Generation Starship? Or Generation Novel...

Arkwright - Allen Steele

It’s getting harder and harder to be a science fiction fan. For one thing, the library and bookstore shelves that used to be filled with space operas are now jammed with vampire tales. For another, there just don’t seem to be any more Asimovs, Clarkes, Sturgeons or Silverbergs coming down the pike (Charlie Stross, perhaps, excepted). To make matters worse, fans have recently been subjected to a slew of long novels that read more like soap operas than space operas – some fairly good (Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves) and some not quite so good (the John Sandford and Ctein collaboration, Saturn Run). And then there’s the just plain bad: Allen Steele’s Arkwright.

Although we scifi readers have read many a novel about “generation ships” - Alexei Panshin's Rite of Passage immediately springs to mind -- Arkwright is more of a generation novel: made filthy rich by his science fiction novels, author Nate Arkwright wills his considerable fortune to a foundation dedicated to funding the first interstellar ship. Fine – but the novel expends about 80% of its page space on the people running the Arkwright Foundation, all descended from Nate’s granddaughter. Only in the last handful of chapters is there any “science fiction,” and it’s of the most reprehensible version. By that, I mean the school of SciFi which English-language words and names are altered slightly to make everything seem futuristic – “English” becomes “Inglis” and “Rebecca” becomes “R’beca.” You know – the kind of scifi that barely meets minimum standards…

Over at the river, author Allen Steele is glowingly described as “a highly regarded expert on space travel and exploration.”  Be that as it may, Arkwright is just plain boring. The gratuitous cameo appearances by many prominent writers and other pioneers of science fiction (e.g., John W. Campbell, Ben Bova, Robert Heinlein...) notwithstanding, most of the first 80% of the novel reads like a family history from John Jakes dressed up with a bit of technology (anyone remember The Bastard from way back in 1974? Yeah – like that). It’s little more than a multigenerational collection of “meet cutes” and “loss of virginity.” Feh.

Steele may well be “highly-regarded” as an expert on space travel, but as an author? After finishing Arkwright, I decided that he definitely needs some help. Mind you, I've never read anything else the guy has written, but let me be perfectly honest: this reads like much of the self-published dreck that permeates the eBook world. I heartily suggest not wasting your money...

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