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Star Rigger #4
Star Rigger's Way
Gev Carlyle does not trust his companion. The other members of his crew are dead and he is left with only a suspicious alien for company. Together they must find a way to navigate through the Flux, an interstellar travel medium that depends on the convergence of the mental and physical worlds. Is he willing to sacrifice his individual mind and become one with this cat-like creature in order to survive?
214 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1978
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 5, 2023
Numbness spread through his body, stealing his hearing and touch. His eyesight darkened and collapsed. Then his senses sprang from his body like electrical fire and blossomed out of the starship and into space, into the rigger-net. Into the Flux. He stretched and looked around.
The view was an atmospheric panorama: the starship floated in a vast, luminous space. Sculpted lemon clouds drifted in the distance, and russet layers of smoke twisted outward to form a sea as broad and as deep as the entire arm of the galaxy. This was the “subjective sea,” interstellar space rendered as an airy red and orange-yellow watercolor, with sloping and intersecting layers, and rivers which ran and twisted at all angles. Some stars were visible, mostly as flecks of carbon dust adrift in the luminous space; however, a few stars and their associated nebulae stood out more clearly, as whorls or discontinuities in the flow of the sea.
OK, so that quote seems a bit self-indulgent, but it’s the author’s psychedelic vision of superluminal travel (driven by metaphor and imagination), that distinguishes these novels.
I haven’t been reading them in any specific order (either by publication date or chronology), but the ones that I have read I have enjoyed. Arguably though, this is the weakest one I have read so far (ironically, since I think it is the first one, or at least the one that introduced the Star Rigger universe and as such gets the most attention) (I think the one I have enjoyed most is Eternity's End, which is a significant step up).
The night after their landing, he stood outside and gazed up. The sky was dominated by the Wall of the Barrier Nebula—a broad, luminous plane that angled upward from the horizon and seemed to curve outward like a ribbon, away from the zenith. It was a gaseous-emission nebula, actually just one end of a nebula which reached far out into unexplored space. It glimmered with a pale cyan and red sheen, hovering like a ghostly stage curtain before the mysteries of the far regions of the galaxy. The dark track of a dust lane meandered across its face, obscuring a part of its glow; the dust lane extended beyond the far end of the Wall, smudging the view of stars there -- in Golen space.
If Golen space is where we’re going, he thought, we could slip right up alongside the Wall, straight as an arrow, and off. Off the Wall and straight into . . . the heart of madness.
It’s rather difficult to review this. The protagonist is pretty flawed, and comes across as irritating on occasion, but it is worth noting that this is by design. The riggers of these novels are not the most stable individuals, by their very nature. I will say this: this novel has a very good example of the old adage “be careful what you wish for, you just might get it”.
I really like Carver’s novels, and especially his John Bandicut / Chaos Chronicles books, but they are somewhat hard to find. As for Star Rigger’s Way? I am hovering somewhere between 3 and 3.5. Probably best to read this on mind altering drugs.
Floating against the jet blackness of space, they were figures of awesome and terrible appearance. They turned and stared at the approaching rigger-ship, their eyes a dark, simmering red.
The view was an atmospheric panorama: the starship floated in a vast, luminous space. Sculpted lemon clouds drifted in the distance, and russet layers of smoke twisted outward to form a sea as broad and as deep as the entire arm of the galaxy. This was the “subjective sea,” interstellar space rendered as an airy red and orange-yellow watercolor, with sloping and intersecting layers, and rivers which ran and twisted at all angles. Some stars were visible, mostly as flecks of carbon dust adrift in the luminous space; however, a few stars and their associated nebulae stood out more clearly, as whorls or discontinuities in the flow of the sea.
OK, so that quote seems a bit self-indulgent, but it’s the author’s psychedelic vision of superluminal travel (driven by metaphor and imagination), that distinguishes these novels.
I haven’t been reading them in any specific order (either by publication date or chronology), but the ones that I have read I have enjoyed. Arguably though, this is the weakest one I have read so far (ironically, since I think it is the first one, or at least the one that introduced the Star Rigger universe and as such gets the most attention) (I think the one I have enjoyed most is Eternity's End, which is a significant step up).
The night after their landing, he stood outside and gazed up. The sky was dominated by the Wall of the Barrier Nebula—a broad, luminous plane that angled upward from the horizon and seemed to curve outward like a ribbon, away from the zenith. It was a gaseous-emission nebula, actually just one end of a nebula which reached far out into unexplored space. It glimmered with a pale cyan and red sheen, hovering like a ghostly stage curtain before the mysteries of the far regions of the galaxy. The dark track of a dust lane meandered across its face, obscuring a part of its glow; the dust lane extended beyond the far end of the Wall, smudging the view of stars there -- in Golen space.
If Golen space is where we’re going, he thought, we could slip right up alongside the Wall, straight as an arrow, and off. Off the Wall and straight into . . . the heart of madness.
It’s rather difficult to review this. The protagonist is pretty flawed, and comes across as irritating on occasion, but it is worth noting that this is by design. The riggers of these novels are not the most stable individuals, by their very nature. I will say this: this novel has a very good example of the old adage “be careful what you wish for, you just might get it”.
I really like Carver’s novels, and especially his John Bandicut / Chaos Chronicles books, but they are somewhat hard to find. As for Star Rigger’s Way? I am hovering somewhere between 3 and 3.5. Probably best to read this on mind altering drugs.
Floating against the jet blackness of space, they were figures of awesome and terrible appearance. They turned and stared at the approaching rigger-ship, their eyes a dark, simmering red.
