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A review by lanko
Gypsy by Carter Scholz
5.0
Space travel through entire galaxies, let alone systems, is something really easy and accessible in popular Sci-Fi. That's not the case with Gypsy.
It shows how hard (near impossible), unpredictable, cold, solitary and dangerous it is.
The premise is that Earth around 2040 is on a catastrophic situation, elevated by the author to the maximum possible (it does look extremely exaggerated to make the plot go, but whatever).
Enter Roger Fry, genius scientist. He assembles a team, builds a ship and plans to launch it to Alpha Centauri to start again. It's not even certain there's an inhabitable planet there, but they don't have a choice.
Roger isn't on the ship (Gypsy, the name is explained later), but he is everywhere on it at the same time. How and why something or someone was there, on surprising levels, some bordering on sheer creepiness.
Now here comes the fascinate aspect of the story: Estimated time travel to reach the destination is around 80 years. The crew will hibernate until it reaches Alpha Centauri, but of course, space travel isn't like Star Wars or Star Trek and things continuously go wrong and have to be fixed or adapted.
When this happens, one member of the crew of sixteen is wakened and has to fix/adapt whatever needs to be done. Sometimes it's not even their main specialization, but they have to do the best they can for the sake of everyone else.
Then they write a log of what they did (by hand, in case computers fail) and if something happens again, someone else has to take the reins.
That's because they don't have food/water to stay awake for longer periods and can only be put to hibernation one more time, if someone has to wake up for the second time, it's only when they are about to reach their final destination.
The great thing is not only the challenges, but how new ones keep appearing. Contrary to what most commonly happens, human error is the main cause of them, not technology failing.
Sometimes someone fix one thing but causes something to blow up later. Then someone else has to fix it. Or sometimes they don't really are on their right state of mind.
The characters come from various nationalities and have their own backstory, all there on the ship and connected through each other because of the invisible, but omnipresent presence of Roger Fry, someone who could really have a book of his own.
The only downside is when the author decides to tackle some political views. Initially, it was fascinating because it appeared the crew, coming from all the world, would all have its own differences.
But unfortunately, they are all there to reinforce a specific view, and the one they consider the "opposite" is displayed in a totally cartoonish and even untruthful way that it ran the risk of breaking the story, simply because they looked to be simply facets of the author on specific subjects. A shame.
There were arguments I totally agreed with and others I totally disagreed, and even those I agree with left me wondering why it needed to be displayed in such a "in-your-damn-face" manner.
Despite that, and if you don't really mind that part, the story is really, really good. And the ending really packed quite a punch on me.
It's short - a novella of about 160 pages. I heard the book alone comes with two more short stories, an essay and an interview, which I believe could be amusing but also more personal ranting.
I read this through the The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas, by Paula Guran, which I gained as an ARC through NetGalley, so I thankfully only got what it mattered: the story.
And it's a really good one and totally recommended.
It shows how hard (near impossible), unpredictable, cold, solitary and dangerous it is.
The premise is that Earth around 2040 is on a catastrophic situation, elevated by the author to the maximum possible (it does look extremely exaggerated to make the plot go, but whatever).
Enter Roger Fry, genius scientist. He assembles a team, builds a ship and plans to launch it to Alpha Centauri to start again. It's not even certain there's an inhabitable planet there, but they don't have a choice.
Roger isn't on the ship (Gypsy, the name is explained later), but he is everywhere on it at the same time. How and why something or someone was there, on surprising levels, some bordering on sheer creepiness.
Now here comes the fascinate aspect of the story: Estimated time travel to reach the destination is around 80 years. The crew will hibernate until it reaches Alpha Centauri, but of course, space travel isn't like Star Wars or Star Trek and things continuously go wrong and have to be fixed or adapted.
When this happens, one member of the crew of sixteen is wakened and has to fix/adapt whatever needs to be done. Sometimes it's not even their main specialization, but they have to do the best they can for the sake of everyone else.
Then they write a log of what they did (by hand, in case computers fail) and if something happens again, someone else has to take the reins.
That's because they don't have food/water to stay awake for longer periods and can only be put to hibernation one more time, if someone has to wake up for the second time, it's only when they are about to reach their final destination.
The great thing is not only the challenges, but how new ones keep appearing. Contrary to what most commonly happens, human error is the main cause of them, not technology failing.
Sometimes someone fix one thing but causes something to blow up later. Then someone else has to fix it. Or sometimes they don't really are on their right state of mind.
The characters come from various nationalities and have their own backstory, all there on the ship and connected through each other because of the invisible, but omnipresent presence of Roger Fry, someone who could really have a book of his own.
The only downside is when the author decides to tackle some political views. Initially, it was fascinating because it appeared the crew, coming from all the world, would all have its own differences.
But unfortunately, they are all there to reinforce a specific view, and the one they consider the "opposite" is displayed in a totally cartoonish and even untruthful way that it ran the risk of breaking the story, simply because they looked to be simply facets of the author on specific subjects. A shame.
There were arguments I totally agreed with and others I totally disagreed, and even those I agree with left me wondering why it needed to be displayed in such a "in-your-damn-face" manner.
Despite that, and if you don't really mind that part, the story is really, really good. And the ending really packed quite a punch on me.
It's short - a novella of about 160 pages. I heard the book alone comes with two more short stories, an essay and an interview, which I believe could be amusing but also more personal ranting.
I read this through the The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas, by Paula Guran, which I gained as an ARC through NetGalley, so I thankfully only got what it mattered: the story.
And it's a really good one and totally recommended.