Acts of Conscience

Starover

by William Barton

Gaetan du Cheyne was an ordinary and unambitious 26th-century orbital mechanic. Then a miraculous fluke of corporate power suddenly left him the sole owner of a faster-than-light starship, and Gaetan began to marvel on the wonders of the universe.

But those dreams die quickly as he sees for himself how man has destroyed the worlds he has touched. He witnesses the slaughter of intelligent alien life, the suppression of entire cultures. And he discovers that ancient beings of unimaginable power have decided to eradicate all of humankind.

Gaetan du Cheyne, an ordinary guy, a malcontent and misfit, is about to become the only man who can save the human race. But is it worth saving...?

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

386 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

William Renald Barton III (born September 28, 1950) is an American science fiction writer. In addition to his standalone novels, he is also known for collaborations with Michael Capobianco. Many of their novels deal with themes such as the Cold War, space travel, and space opera.

Barton also has written short stories that put an emphasis on sexuality and human morality in otherwise traditional science fiction. His short fiction has appeared in Asimov's and Sci Fiction, and has been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, the Sidewise Award, and the HOMer Award, and three of his novels (The Transmigration of Souls, Acts of Conscience, and When We Were Real) have been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a remarkably *intense* book. Barton says many readers think it's his best. It's about primitive native sentients on Green Heaven, a colony world, and about technological aliens out in the larger universe. And it's a big universe, with deep roots:

The StruldBugs. The Adversary Instrumentality. The Shock War, four hundred million years ago. “There has been a great and rancorous debate among my kind about what is appropriate information for release to your kind. The general consensus is that we wish you hadn’t come. We’ve been content, sitting home, these last four hundred million years,” the Kapellmeister said.

The protagonist is a starship mechanic, a moral, over-sexed and conflicted man. Through a fortunate stock speculation, he's bought a private FTL starship. As in a lot of Barton's work, there's more distasteful sexuality than I cared for, but well-worth putting up with for the rewards. A great and underrated novel. 4.5 stars.

[Cath Ennis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got this as part of a StoryBundle set. One of very, very few books (like, single figures) I've ever given up on partway through. Not a bad premise but it's boring, annoying, and full of typos to boot.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gaetan du Cheyne is going nowhere - spending his days as a mechanic and his off time drinking or having sex with any warm body he can. But his ship comes in (literally) when some stock he had blooms when the company discovers FTL and Gaetan buys a FTL ship - the Random Walk and travels to a nearby star system with hopes of doing some passenger and cargo trade. What he finds on Green Heaven shocks him. Small homunculi that look like children but emit pheromones that urge mammals around them to copulate with them, form part of an unlikely biological pairing with the native wolfen - sentient wolves, and a burgeoning illicit sex trade with humans has also formed. William Barton has given us a troubling book - it examines themes which may make people very uncomfortable, and it examines the role of humanity and its history when confronted with aliens with a much bigger agenda. Aliens that may have formed the voids in the Universe as a byproduct of a war millions of years ago. If you can stomach the discomfort this book is not without its moments although having a largely unlikeable and misogynistic protagonist doesn’t help.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's the glimmerings of some interesting ideas in the beginning about how an already spacefaring society might change when FTL drives first start appearing, and about what responsibilities we'd have for our intelligent tools and software agents. However, the protagonist is a cad who keeps thinking about who he is or isn't having sex with, and whether he can cajole or bribe sex from someone who repeatedly turns him down, and so forth. Who knows, maybe at the end of the story he has some epiphany about his behavior, and that maybe he should give women at least the same respect as his tools, but given that the forward has the author wondering if women can understand his work, I really doubt it. Anyway, not holding my breath past the 25% mark.

[Jrubino · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s serious hard science behind the science fiction. Sure, the usual hand-waving when it comes to FTL travel shows up, but Barton builds an interesting world.

However, all that is ruined by a doggedly sexist main character. Every female character he interacts with is reduced to some sort of sexual evaluation. Every single one.

I know it’s supposed to be his character … but it’s so tiresome. Dramatic developments shake up his world, but nope. Let’s spend the next few pages on whether she might sleep with him or not.

Short-sighted and boring, at best. I stopped halfway through.

[Michael Pritchett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a particular nice protagonist made reading this novel difficult. I felt little empathy for the characters. So what is left is the world building which was fine. In fact, it was better than typical, if only I was able to latch onto the stories and care about the plot.

[Steve Kinsman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe not a 4-star book for me overall but deserves something extra for its unique treatment of the protagonist. He thinks and does some quite repulsive things but manages to evoke some sympathy because of his past; quite disturbing really.

[Hugo · Rating 5 out of 5]

When a lowly space mechanic's luck comes in and he obtains one of the first FTL ships built by humanity, he's able to travel and take in exactly the sort of galaxy (with other sentient and alien races) his species has expanded into.

It's far too easy to clutch pearls about the protagonist's dubious character—in fact, he is a synecdoche of his race, an ailing empire repeating the mistakes of its past, and Barton is unafraid (clearly, according to many reviews) to extend his allegories and metaphors beyond comfortable bounds, tackling colonialism, racism, genocide, and personal and social morality honestly, thoughtfully, and meaningfully.

[Howard]

11

[Danya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thought provoking and mildly disturbing.