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4.0 out of 5 stars
Essential Reading for Robinson Fans, Sep 21 2001
First things first: If you're just discovering Spider Robinson, or this particular trio of books... this ain't the place to start. BUY it now (lest it go out of print, as Spider's books have an inexplicable and depressing tendancy to do), but put it away until you've read _Stardance_ and _Starseed_.There, now that's out of the way. On with the review. This book, especially in the context of the series, is a consistently entertaining, rewarding exploration of the themes that dominate the Robinsons' best work. Little stuff, like (in no particular order): love, sex, creativity, art, transcendence, home, commitment, and so forth. It says something about their abilities as a writing team that all this is unfolded through living, breathing characters that you quickly come to care deeply about . . . and want to find happiness (even if it's not at all clear that they will). Likable, intelligent characters have always been Spider's greatest strength, and this story is no exception. Whether or not the plot "works" for you is almost beside the point. Even if it doesn't, the characters and the ways in which they grow and change make the book worth reading. This is *not* a trilogy in the conventional SF sense. The three books form distinct segments of a long arc, but they have independent casts (for the most part) with their own strengths and weaknesses. It's one of the delights of _Starmind_ that Rhea is clearly *not* a (literary) clone of Rain M'Cloud or Sharra Drummond, and that Rand is *not* just another Charlie Armstead. One final note: The Robinsons may live in British Columbia, but in the scenes set in Provincetown, MA this Bay State expatriate could hear the surf, smell the salt, and taste the Portuguese sweet bread again. Craftsmanship even in places where most people won't notice it is a glorious thing.
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