Rocket Science [Paperback]

As a first novel for Jay Lake, "Rocket Science" is amazing. Fairly short, a quick read, I could not put it down, nor wait to finish it. Keeps the pace to the very last page - didn't want it to end, actually. Lake's style is clean and flows at times like poetry, as in: "Floyd's Nazi bayonet instantly won the loyalty of every boy in town, while his casual good looks won the heart of every girl" (p. 11). Reminiscent of the pulp sci-fi of the 1940-50s, "Rocket Science," borders on the literary without the tedium.

The hero Vernon Dunham is a completely engaging young man, and his friend Floyd Bellamy is as inexplicable as he is sympathetic. While clearly a creation of the 21st century, there are certain values Lake is not afraid to allow his characters to voice, e.g., respect for one's parents, honoring one's father.

"Rocket Science" does a delightful job of exploring that odd, sometimes haunting connection between historical fiction and science fiction (and not as in the specific subgenre of "alternative histories"). After all, is not science fiction historical fiction forward, and historical fiction, at least sometimes, science fiction back?

Lake has been writing short stories, reviews, and editing anthologies for a number of years, so his voice is well established and clear. After enjoying "Rocket Science," I will be looking forward to his next full-length novel.

Vernon Dunham likes airplanes but he never imagined one would like him back. He thought he had learned everything about airplanes working as a parts buyer for B29 production in Wichita, but when Vernon's best friend Floyd Bellamy comes home from WWII Europe, the learning is just beginning. Hey mom, look what followed me home! Can I keep it? A dog, maybe, but a talking alien spacecraft dug out from under the arctic ice by Nazis, certainly not!

The arrival of Floyd and his airplane turns Vernon's world upside down and inside out. A secret like Pegasus is hard to keep and close on Floyd's heels are the Nazis, the Army CID, the County Sheriff, and the local cops; not necessarily in that order. Vernon is in over his head very quickly as all these elements conspire to capture Pegasus while they tear his world apart; taking from him trust in everything and everyone he has ever known, including his best friend. Finally he realizes that he can only trust himself and his new friend, the alien flying machine.

This is truly a classic Science Fiction story. This book has a great retro feel to it and Jay Lake takes you back to a simpler more innocent America. I spent some time growing up in Oklahoma near the Kansas border and Jay has really captured that part of rural America. (Nazi sleeper cells, the Italian mafia, moonshine runners, and communists not withstanding.) The only thing Jay left out of the political soup he concocted were Civil War Confederate holdovers and the KKK. All of the organizations scrambling to get their hands on Pegasus are eventually thwarted by two young men from small town America.

Jay unfolds a plot designed to make the average reader feel smarter than the hero. Another retro facet of this book is that it is a male story. This book is a great read for any young man. In the current era of female dominated editorial staffs and agencies this book is a breath of fresh air for the male reader. How will this translate to sales? We'll have to watch. Women need their literature too but let's hope that Jay continues to supply material for this increasingly neglected market. There are a couple of logistical hiccups that I scratched my head over but the plot moved fast enough that I shrugged them off. (Such as, if you can't feel accelerations while riding in the alien ship, why did it have such an elaborate seat belt system? Hmmm?) If you're looking for a fun read without having to do a lot of thinking, I'm happy to recommend Rocket Science.

Reviewed by Hugh Mannfield at stormbold.com

Jay Lake has been an incredibly prolific producer of short fiction over the past few years, and he has earned some award nominations -- for the Campbell for Best New Writer, and a Hugo nomination for his very fine novelette "Into the Gardens of Sweet Night". (He won the Campbell.) Rocket Science, due in August from Fairwood Press, is his first novel.

It's, well, kind of fun. Pretty fun, really. A fast read. Engaging characters. And ... well, that's all it is. Which isn't by any means a bad thing, but certainly Jay is capable of much more. My thought on reading it was that he was trying to prove he could handle a story at novel length -- pacing, extending the plot, altering expectations as things go on, etc. And in all that the story succeeds quite admirably. But in the end it's not about a great deal, and the central ideas, and the general outline of the plot including resolution, are just a bit too familiar.

I seem, I suppose, to be damning with faint praise. I should reiterate that the book really is a fun fast read. And if I didn't have high expectations for a Jay Lake story, I'd have said nothing more. It certainly repays the reader's investment of time with enjoyment.

Vern Dunham is a mildly handicapped aircraft worker in the years just after World War II. His friend Floyd Bellamy is a classic war hero -- not the best student or the most upright citizen but a handsome young man who went off to fight the Nazis and returned successfully. Soon enough, though, Floyd is asking Vern for help with a mysterious vehicle he smuggled back from Europe. It seems to be some sort of experimental aircraft. Apparently Floyd stole it from the Nazis -- perhaps without the permission of the US government.

Well, this is an SF book, so we know exactly what this airplane is. Vern figures this out quickly enough, though the specific way in which this airplane is special is something unusual. And very quickly he is embroiled in a real mess, with different governmental factions (or are they?) chasing him, along with Nazis, organized crime, and other elements. And he's learning some surprising facts about his own personal history, and about Floyd's personal history, and about both Floyd's parents and his own ... It's a wild mix, and if never precisely new it is often enough twisty and surprising -- and always fast moving and exciting. A solid first novel -- just not a special first novel.

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