Scan barcode
zazkia's review against another edition
4.0
5 stars for the scifi concepts, 2 stars for the depiction of women.
This had a great concept, interesting science, but the characters were flat and the women just seemed to exist to provide a backdrop of petty relationship drama. Each woman was introduced with a description of her figure, and when we finally got a scene with just two women, it was for one of them to ask the other if "please could you sleep with my boyfriend for 1 night, he's been mighty stressed lately being all important and stuff". Fails the Bechdel test. hard.
And I may be harsh here, there are way worse offenders in the genre and time period, but I'm just exhausted of all these authors being able to dream up the wildest futures science allows, but not a single one where women are truly equal or even have mildly interesting characters. (To be fair most of the male characters were also fairly 2D but).
Good thing it was short. Glad I read it for the scifi part.
This had a great concept, interesting science, but the characters were flat and the women just seemed to exist to provide a backdrop of petty relationship drama. Each woman was introduced with a description of her figure, and when we finally got a scene with just two women, it was for one of them to ask the other if "please could you sleep with my boyfriend for 1 night, he's been mighty stressed lately being all important and stuff". Fails the Bechdel test. hard.
And I may be harsh here, there are way worse offenders in the genre and time period, but I'm just exhausted of all these authors being able to dream up the wildest futures science allows, but not a single one where women are truly equal or even have mildly interesting characters. (To be fair most of the male characters were also fairly 2D but).
Good thing it was short. Glad I read it for the scifi part.
samg113's review against another edition
5.0
Tau Zero is insane in all of the right ways. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it so much; I’ve found that sci-fi classics are very hit-and-miss - they’re notoriously heavy on the concepts and poor with characterisation, but this struck a great balance between the two.
And they somehow, plausibly, went to the end of the frigging universe and into a new one, like what the hell?
(4.5/5)
And they somehow, plausibly, went to the end of the frigging universe and into a new one, like what the hell?
(4.5/5)
aarond30's review
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
mkmilquetoast's review against another edition
3.0
There are obvious dangers serving on a colony ship headed for a potentially habitable planet. Will the crew manage the effects of isolation, zero g, and continuous existential crisis? What about the time dilation effects due to travelling at near light speed - can people cope with the fact that the planet they're leaving will experience decades of change in their 5 year journey? What if the planet can't actually sustain life - can you imagine having to go back? Even more practically: will you even survive the journey?
Tau Zero explores all these types of questions before grinning mischievously and throwing one last monkey wrench into the equation: what if the ship is damaged en route - not in a life-threatening way - and now can no longer stop? In fact, it can no longer even slow down; its crew is able to survive indefinitely, but time is dilating further as minutes on board the ship become centuries outside. They can't land, call back to home, or even make repairs, and the stars and planets and galaxies they're able to see outside their windows are looking ever stranger and out of reach.
It's a really cool idea. Tau Zero is a hard science (well, for 1970) sci-fi book first and foremost, but at many points throughout it feels closer to a post-apocalypse story. After the aforementioned disaster strikes, the crew of the Leonora Christine become survivors of a very personal apocalypse. The world they knew is gone in every sense of the word, and they themselves have become ghosts without a home or purpose.
The book excels when it explores these ideas, or when it dips into the poetic to describe cosmic phenomena, or when dives into paragraphs of big, crunchy technical jargon for the all the science work being done. It's wonderful scifi writing.
The problem is everything else.
A book detailing a disaster really needs to get the human element right. People should respond to it believably, which might mean some acting irrationally, others rising to heroics, still others falling into depravity or doom or hysterics. The drama and tension naturally arise from people overcoming their weaknesses, making tough decisions, and so forth.
But Tau Zero's characters aren't really people; they're barely even 2D cardboard cutouts. They wander from scene to scene expositing dialogue at each other, or saying their internal monologues out loud to advance a thread, or suddenly acting out of character because it's convenient for the plot at the time. There's very little conflict (the most physical it gets is a single fistfight over cards) and drama is often resolved with a handwave.
The dialogue is especially embarrassing. There are some scenes early on where characters are literally just stating their backstories to one another intermixed with current world history that would surely be obvious to them. It's the type of thing that'd get you in trouble with your 9th grade English teacher.
