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Starflight 3000
Ronald Walter Mackleworth, author of Tiltangle, brings us a tale of the deep future when a new race has evolved on the Moon--a Moon that has a thin atmosphere created by small, tenacious life forms & vast shallow seas. The whole is maintained by a complex deteriorating technology run by the shadowy Milcon & Polcon groups, whose origins stretch far into the past, & who continually struggle for power. For too long however, have they run close to the edge of disaster. Soon a new project is to be launched by revolutionary groups--Starflight 3000
- GenresScience FictionFiction
184 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
32 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 21, 2014
Interesting sci-fi book - I've never seen this theme before - but it's written with really average prose studded with many awkward metaphors.
The theme is a sort of critique of space colonization.
The protagonist has to decide whether humanity has the right to corrupt the biospheres of alien planets for it's own propagation.
There's more to the plot than that of course.
In fact, after seeing Christopher Nolan's Interstellar recently, I've got the two plots mixing in my brain. Both concern long journeys in space undertaken to save humanity back on earth.
This is a 4 star book, wrapped up in 2 star storytelling.
I may come back to this in the future.
The theme is a sort of critique of space colonization.
The protagonist has to decide whether humanity has the right to corrupt the biospheres of alien planets for it's own propagation.
There's more to the plot than that of course.
In fact, after seeing Christopher Nolan's Interstellar recently, I've got the two plots mixing in my brain. Both concern long journeys in space undertaken to save humanity back on earth.
This is a 4 star book, wrapped up in 2 star storytelling.
I may come back to this in the future.
June 8, 2018
This was awful!
I have no idea what happened in this book.
There was a biosphere and some islanders and a robot and in the end... well I couldn't tell you.
The structure of the writing is so chaotic and the descriptions so sparse I often couldn't tell if we were standing in an office or hopping around the surface of the moon.
I had to retrace myself on almost every page, so I feel like I read it twice, yet none of the plot sunk in.
Other people seem to like it so perhaps my reading skills just aren't attuned to this sort of work.
Definitely not for me.
I have no idea what happened in this book.
There was a biosphere and some islanders and a robot and in the end... well I couldn't tell you.
The structure of the writing is so chaotic and the descriptions so sparse I often couldn't tell if we were standing in an office or hopping around the surface of the moon.
I had to retrace myself on almost every page, so I feel like I read it twice, yet none of the plot sunk in.
Other people seem to like it so perhaps my reading skills just aren't attuned to this sort of work.
Definitely not for me.
April 9, 2014
‘STARFLIGHT 3000 looks into the distant future, when a new race has evolved on the Moon – a Moon that has a thin atmosphere created by tiny, tenacious life-forms and vast shallow seas. The whole is maintained by a complex deteriorating technology run by the shadowy Milcon and Polcon groups, whose origins stretch far into the past, and who continually struggle for power. For too long, however, have they run close to the edge of disaster.
Soon, a new project is to be launched by revolutionary groups – Starflight 3000. A project of salvation, or a one-way trip to disaster…’
Blurb from the NEL 1976 paperback edition
There are echoes of both Van Vogt and Alfred Bester in this odd little novel. It follows the character of Boldre as he is forced into almost a predestinate sequence of events orchestrated initially by the intricate plots and counterplots of two opposing Earth factions, Milcon and Polcon (i.e., the Military and the politicians).
Boldre is an inhabitant of the moon which now has an atmosphere as a result of an earlier accident which released a terraforming virus; an atmosphere which is kept from bleeding off into space by a fortress manned by robots. Boldre’s people have adapted to the low gravitation and the frequent climatic changes.
Boldre gets dragged into a plot to steal a device called The Griffen from the Fortress, in return for which his people will be given passage on an interstellar ship called the Biosphere and ultimately colonise a new world. What he discovers is that the Griffen is the device controlling the Lunar atmosphere and its theft will force the moon residents onto the ship anyway, as Milcon/Polcon need their hardy constitutions to help open up new planets and make way for Earth humans.
Regrettably the plot is far too complex for so short a book, although there is a style and beauty here which transcends the perhaps rushed story.
Structurally, the novel is weak, in that it seems to move forward without really knowing where it is going. There are interesting characters - such as the revolutionary Delph, and Tabiner, who, thanks to the effects of time dilation, has returned to Earth after a thousand years – who are never developed as well as they should be. Boldre himself is a fascinating and complex personality, and had the rest of the characters been drawn so well, this may have been a more important novel.
