing in our science
fiction.  (Hence the ***+, rather than the **** it once merited.) 
That said, I'd characterize this book as one of the genre's classics
-- and still worth reading on its own merits. 
 
	Perhaps it's the alien equivalent of a discarded tomato can.
	Does a beetle know why it can enter the can only from one
	end as it lies across the trail to the beetle's burrow?  Does
	the beetle understand why it is harder to climb to the left or
	right, inside the can, than it is to follow a straight line?
	Would the beetle be a fool to assume the human race put the
	can there to torment it -- or an egomaniac to believe the can
	was manufactured only to mystify it?
 
%A  Budrys, Algis
%T  Rogue Moon
%D  1960
 
=============================================================================
 
The postscripts to Belated Reviews cover authors of earlier decades who
didn't fit into the original format -- whether because the author seemed
an inappropriate subject, or because I was unfamiliar with too much of the
author's work, or whatever -- or sometimes just isolated works of such
authors.  The emphasis will continue to be on guiding newer readers
towards books or authors worth trying out, rather than on discussing them
comprehensively or in depth.  I'll retain the rating scheme of ****
(recommended), *** (an old favorite that hasn't aged well), ** (a solid
lesser work), and * (nothing special). 
 
-----
Dani Zweig
dani@netcom.com
 
   It was mentioned on CNN that the new prime number discovered
   recently is four times bigger then the previous record.
				-- John Blasik