The worst by far is the protagonist. He's a military man, a cop-esque figure on the ship. But also he knows everything about space and astrophysics and chemistry and planetary colonization and can stand toe-to-toe with experts in their field in any scientific discussion. His arguments are always correct, and those who doubt him eventually regret their words and deeds. He's a better captain than the captain. He's a master manipulator, with networks of deputies and secret deputies and spies. He can pilot star ships better than anyone. He's the best melee fighter, the best at navigating zero-g, and the only one with a gun. He's also naturally handsome, rugged, and is worshipped by at least two women.
He's absolutely ridiculous.
It's such a shame, because I love so much else about this book. Though the science never really rang true to me, I still suspended my disbelief because it's explained so well. The premise is excellent, equal parts terrifying and exhilarating, and the tension it weaves throughout the book left my palms sweaty.
All it needed was a handful of characters who behaved like humans. Instead, we get these weirdos. You get the sense that Anderson viewed humans as an unfortunate necessity to write about a cool spaceship flight. I wish he hadn't even bothered and made the Leonora Christine an unmanned expedition.
Tau Zero explores all these types of questions before grinning mischievously and throwing one last monkey wrench into the equation: what if the ship is damaged en route - not in a life-threatening way - and now can no longer stop? In fact, it can no longer even slow down; its crew is able to survive indefinitely, but time is dilating further as minutes on board the ship become centuries outside. They can't land, call back to home, or even make repairs, and the stars and planets and galaxies they're able to see outside their windows are looking ever stranger and out of reach.
It's a really cool idea. Tau Zero is a hard science (well, for 1970) sci-fi book first and foremost, but at many points throughout it feels closer to a post-apocalypse story. After the aforementioned disaster strikes, the crew of the Leonora Christine become survivors of a very personal apocalypse. The world they knew is gone in every sense of the word, and they themselves have become ghosts without a home or purpose.
The book excels when it explores these ideas, or when it dips into the poetic to describe cosmic phenomena, or when dives into paragraphs of big, crunchy technical jargon for the all the science work being done. It's wonderful scifi writing.
The problem is everything else.
A book detailing a disaster really needs to get the human element right. People should respond to it believably, which might mean some acting irrationally, others rising to heroics, still others falling into depravity or doom or hysterics. The drama and tension naturally arise from people overcoming their weaknesses, making tough decisions, and so forth.
But Tau Zero's characters aren't really people; they're barely even 2D cardboard cutouts. They wander from scene to scene expositing dialogue at each other, or saying their internal monologues out loud to advance a thread, or suddenly acting out of character because it's convenient for the plot at the time. There's very little conflict (the most physical it gets is a single fistfight over cards) and drama is often resolved with a handwave.
The dialogue is especially embarrassing. There are some scenes early on where characters are literally just stating their backstories to one another intermixed with current world history that would surely be obvious to them. It's the type of thing that'd get you in trouble with your 9th grade English teacher.
The worst by far is the protagonist. He's a military man, a cop-esque figure on the ship. But also he knows everything about space and astrophysics and chemistry and planetary colonization and can stand toe-to-toe with experts in their field in any scientific discussion. His arguments are always correct, and those who doubt him eventually regret their words and deeds. He's a better captain than the captain. He's a master manipulator, with networks of deputies and secret deputies and spies. He can pilot star ships better than anyone. He's the best melee fighter, the best at navigating zero-g, and the only one with a gun. He's also naturally handsome, rugged, and is worshipped by at least two women.
He's absolutely ridiculous.
It's such a shame, because I love so much else about this book. Though the science never really rang true to me, I still suspended my disbelief because it's explained so well. The premise is excellent, equal parts terrifying and exhilarating, and the tension it weaves throughout the book left my palms sweaty.
All it needed was a handful of characters who behaved like humans. Instead, we get these weirdos. You get the sense that Anderson viewed humans as an unfortunate necessity to write about a cool spaceship flight. I wish he hadn't even bothered and made the Leonora Christine an unmanned expedition.
mallorn's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
sleepgoodbooksbetter's review against another edition
3.75
I loved the topic, the writing, the tension and all of that. However, it read a little like a soap opera with all of their issues. The characters were a little shallow, and the book was very obviously written by a man. It could’ve made a cool short story to explore philosophical concepts, but it also worked very well as a book in the end.
booksarebetter's review against another edition
3.0
I will have to try this again in the future because while the writing and story was fine I didn't connect with it or the characters at all. It was an intriguing plot that kept me to the end but apart from that I don't get it. :/ Onto the next book I go!
nurullahdogan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
2.5
Note to self: Aniara