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Dark Wing
At a time when the practice of medicine has become illegal, Travis involves himself with helping Iron Phedon who, born on Alpha Centauri II, is being prosecuted by a corporation that wants to take over Earth
242 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1979
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 9, 2013
This is a childhood favorite, so you may not be able to trust my judgment; that said, like the other reviewer here, I still think it stands above most of the formulaic dystopians that are popular in young adult science fiction right now.
Travis has trained to become an off-world settler, but his parents refused him permission at the last minute to go. This is the only time his parents are ever mentioned, and I still find this aspect curious; not that he doesn't give them another thought, but that they had this much authority over him, because, as he explains to someone else, it's perfectly legal to run away. You'll even be supported in your independent lifestyle. You'll get your citizen's basic, which is a monthly allowance accredited to you by the government, and you can live in a youth den, where it's free to stay, and justice is dispensed independently. (In the den where Travis goes, someone kills another person and it's handled in-house with lots of debate.)
But the real underlying (and somewhat dubious, but go with it) premise for this world is that doctors are now illegal. The generally held philosophy is that people get sick because they subconsciously don't want to stay in the world; this gets extended even to accidents. It's all mentally based, and if you resort to medicine or surgery or some artificial means of restoring your health, instead of doing it through your own willpower, you're sneered upon. If you help someone else, you've just committed a crime.
Travis knows all this, but when he stumbles across an ancient, abandoned ambulance, he can't resist inhaling all the forbidden knowledge it contains. Soon he's unwittingly diagnosing people from visible symptoms, and this naturally leads into doctoring them -- because some people secretly are willing to pay for illegal help. Add in his friendship with an off-world boy who has run afoul of corporate machinations to take advantage of his ambassador parents' deaths, and Travis finds himself in heaps of trouble.
I'm still struggling to figure out what button exactly this book pushes for me. The writing can be awkward at times, and the plot can feel oddly segmented (at one point Travis changes his identity entirely). But I think it was the first YA-accessible piece of science fiction I encountered that convinced me of its portrayal of a society made foreign by time and shifting attitudes. The authors dance an interesting line between law and freedom -- the test to become a police cadet actually carries a significant risk of death, for example -- and they've thought through how basic living, entertainment, and even attitudes toward death would change, all very comprehensibly from a teenager's perspective.
And I like Travis's portrayal a lot. He has the right amount of earnestness and callousness you'd expect from a smart-but-not-always-wise adolescent, and at first his physicking is driven by curiosity more than philanthropy; and later, under duress. He's the type who might stiff a friend for a measly five-credit loan, but whose steadfast loyalty will lead him into a high-stakes demand for payment to help another friend who's at a dead end. I think I was particularly gratified to find a book that showed a young person as realistically capable, and which didn't try to hand me a dumbed-down plot. (How many YA books deal with corporate conspiracy as a side plot?)
I think it's worth hunting down this sadly out-of-print book if you'd like your science fiction a little less slick or histronic, a little more matter-of-fact. Surprisingly, the technology doesn't feel terribly out-of-date, either. And I'm pleased that I can still turn that last page with conflicting feelings of having reached a solid conclusion, yet wishing somehow that there was more.
Travis has trained to become an off-world settler, but his parents refused him permission at the last minute to go. This is the only time his parents are ever mentioned, and I still find this aspect curious; not that he doesn't give them another thought, but that they had this much authority over him, because, as he explains to someone else, it's perfectly legal to run away. You'll even be supported in your independent lifestyle. You'll get your citizen's basic, which is a monthly allowance accredited to you by the government, and you can live in a youth den, where it's free to stay, and justice is dispensed independently. (In the den where Travis goes, someone kills another person and it's handled in-house with lots of debate.)
But the real underlying (and somewhat dubious, but go with it) premise for this world is that doctors are now illegal. The generally held philosophy is that people get sick because they subconsciously don't want to stay in the world; this gets extended even to accidents. It's all mentally based, and if you resort to medicine or surgery or some artificial means of restoring your health, instead of doing it through your own willpower, you're sneered upon. If you help someone else, you've just committed a crime.
Travis knows all this, but when he stumbles across an ancient, abandoned ambulance, he can't resist inhaling all the forbidden knowledge it contains. Soon he's unwittingly diagnosing people from visible symptoms, and this naturally leads into doctoring them -- because some people secretly are willing to pay for illegal help. Add in his friendship with an off-world boy who has run afoul of corporate machinations to take advantage of his ambassador parents' deaths, and Travis finds himself in heaps of trouble.
I'm still struggling to figure out what button exactly this book pushes for me. The writing can be awkward at times, and the plot can feel oddly segmented (at one point Travis changes his identity entirely). But I think it was the first YA-accessible piece of science fiction I encountered that convinced me of its portrayal of a society made foreign by time and shifting attitudes. The authors dance an interesting line between law and freedom -- the test to become a police cadet actually carries a significant risk of death, for example -- and they've thought through how basic living, entertainment, and even attitudes toward death would change, all very comprehensibly from a teenager's perspective.
And I like Travis's portrayal a lot. He has the right amount of earnestness and callousness you'd expect from a smart-but-not-always-wise adolescent, and at first his physicking is driven by curiosity more than philanthropy; and later, under duress. He's the type who might stiff a friend for a measly five-credit loan, but whose steadfast loyalty will lead him into a high-stakes demand for payment to help another friend who's at a dead end. I think I was particularly gratified to find a book that showed a young person as realistically capable, and which didn't try to hand me a dumbed-down plot. (How many YA books deal with corporate conspiracy as a side plot?)
I think it's worth hunting down this sadly out-of-print book if you'd like your science fiction a little less slick or histronic, a little more matter-of-fact. Surprisingly, the technology doesn't feel terribly out-of-date, either. And I'm pleased that I can still turn that last page with conflicting feelings of having reached a solid conclusion, yet wishing somehow that there was more.
Want to Read
November 5, 2020Its not a review but more a comment it is so nice seeing people enjoyed my great uncles book he would have loved to see that people liked it sadly he passed away in 2017 and his wife my great aunt katy ( Kathleen) passed in 2019 its nice to see people are still reading it.
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November 9, 2011This is kind of a weird book. The main thrust of the plot seems to change several times. I'm still doubtful that a society would outlaw medicine. And the main character seems to leave his parents without ever looking back. But the premise and how it's executed are unusual enough for this to be a worthwhile read for people who are tired of cookie-cutter dystopias. (This is not a dystopia, but has similarities that may make it satisfying for fans of the genre.)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews