Helix [Mass Market Paperback]

There is so much wrong with Helix but there is also much to like. The central conceit of the story - that there is a huge, helical structure that houses thousands of cylindrical worlds - would lead one to expect a 'hard' SF novel but that isn't the case. The titular helix is a feat of imagination and not one of engineering and Brown clearly has no idea (or concern for) how or why it was built or even why the structure is a helix rather than any other shape. His characters are lazy constructions that rely on silly coincidences to generate personalities. The background stories pad out the tale to no effect. Pages of set up regarding Hendry's daughter all come to nought. The Kaluchek/Olembe dynamic is played out over 500 pages and then negates itself when the basis of their conflict is discovered to be false. These are all faults that could have been resolved with some editorial direction and the excision of a hundred or so pages.

The curious thing is that, even with all these gripes, Helix is enjoyable. It's fast paced, cinematic and wondrous. The reader is carried along at such a rate that faults are smoothed over due to the sheer speed of the narrative.

[...]

In the future, humanity destroys the Earth with their constant wars and by ravaging the land without giving anything back. Earth's end is in site. The European Space Organization (ESO) secretly builds a vast colony ship (named the Lovelock), trains key personnel to crew it, and readies over four thousand coldsleep pods for the humans chosen to begin life anew on another world. Terrorists object to anyone leaving Earth, thus ESO must keep everything as secret as possible. With only minor interference, the Lovelock launches, taking with it the only real hope the human race has for survival.

Five hundred light-years later (one thousand years standard Earth time), Lovelock is torn apart by a series of explosions. A skeleton crew is awakened from coldsleep and they must scramble to save the frozen colonists by crash landing on the nearest possible location: a polar section of a Helix - a vast, spiral construct of worlds, wound about a G-type sun. While most of the colonists remain in coldsleep, the four surviving crew members of the Lovelock proceed up-spiral in search of a habitable section. They will encounter extraordinary and vast landscapes, alien races, and begin unraveling the mystery of who created the helix.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on another tier of the helix, a race resembling lemurs has been under the control of the Church for millennia. The Church is all-powerful and makes all decisions for the people. Ehrin Telsa, owner of Telsa Dirigible Company, mans an expedition of the western plains for usable resources. Of course, the Church sends a representative with them, Elder Cannak. When they come across an alien (not human), the people on the expedition are amazed to learn that the Church already knew of the aliens and their strange technology, even though the Church swears no other race and no other world exists. Elder Cannak and the Church are hiding many secrets. While Ehrin wants to learn, Elder Cannak and the Church begin their well planned genocide of all alien races.

*** This novel begins with Joe Hendry on Earth as he is recruited by ESO. From then on, the book continues to follow (mainly) Joe for the entire story. The sections following the lemur-like race follows (mainly) Ehrin. However, the author does not do a good job of describing what Ehrin's race looks like for the readers until Joe's crew actually meets them, pretty far into the book. This caused me, as the reader, some confusion since I had already made my own mental image of the aliens and am suddenly forced into changing that image.

There was strife between two of the four surviving bridge crewmembers. When all became clear to me, I could not help but believe that the strife sections probably made for a sub-plot in the story during the author's writing, yet so much had to be cut (due to word count from the publisher?) that it ended up weak. All-in-all, this is a decent read. Not the author's best by far, but worth your time and money. ***

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Okay, I've read the negative reviews about this book. So, I wasn't expecting much. But, I really liked this book. Yes, there are some scientific flaws here and there. However, remember this is science fiction not science fact.

I just couldn't put this book down. I read on the way to vacation to Bermuda and figured I'd read the rest on the way back. But, I kept reading and reading it on vacation until I was done. The pace is fast and touching at times. The story is very imaginative and had me thinking about humanity.

So, I won't repeat what others have already stated, but read it and find out for yourself.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 21 reviews  2.8 out of 5 stars