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geoffnelder's review
4.0
Initially I squirmed at the start of Threads not because of the characters, such as Billy Ray, assigned to the Royal Mongolian Space Navy Destroyer 119, the Admiral Khan, but the pages of info-dumping as the reader learns about the Mark IV implant in Billy Ray's head. Then again in Chapter 2 on ISTEC company history. Many science fiction writers use this technique with the risk of losing readers with too much Tell in order to get over the mass of new information they need to handle the story. Get past it and the characters are real enough so let’s enjoy.
Marshall Matt and his twin Mark use an enhanced telepathy link - the eponymous Threads - with each other. It’s this concept that brings a unique element to this novel and one which shapes the whole plot in a clever way.
As a former teacher, who had to demonstrate this, it’s really good to see the Coriolis Effect get a mention no less than three times.
After encountering this medical development used more in this novel as a weapon let me warn you to never shake hands with Tom Tinney, he'll be palming a derm patch with a powerful analgesic so that you'll be on the floor before you know it!
Threads has a political agenda and uses the wonderful medium of science fiction as the author's 'if only' and 'what if' future making the unlikely come possible. An example:
“In 2079 a group of businessmen collected 1/3rd of the world's wealth onto a 200-vessel 'Freedom Fleet' protected by former US carriers. The fleet negotiated with Hawaii to make it a landfall base but the 'new' UN, who's demanded the money back and distributed to the poor heard of the talks and nuked Hawaii. 4 years later the fleet negotiated with a new liberated Cuba to make them rich and lead the world to a socialist-free paradise.” Kinda, because not everything is what it seems.
I like the relationship between the two paraplegics, Mark and Phyllis. Funny that she'd compliment him on his sense of humour with, 'You're funny when you're not in the middle of a paradigm-shifting incident that could bring the known galaxy to a standstill.' If only I had a girlfriend who could talk like that. Hang on, I do!
Interesting plot premise with alien ships randomly and devastatingly attacking Earth ships but are they really? A cunning ploy that takes the telepathic Threads and deep undercover work that makes this otherwise often slow-paced novel worth the persistence.
Beware of some sdm scenes such as that affecting Allison Winslow. I'm (spoiler but hope I'm forgiven) glad to say she survives butbutbut not all is as it seems. The perpetrator is something else indeed. Of course you should suspect that Threads isn't only a communication system for exceptional twins, especially when you consider other species, but I don't want to spoil...
Usually, the important and Earthly thing to do when you think you see a strange enemy coming at you is to open fire, but wait! Typified by a terrific chapter heading: The End of an Error.
Normally, I knee-jerk against cliché but having read Threads I now take back and delete my quibbles over such cliché as 'snug as a bug in a rug. The author possesses a wit beyond part one, and those cliché snippets become real!
Threads is a complex novel(s) with its shocks, innovations, socio-political subplots and pseudo-science, none of which are what they initially seem. You don't just become engaged with a main character but their 'distant' and yet close twin, and their ‘squeezes’. Buy this book and you'll receive far more than you deserve.
Marshall Matt and his twin Mark use an enhanced telepathy link - the eponymous Threads - with each other. It’s this concept that brings a unique element to this novel and one which shapes the whole plot in a clever way.
As a former teacher, who had to demonstrate this, it’s really good to see the Coriolis Effect get a mention no less than three times.
After encountering this medical development used more in this novel as a weapon let me warn you to never shake hands with Tom Tinney, he'll be palming a derm patch with a powerful analgesic so that you'll be on the floor before you know it!
Threads has a political agenda and uses the wonderful medium of science fiction as the author's 'if only' and 'what if' future making the unlikely come possible. An example:
“In 2079 a group of businessmen collected 1/3rd of the world's wealth onto a 200-vessel 'Freedom Fleet' protected by former US carriers. The fleet negotiated with Hawaii to make it a landfall base but the 'new' UN, who's demanded the money back and distributed to the poor heard of the talks and nuked Hawaii. 4 years later the fleet negotiated with a new liberated Cuba to make them rich and lead the world to a socialist-free paradise.” Kinda, because not everything is what it seems.
I like the relationship between the two paraplegics, Mark and Phyllis. Funny that she'd compliment him on his sense of humour with, 'You're funny when you're not in the middle of a paradigm-shifting incident that could bring the known galaxy to a standstill.' If only I had a girlfriend who could talk like that. Hang on, I do!
Interesting plot premise with alien ships randomly and devastatingly attacking Earth ships but are they really? A cunning ploy that takes the telepathic Threads and deep undercover work that makes this otherwise often slow-paced novel worth the persistence.
Beware of some sdm scenes such as that affecting Allison Winslow. I'm (spoiler but hope I'm forgiven) glad to say she survives butbutbut not all is as it seems. The perpetrator is something else indeed. Of course you should suspect that Threads isn't only a communication system for exceptional twins, especially when you consider other species, but I don't want to spoil...
Usually, the important and Earthly thing to do when you think you see a strange enemy coming at you is to open fire, but wait! Typified by a terrific chapter heading: The End of an Error.
Normally, I knee-jerk against cliché but having read Threads I now take back and delete my quibbles over such cliché as 'snug as a bug in a rug. The author possesses a wit beyond part one, and those cliché snippets become real!
Threads is a complex novel(s) with its shocks, innovations, socio-political subplots and pseudo-science, none of which are what they initially seem. You don't just become engaged with a main character but their 'distant' and yet close twin, and their ‘squeezes’. Buy this book and you'll receive far more than you deserve.
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