BKROGSTR.RVW   990102

"Rogue Star", Michael Flynn, 1998, 0-312-86136-2, U$25.95/C$35.95
%A   Michael Flynn
%C   175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY  10010
%D   1998
%G   0-312-86136-2
%I   Tor Books/Tom Doherty Assoc.
%O   U$25.95/C$35.95 pnh@tor.com www.tor.com
%P   446 p.
%T   "Rogue Star"

While "Rogue Star" is an enjoyable enough, as a run of the mill
science fiction story, it doesn't have anything of the spark that
"Firestar" (cf. BKFIRSTR.RVW) started out with.  "Rogue Star" plods
along with the pedestrian soap opera plotting that characterized the
last part of the first book in the series.

(Oh, and there will be a series, or at least a trilogy.  The ending is
even clearer on that point than was "Firestar."  And there are way
more loose ends.)

As with "Firestar," great care has been taken with orbital dynamics. 
Environmental issues, and even the complexity of social activism, are
handled quite well.  A troubleshooting session on a computerized
system is also done quite nicely, although the progress is quite
excessively optimistic.  (Well, it would have to be.  A *real*
troubleshooting session would have all the dramatic impact of drying
paint.)

Although our unrealistic lone wolf "hacker" is still in evidence, and,
indeed provides material central to the plot, his exploits are in the
background, and so the fantastic aspects are not quite as intrusive.

Computers, and particularly communications, are still a weak point,
however.  There is no apparent understanding of bandwidth issues: if
you can send data at all, you can send real time video.  I would not
want to live in the sea of microwaves that would be necessary to
support a wireless communications system capable of handling full
video feeds from what seems like every second person.  There are other
oddities, such as the capability to detect that you are being filmed,
and the ability to erase everything on a camera's hard disk.  (Hey,
how about that!  Videotape has some advantages after all.)  We have
upped the ante on laser power transmission very seriously here, and
now begin to have some serious problems of physics, as well.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1999   BKROGSTR.RVW   990102