What a truly awful book! Awful enough that I gave up at page 97, at the end of part 3 (though there was no part 1). Don’t read this book.
The premise in the part I read is standard science fiction. Science group searches the skies for signs of extra-terrestrial life, and they find it. Later, an expedition travels to Wolf 359 to investigate the radio signals and finds primitive humans on one of the four planets. Humans who obviously do not possess the level of civilization necessary to build or maintain a high powered radio transmitter. They don’t even have fire.
Why is this book bad? Let me tell you.
In part two (remember, there isn’t a part one), the head scientist apparently is the only person in the group who knows how to interpret the data, and he decides to give it to the military. His logic is that a stellar race between all the militaries of the world will subject the inhabitants of Wolf 359 to much more danger than subjecting them to the depredations of just the U.S. military. As if there wasn’t such a thing as public opinion. Also, the text is dreary. Endless talk of punch cards and JCL and printouts of numbers that have to be looked over by humans. Page after page of straight numbers. Meanwhile head scientist courts a subordinate whose job it is to verify his data. As in asks her out all the time, insisting on things being informal after hours and that no one will question it because he’s the boss. And then turns around and admonishes her when she doesn’t use the Doctor honorific back in the office because it’s too informal there. And then he tells her he’s verified the work and she doesn’t need to. And has her lock up the office as if she’s security staff.
As revealed in part three, this is all part of his shocking plan to get the discovery of intelligent life out there around the U.S. military. He’s annoying his subordinate so but also giving her the opportunity in locking up to copy all the data and distribute it despite the military’s request to keep it secret. Sure it’ll ruin his reputation for everyone to know he was ready to keep it secret, but that’s a burden he’ll bear.
Even though the logic fail is epic, I’ll spell it all out anyway. Rather than sneak the information out himself, being a hero in the scientific community for both the discovery and bucking the military when he has exclusive control of the information, he enacts a subtle plan to trick a subordinate into ruining his own reputation to accomplish the same end. Not to mention ruining his chances of getting with the woman who seems amenable to his extremely lame courting.
Then we get to part three. Through careful psychological profiling, six crew members for the trip to Wolf 359 are chosen. By 2022 of course, computers can do everything, so the people are supposedly superfluous. However, they carefully pick six people. The biggest question the choosers have is whether to gender balance the crew, which they decide isn’t necessary, going with four men and two women. Cause they are all professionals and will have no problem leaving two men out of pairing off if it comes down to that, though they will all be too busy to have time to pair off.
Logically speaking, mostly okay up to that point. Then we discover who they’ve picked. A Doogie Howser doctor prodigy who’s graduated medical school but has never examined a single patient. A veteran commander who was one of two survivors of a dust storm on Mars but where the person he saved won’t talk to him again because of the unspeakable things he did to her while saving her. A marine without command experience for security. Another young prodigy as an anthropologist. And two others I’ve already forgotten.
As soon as they wake up from cold sleep or whatever Effinger called it (I can’t be bothered to re-read to figure it out), they all have nothing to do. In fact, the commander woke the rest of them up because he was bored and wanted company. The computers do everything supposedly, though the astrogator seems to have to determine if they made it to the right star. And never mind that the previous logic was that they would have so much stuff to do that pairing off really wouldn’t have a chance to happen.
Okay, skip ahead to the landing. Shortly thereafter they run into a naked human who stumbles in to their camp. A primitive camp. He stumbles in because the commander can’t be bothered to stay awake during his whole watch. Some commander. Some excellent selections. Insert sarcasm emoticon here. Now the naked primitive human is there, and the first thing the group does is tie him up so they can sleep the rest of the night.
Supposedly later in the book the commander guy decides to become a god to the primitives, and the book is a look at the dangers of being a god. Or something. If Effinger wrote that with the same level of skill that he wrote the beginning, then I can’t see how it would be worthwhile.
Title: Those Gentle Voices: A Promethean Romance of the Spaceways
Author: George Alec Effinger
Cover creator: Lou Feck
Series: God I sure hope not
Imprint / publisher: Warner
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 190 p. (I stopped at 97)
Publication date: January 1979 (originally March 1976)
ISBN-10: 0-446-940178
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