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Title: Good News from Outer Space by John Kessel ISBN: 0-312-89041-9 Publisher: Orb Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (6 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: The millennium arrives...but not the ending...
Comment: I read this book about ten years after it was published, and I gotta say that by then, the topic of millenarianism seemed to have been pretty much played out, in science fiction and elsewhere. But one should try and get past this mild source of annoyance when reading Kessel's book, because he does deal with the topic a lot better than most people did around the end of the twentieth century. The guy has a wonderful eye for human folly, and he's at his best when he seems to be depicting it hyperbolically until you think to yourself, "Wait...I KNOW some people (religious fanatics, trashy journalists, pathological liars, junkies, slobs) who really ARE this awful!"
The book is also interspersed with some very well-written and spooky passages in which a number of the characters seem to have encounters with aliens - or at least human beings who appear to be in the possession of some very strange powers and ideas. These episodes generate an enormous amount of expectation as the reader waits for Kessel to explain to us what the hell ties all of these events together...
..and he never does! The millennium arrives, the book ends. C'est tout. I'd give a lot of money to know what was going on in Kessel's head when he wrote the last thirty pages or so of this tome. But in spite of its formidable observational and stylistic virtues, the book left me kicking the furniture and cursing his name when I was done. Not a goal that the literary artist habitually aspires to, y'woulda thought.
Rating: 5
Summary: Kessel among smartest and most entertaining SF authors
Comment: GOOD NEWS showcases some of newer SF's best elements: social satire, dark humor, political and religious saviness, and the optimistic/pessimistic duality of the genre also seen in other authors' works (Bruce Sterling, Ursula LeGuin, James Patrick Kelly.) Kessel weaves a captivating tale of impending apocalyptic turn-of-the-century events, peopled with bizarre (yet very human) characters, and the suspicion of extraterrestrial involvement. The complex and compelling plot makes for a very readable novel, even for people who do not ordinarily read Science Fiction. Settings are rich, drama is abundant, and Kessel's vision entertains even as it provokes the reader to examine their own values. This is a smart story crafted by a terrific author.
Rating: 3
Summary: Run-of-the-mill story of millenium chaos and religious nuts
Comment: Written a decade prior to the dawning of the new millenium this story portrays a chaotic America that is breaking apart. It combines stories of societal chaos, religious nuts, and aliens but ultimately fell flat for a variety of reasons...
First, at the very heart of a good story is a central conflict around which the plot revolves. There didn't seem to be one here, or at least it wasn't very compelling to me as a reader (It would have been compelling if I'd cared about the characters, - more on that below).
Second, the representation of religious mania was so exaggerated that it could only have been entertaining if portrayed humorously, which it wasn't. The reverend was a way-over-the-top stereotype of those preachers on TV and his followers were cardboard "followers". No light was shed on the actual motivation of those in our society prone to religious delusions. These followers more or less believed whatever they were told and did whatever their leader said. Although it may seem that religious nuts in our society are this way, those who know much about real religious nuts can tell you that it's hard to get large numbers of them to agree on anything or follow any one particular leader. So what made these ones so pliable and easy to manipulate?
Thirdly, the characters were largely unsympathetic. Except for Lucy, they all were deranged and as a reader I felt that the world would be better off without them. And the protagonist spent the entire movie chasing aliens, yet we were only provided with the flimsiest explanation of why he was so obsessed with them or why he thought they were trying to take over the planet.
And lastly, the various plotlines were barely even resolved at the end of the book. Instead of a climax, there is an anti-climax which left me feeling like I had sort-of wasted my time reading the preceding 370 pages.
If it's possible for a book to take itself too seriously, this one did. If the book had been written in a zany, wacky, humorous tone instead of being dark, pessimistic and edgy it would have worked better, in my humble opinion.
If you like dark, vague conspiracy theories and edgy, improbable sci-fi you might like this. It's not a bad book, it just didn't work for me.
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Title: Corrupting Dr. Nice by John Kessel ISBN: 0312865848 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg ISBN: 0380978598 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: The Confusion (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 2) by Neal Stephenson ISBN: 0060523867 Publisher: William Morrow & Company Pub. Date: 01 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown ISBN: 0385504209 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 18 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Pure Product: Stories by John Kessel ISBN: 0312861176 Publisher: St Martins Pr Pub. Date: 01 December, 1997 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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