The Wreck of the River of Stars

Most of the sf published in the last few years has left me bored or uninterested. In contrast, "The Wreck of the River of Stars" is a grand reminder of why science fiction once comprised most of my pleasure reading. It has that combination of solid writing, interesting characters, and ideas worth contemplating after the story is done, and more.As others have indicated, Flynn was channeling Heinlein when he wrote this novel, and that doesn't detract from Flynn's own style. An example of this is the masterful way he gives his world a vivid past that is still in our future, not through the "infodumps" of less polished writers (think Dan Brown), but through casual references interspersed in the characters' conversations. Fans of Patrick O'Brian may also come away from River thinking that Mr. Flynn has spent more than a few hours in the company of Jack Aubrey and co., from the way he evokes the terminology of an earlier age of sail.This excellent novel deserves all the accolades it has received.

I'm surprised that this book hasn't received more attention. It's an absolutely outstanding novel and is that rare case of genre fiction that transcends its genre and qualifies as literature. The story is simple --- the title says it all --- but compelling and the characterization, narration, and dialogue are sharp and intelligent. Best of all, the characters drive the story, rather than the other way around (a common failing in sf, where ideas are typically much more interesting than people). The entire novel takes place on The River of Stars, a Jovian merchant ship that has seen better days. Its crew and a single passenger are the only characters, and their backgrounds and interactions propel the story to its tragic conclusion. There are very few missteps in this book. I can think of two: that the characters of Corrigan and Gorgas seem fuzzily delineated (were they a single character in an earlier draft?) and that mysterious events in the pasts of the crew are somewhat abruptly and implausibly revealed at the end of the book. These are minor, however, given the overall success of the novel, which I highly recommend.

The MSS "River of Stars", the grandest of the great magsail liners, was launched in 2051. But the new Farnsworth fusion thrusters rang the death-knell for the magsails, and the now-obsolete liner was converted to fusion power in 2084. Two decades later, she has become a tramp freighter, bound for Dinwoody Poke, Jupiter space, on what will be her final voyage....The Middle System -- Mars, the Belt, Jupiter space -- has not developed tidily, and the crew is made up of casualties of the great 21st-century space boom. RIVER is their story. RIVER is a tour de force of character developement. We watch, riveted, as these motley misfits squabble, beef and try to cope, in the hermetic isolation of a ship becalmed in space -- two of the four Farnsworth engines have been ruined in a freak accident. The ship has 19 days to rebuild the engines, or she will pass the balk line, the point of no return, and drift endlessly away from settled space.The repairs go slowly, but the ship's Engineer is a master of improvisation, and no one doubts he will fix the engines in time. No one, that is, but the oldest magsailors, who remember that the RIVER still has her old sails, unused for decades. They decide to fix them up, just in case. No one likes, or trusts, the acting captain, so they don't tell him (or the Engineer) their plan -- which has a large share of nostalgia for the lost Age of Sail. And there isn't enough superconducting hobartium on board to repair both engines and sails.... RIVER is a classical tragedy. Hubris, small mistakes, misunderstandings, mishaps and personal conflicts collide, echo and feed back in a downward spiral that will ultimately wreck the great ship. It wouldn't be fair to reveal the ending, but it's not a happy one. There are no real villains here, just flawed people trying to cope, at times heroically. But the Fates are not on their side. Flynn tells his story in the third-person omniscient, with dry asides as he develops his characters. The omniscient narrator is the Greek chorus to the inevitable tragedy, which develops with an awful majesty. Flynn's writing is masterful. His pacing is grave, controlled, ironic. His characters will break your heart as they work, love, fight, grow, grieve and die. This is a wonderful book, easily Flynn's best. RIVER is set in the future of Flynn's popular near-future "Star" tetrology (also recommended), but is a standalone novel. This is the best hard-SF tragic novel of character yet written (though this is an uncrowded niche). And the cover art, by Stephan Martiniere, is just flat gorgeous. Highly recommended.Review copyright 2003 by Peter D. Tillman

Michael Flynn has written a great, character driven novel. The novel the follows the story of the crew of the interplanetary freighter _The River of Stars_, a ship that bridged the era of magnetic sailing ships and fusion propelled vessels, after the death of the captain that brought them together. Flynn bends the traditional storm story of a ship in distress to the science fiction genre like a new sail to a mast. The best comparison would be to Joseph Conrad's novella, "Typhoon." Both examine a crew under the stress of great events and great danger. The characters are fairly well-characterized individuals with their own faults, flaws, and strengths. More than technology and technological change, the stories are driven by the character of the actors and loom at their histories, motivations, and, especially, faults. Flynn writes is a thoughtful style with a fluid, almost late 19th Century, use of language.A similar adaptation of the genre is Susan Schwartz' 2001 novel, _Second Chances_, which takes Conrad's _Lord Jim_ to science fiction.

Today's technology is tomorrow's junk. For instance, The River of Stars was a luxurious passenger liner that used immense magnetic sails to catch the solar wind. However, the invention of the Farnsworth fusion drive turned the sailing ships obsolete. The River of Stars is the last one still operating as it hauls cargo between Jupiter and the asteroid belt. However, its sails are never used, as they are symbols of the past. When Captain Hand dies from an illness, Gorgas becomes in charge when an emergency occurs. A small meteor hits the ship destroying two engines and crippling the deceleration process making a safe landing impossible. The only hope to walk away resides in the sails, but navigator Corrigan and sailmaster Satterwaithe know Gorgas and Engineer Bhatterji would never listen especially since the latter insists he can fix the malfunctioning engines. Turning to ancient philosophy of not putting all your eggs in one basket Corrigan and Satterwaithe serendipitously work with the crew of misfits to merge the old with the new in a desperate attempt to survive.This is science fiction at its best as the audience sees the impact of a radical change in technology on people and industries as has happened throughout history especially the twentieth century (horse driven coaches to cars, etc.). The story line conveys a deep powerful look at varying technological changes on a crew without slowing down the plot. On top of an action-packed yet cerebral thriller, the cast is fully developed so readers understand the crisis and how everyone will react to it. Flynn has written a winner.Harriet Klausner