Lightpaths

I want to start by saying that I really enjoyed this book. That is, once I realized what it is. Or rather, what it isn't. This book is pushed as science fiction with names like Heinlein and Gibson mentioned on the cover and it is science fiction in the sense that it's fiction set in the future in a set-up generated by scientific advances-- but it isn't science fiction in terms of adhering to classic genre rules or plot. Several points:1) This is a novel musing on the possibility of Utopia in a future where our 'greed and growth' (as the book puts it) have grown to dangerous proportions.2) Not a whole lot happens to anything except on an internal and a narrowly interpersonal level. Don't look for action.3) Occasionally very dense passages heavily laced with current and historic utopian thinkers. I've read 'em, so it meant something to me. I shudder to think what it would have been like if I hadn't.4) Charactization gets lost, sometimes, in all the philosophizing. Roger, in particular, feels a little bit stock. 5) The ending has some definite lameness. It's as though he suddenly woke up and decided he had to put some action in, quick. So he did.If you go into the book while knowing all of the above, you may well enjoy it quite a bit. If you go in expecting escapist genre fiction, it's really going to suck.

This novel is a bit too heavy on the linguistic pretension and a little slow to start off, but worth sticking with to the end. An interesting blend of idealism, pre-apocalyptic paranoia and utopian philosophy, it's a challenge to read, but a worthy addition to your to-read list.

LIGHTPATHS by Howard V. Hendrix is a science fiction blend of some of my favorite things: ecology, mystery, philosophy, psychology, science, sociology, technology, believable characters and those incredible descriptive passages that put the reader right into the story! What a great way to start my recent vacation: A cup of coffee and this book. Suddenly I'm "on my way to the Orbital Complex, the center of controversy with certain groups on Earth, along with a few of the characters all of whom are researchers." But their chatter and thoughts do not prepare me for experiencing the Orbital Complex and events to come through Howard Hendrix's mind! One human-relevant feature of this science fiction work is the notion of an Orbital Complex or global colony orbiting the earth complete with homes, gardens, water supply, animals, and atmosphere, etc.; not a far-fetched idea these days! Even more relevant to today's world is the pervasive presence of the computer and its components in every aspect of human life (And, just how DO we plan to manage all of the information coming our way at an ever faster pace?)!! In addition, the author delves with gusto into the mind-body problem so dear to psychological researchers' hearts. LIGHTPATHS also reminds us that we need, TODAY, to address important social and environmental issues.Readers who enjoy Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and Frank Herbert (to name a few) will find LIGHTPATHS difficult to put down! I look forward to Hendrix's next work which I understand is due out soon.

I just finished reading the other reviews and I'm wondering how someone could call this work boring?? I'll never understand the criticism too philosophical. Lightpaths is not mind candy for the Startrek novelization crowd. But what vistas open up in its pages! Not only wonderful stories about endearing characters, but fascinating threads on origins, ontology, and the nature of government. I remember reading something by Frank Manuel the Utopian scholar saying the 20th c. couldn't write a utopia--well Mr. Hendrix proves him amply wrong. Be warned its a book made for re-reading and margin notes. Oh yeah, ignore the second half of the New York Review of Science Fiction--critics sheesh!

Against the space station backdrop of HOME (High Orbital Manufacturing Enterprise), several storylines are pursued providing a philosophical commentary on "engineered society" as Utopia, Ecotopia and Dystopia. This is a fine first novel from a writer well known for his short fiction. Social science, theology, bioengineering and artificial intelligence are mixed in varying proportions that are a bit heavy on philosophy, but without detracting from the scientific extrapolations. There is a Gibsonesque techno-shamanistic feel that prevails, and a political correctness of mixed cultures, but an amazing lack of diversities in relationships in this environment of potential social experimentation and advancement.