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3.0 out of 5 stars
Split down the middle., Dec 18 2003
I've noticed that most of the reviews for this album are either 5 stars or 1...it seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it thing for most. As for me, I may have a rather unique perspective because I was very much of two minds about it. Since ultimately I chose to purchase and keep it for future re-reading, I rounded my 2.5 rating up to 3 stars (2 and 1 are for items I do not keep). In order to prepare for this review, I found myself keeping a pros-and-cons list so that I could try to accurately report both. I found, though, that on some of the very same points, I would feel one way about it one second and the opposite a moment later!Perhaps the best thing that Do Comets Dream? had going for it was the rich descriptive prose. I do not always get vivid sensory impressions as I read, but in this case I could certainly envision myself in this colorful world. Similarly, the richness of the culture he devised was quite enticing, and I vastly preferred the scenes that delved into the history of Thanet to those involving the Enterprise crew. The reason for the existence of the thanopstru was certainly an engaging tale, as well as a look into the political machinations of Thanet. However, I had mixed feelings about the heavy allusions to Earth culture and languages. On one hand, it was rather fascinating to try to pick them all out, but on the other, I also started to see it as a cheap substitute for inventiveness on the author's part. I would have been even more impressed by his inventing his own mythology rather than a retelling (even such a vivid one) of our own histories. Certain parallels were simply TOO close to be believable. For instance, what are the odds of another world developing root words such as "mnemo-" for memory and "thanop-" for death, which are close to words in ancient Greek holding the *same* meaning? This is where it becomes hard to suspend disbelief. As I alluded to before, the scenes with the Enterprise crew were nowhere near as convincing as the ones involving characters of Somtow's own creation (with the exception of Simon Tarses, whom Somtow was pretty much on his own to describe, anyway). Another problem that I had with this book was the extremely shoddy editing job. I find myself wondering if Somtow was uncertain of what he wanted to name the young Icelandic student who won a tour on the Enterprise for winning an essay contest (Speaking of unrealistic--after the failure of the Enterprise-D, did Starfleet not decide that it was too dangerous to have children on board ship?). This is because I found the following three spellings: "Engvig", "Envig", and even "Envgvig". The fact that neither Somtow nor the editors rectified this glaring inconsistency is truly pathetic. Overall, this book merits only a 2.5, but because it can offer an engaging read at times, I kept it and gave it the 3-star rating.
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