Soon, a new project is to be launched by revolutionary groups – Starflight 3000. A project of salvation, or a one-way trip to disaster…’
Blurb from the NEL 1976 paperback edition
There are echoes of both Van Vogt and Alfred Bester in this odd little novel. It follows the character of Boldre as he is forced into almost a predestinate sequence of events orchestrated initially by the intricate plots and counterplots of two opposing Earth factions, Milcon and Polcon (i.e., the Military and the politicians).
Boldre is an inhabitant of the moon which now has an atmosphere as a result of an earlier accident which released a terraforming virus; an atmosphere which is kept from bleeding off into space by a fortress manned by robots. Boldre’s people have adapted to the low gravitation and the frequent climatic changes.
Boldre gets dragged into a plot to steal a device called The Griffen from the Fortress, in return for which his people will be given passage on an interstellar ship called the Biosphere and ultimately colonise a new world. What he discovers is that the Griffen is the device controlling the Lunar atmosphere and its theft will force the moon residents onto the ship anyway, as Milcon/Polcon need their hardy constitutions to help open up new planets and make way for Earth humans.
Regrettably the plot is far too complex for so short a book, although there is a style and beauty here which transcends the perhaps rushed story.
Structurally, the novel is weak, in that it seems to move forward without really knowing where it is going. There are interesting characters - such as the revolutionary Delph, and Tabiner, who, thanks to the effects of time dilation, has returned to Earth after a thousand years – who are never developed as well as they should be. Boldre himself is a fascinating and complex personality, and had the rest of the characters been drawn so well, this may have been a more important novel.
November 10, 2022
Complex story, but incoherently told, constantly shifting perspectives, author seemingly making the plot on the fly. Easily among the 10 worst SF books I have ever read, not for the subject or the ideas, but mainly the writing style.
March 27, 2024
I bought this book when I was a kid. It has really cool cover art - a busted up ship drifting in space.
There is no busted up ship drifting through space in this book.
The term "Starflight 3000" doesn't appear in the book. 3000 seems like just a random number like "Space Force 9000!"
This book is all over the place. The speaker shifts, the political "intrigue" comes and goes, the pacing is weird. I heard someone describe a book once saying "It is a terrible story but at least it is poorly told." That kind of feels like this.
But I need to be fair.
This book has so many different ideas going on. It is only 184 pages but there are probably 4 or 5 different things in this book that could have all been books unto themselves. It seems like the author just tried to cram so much and so many ideas together that it became a muddled mess.
This author really needed a good editor. (FYI, I found one typo and one incorrect word being used. Editors matter.)
This really should have been a short series of books that were better written.
There is no busted up ship drifting through space in this book.
The term "Starflight 3000" doesn't appear in the book. 3000 seems like just a random number like "Space Force 9000!"
This book is all over the place. The speaker shifts, the political "intrigue" comes and goes, the pacing is weird. I heard someone describe a book once saying "It is a terrible story but at least it is poorly told." That kind of feels like this.
But I need to be fair.
This book has so many different ideas going on. It is only 184 pages but there are probably 4 or 5 different things in this book that could have all been books unto themselves. It seems like the author just tried to cram so much and so many ideas together that it became a muddled mess.
This author really needed a good editor. (FYI, I found one typo and one incorrect word being used. Editors matter.)
This really should have been a short series of books that were better written.
February 16, 2010
I started recording the books I was reading while a sophomore in college. So many of them were science fiction that I went through the first few pages of this record without including all of the sf titles in GoodReads. It was embarrassing. While there is some excellent literature in the genre, most of it was mediocre, forgettable and forgotten.
Although my reading of sf has tapered off quite a lot since then, I still find these bursts of involvement with the literature while moving through the nineties. I read Mackleworth during one such period, a period corresponding to the beginning of summer and trips to the cabin in Michigan where I likely read the thing--quickly and with no lasting impression left.
Although my reading of sf has tapered off quite a lot since then, I still find these bursts of involvement with the literature while moving through the nineties. I read Mackleworth during one such period, a period corresponding to the beginning of summer and trips to the cabin in Michigan where I likely read the thing--quickly and with no lasting impression left.
March 1, 2015
1980 grade C
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May 2, 2019I have the german edition: Der Mond-Staat
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews