Day 335 – 52 Books in 52 Weeks

Flood and Ark by Stephen Baxter are the first two books in what will most likely produce a series. I picked up Ark (cool cover) and found out after my purchase that it was the sequel to Flood. Picked that up later the same day there you have it.

To be honest, I’d never even heard of Stephen Baxter but it turns out he’s been around for some time, even collaborated on works with Arthur C. Clarke, and has won numerous writing awards. His background is in mathematics and aero-engineering… so you guessed it, his writing falls in the hard science fiction category.

First, Flood. The book opens in 2016 with four people who have been held hostages by terrorists for 4-5 years (well, five people, but one is killed off right away). When they’re finally freed, they find out that the Earth has been suffering from flooding. Within a week, Britain is hit by the rising sea level and just about everyone is up to their knees in water.

The book follows the lives of the four hostages who, upon their freedom, agree to look out for each other in the future – no matter what. One of the women had been raped and gave birth to a little girl named Grace who is also part of their pact to look after one another.

After some time, people realize that the sea level is continuing to rise and they don’t know why until a group of scientists discover a “vent” on the floor of the Atlantic that is spewing water from “oceans” within the Earth into the oceans on top of the Earth.

Our four former hostages are spread out across the globe as the years pass, the water rises, and cities fall victim to the seas.

What I disliked about the book: there were a lot of people in this book to keep track of. You had your four former hostages, associates or family members, bad guys, good guys… and then because the book would leap ahead years from chapter to chapter, you had children who were now older and who played a role in what was going on. On top of this, there were the jumps, not only in years, but in locations. All got very confusing.

What I liked about the book: it wasn’t all science, as many hard sci-fi books are. Baxter really focused on the relationships between individuals and how they handled the various crises in their lives. He was very good at making the characters real and making you want to know what was going to happen to them.

On the downside, because there were so many people, by mid-book (this book is nearly 500 pages) you get tired of all of the people. Those who, in the beginning, are set up as people worth noting are now shoved into the background or killed off. There was just too much going on.

All in all, it’s a good story and will keep you turning the pages, but in my opinion, it probably should have been more focused instead of introducing a huge cast of characters and locations and crises.

Ark, the sequel, picks up where Flood left off. The Earth is almost completely under water and there’s a rush to finish Ark One – a spaceship – to take 80 people into space to find Earth II and save the last remnant of humanity.

But starting in chapter 4, you’re thrown back in time 16 years to see how certain kids were chosen to be part of those 80 “candidates.” Then you’re slowly (and I do mean slowly) brought back up to date and are immersed in getting the ship built, the launch, the search for a new home.

Again Baxter tries to build the book on the relationships of the people: parents with kids, kids with other kids, brilliant kids with stowaways, etc. But again, due to the large cast, even larger than Flood, things just don’t mesh as well.

What I liked about Ark: it was interesting. A lot of science was thrown at the reader, but was done in an entertaining way, and all of it based on current known applications… so you end up learning a lot without laboring over a textbook. It was also a good story in and of itself… but…

What I disliked about the book:
First, the book opens, like I said, where Flood left off. You meet a familiar face whose first task is to solve a murder. So far, no problem. Then you’re shoved back 16 years. A little jarring, but it might be relevant to the murder and to future events. Okay, fine, been there done that. But then you find out that the murdered man is a pedophile and though there are only a few lines of “descriptive” text, it’s not needed and does nothing to enhance the story. As it turns out, there’s a lot in this book that does nothing to enhance the story – it’s just unneeded filler.

After that, the book is filled with everyone having sex with everyone else in order to create a diverse gene pool for Earth II. Granted, there’s only maybe 5 or 6 paragraphs in the entire 500 pages of description, but it’s the fact that some of these people are as young as 13, most are 15-18 and that this behavior is encouraged. That’s just disturbing.

It would have been fine to mention the need for a large gene pool a couple of times, but it almost seemed like Baxter was going out of his way to shove in all of these “romances.” They really did nothing for the storyline as the “lover’s quarrels” didn’t really flesh out the characters and it seemed like every other page was introducing new lovers or new children born from various affairs.

Perhaps that is what the main problem was – the characters weren’t as well drawn as those in Flood. You just didn’t care about them. And all of that background info, which should have given a person the basis to show character development, was all for naught. For all of the science in this book, the basics of psychology were lost.

For example, Venus, who was one of the victimized children, ended up getting away from the pedophile by standing up to him and rejecting him. She was being developed as this strong, no-nonsense woman. But when they’re out in space, years later, she doesn’t stand up to anyone or fight for what is right. If you could be that strong at such a young age, after suffering so much, you’d more than likely have no trouble speaking your mind when older and confronted.

Anyway, there were just too many people, not enough character development (and poor development), and a lot of loose ends. I know that leaves open doors for another book, but one group was dumped off on Earth II halfway through the book and he never follows up with them as he does with the other groups. And there are lots of people introduced then killed off a few pages later.

There’s also the underlying fact that no one is held accountable for their actions – or no responsibility taken. You can maim a guy and not have to answer for it. You can kill a guy without penalty because you’re indispensable to the crew. You can rule like a tyrant and again be allowed to carry on (after a revolt) without any repercussions. No one stands up for what is right. There’s no real morality, even in the most “stable” of characters. There’s really no right or wrong presented.

Flood was a good book. Ark wasn’t. It had potential but Baxter just wasn’t able to focus and develop it into great story. He just threw a bunch of stuff into the mix but none of it gelled together.

Flood

Ark