September 14, 2023
Well we're back on the scifi path now, which is a relief after the epic dragon fantasy of the previous book but I think it's all starting to get a bit too samey... we're clearly doing "Pets in Space" and bets are on for what the cutesy spacefaring companion will be in the next book.
I did enjoy this over all. I think the space pet in this one would have had more impact if it had arrived earlier in the series, but it was my favourite pet of the series based on its more developed personality.
Ummm. That's all I've got. If book three disappointed then book four should win you back.
I did enjoy this over all. I think the space pet in this one would have had more impact if it had arrived earlier in the series, but it was my favourite pet of the series based on its more developed personality.
Ummm. That's all I've got. If book three disappointed then book four should win you back.
February 8, 2022
Interstellar flight is achieved by navigating the mysterious Flux, where special humans can telepathically conjure up pathways of a familiar type (be they rivers, jungles, snow etc) and sense the obstacles that may endanger a ship in both Flux-space and normal space. When Carlyle’s crew was killed from a suspected Flux abscess while he was outside the Flux net he manages to limp the vessel to a star system with the aid of an alien he rescued, Cephean, and is rewarded with a newer but smaller ship. Carlyle however, has spent a long time as a star rigger in Flux and memories of his previous crew keep intruding in his navigational sphere and he decides to seek them out. He finds that their old ship has been sold and the three other crew members have gone separate ways, some into pirate areas. His search is not only dangerous but he must also discern fantasy contacts with them from real contacts - a problem made worse when he encounters creatures native to the Flux. While this book is certainly readable and painless, the protagonist is hardly a sympathetic character.
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June 10, 2026This review originally appeared on Off the Shelf.
For the past year or so, any time I travel down to Florida for work, one of my sci-fi enthusiast co-workers has gifted me some vintage sci-fi book or another. The first was the book we’ll be speaking of today: Jeffery A. Carver’s 1975 Star Rigger’s Way. I mostly enjoyed it! But the parts of it I didn’t enjoy were really bad! Star Rigger’s Way is a textbook mixed bag. Let’s dive in:
The world of Star Rigger’s Way is probably the most intriguing thing about it. In the setting, spaceships are piloted by “Riggers,” who do not control these spaceships as terrestrial pilots might fly a plane—as is often depicted in the genre. Instead, the Riggers navigate these ships via rigger-nets—a sort of virtual-reality system by which they steer the ship with their minds and emotions. We might see this as a sort of progenitor of ideas that would later be found in works like The Matrix and Neuromancer, or in the drift-compatibility of mech operators in Pacific Rim.
This neural-operation is necessary because, within the setting, ships do not just navigate through “normal space,” but an extradimensional “Flux” space akin to Star Wars, Cowboy Bebop, or Babylon 5’s hyperspace. But within the setting of Star Rigger, this Flux space is not as nondescript as in other stories. Here, the appearance of Flux space is determined by the minds of the riggers themselves. We get this description of starship-rigging at the beginning of the second chapter:
Our POV rigger in this story, Gev Carlyle, has this experience of the Flux in the opening chapter:
Gev calls this the “subjective sea,” “partly real and partly a creation of [his] imagination.” And it’s in these moments where the book is at its most interesting. The central conflict comes from what has occurred prior to the book’s opening pages. Gev was just one rigger amongst six aboard the Sedora, but an accident in Flux space killed off all the crew but him. And he’s picked up another stranded spacefarer in the form of the alien, feline-esque Cephean—a runaway who bit off more than he could chew whilst attempting to flee his home planet. The Sedora, meant for six riggers, cannot be safely piloted by one; so Gev must train Cephean, a stranger and an alien, to rig the ship with him. We are quickly informed of the dangers this poses.
Gev knows to get to a safe port, but doing so requires navigating the Hurricane Flume, a particularly tempestuous stretch of the Flux. With all this setup, and given how relatively thin the book was, I expected this would be the height of the third act, before the denouement. But, shockingly, Gev and Cephean navigate the Hurricane Flume in Chapter 4, leaving the remaining pages for the actual story: Gev trying to reconnect with his previous crew.
You see, Gev wasn’t really meant to be on the Sedora. He was crewed as an apprentice aboard a four-person starship called the Lady Brillig; but, for reasons not told until much later, the crew of the Brillig could not find a good sync with one another in the net. They were all good friends in normal space, but when they needed to connect to pilot the ship, things weren’t clicking. And so Gev was reassigned to the Sedora to better cut his teeth as a starship-rigger, to eventually return to the Brillig as a full-fledged member of the crew.
So then, upon finding safe port for the Sedora, Gev’s mission pivots. He needs to get back home, he needs to find his friends and rejoin the crew. None of this comes as easily as he would hope.
Throughout the rest of the planet-hopping story, we’re treated to a lot more fun descriptions of the Flux; but unfortunately, right in the middle of the story, Carver almost entirely derails the story with a misguided and unearned romance with the assistant of the Lady Brillig’s former owner. Look… I have never once felted tempted to include a sex scene in any of my written work, not for any particularly prudish reason but simply because I don’t really think I—me—could properly capture such an intimate moment in words. I feel like you either go one of two ways with it: impressionistic and focused on feeling and emotion, or literal and clinical and focused on mechanics. Carver seems to favor the latter, and let me tell you, it is not fun to read. It was so overly clinical that, in conjunction with the fact that it was clear this subplot served no other purpose than to introduce a surface-level conflict re: Gev’s brief romantic commitment to Janofer, one of his former Lady Brillig co-riggers, and the fact that the assistant with whom he has this new tryst seemed to exist—as Le Guin wrote of the works of Larry Niven—only “to say Oh? and Ooooh! to the clever and resourceful hero.” (The Language of the Night, pg. 93) I did not care for it, and I almost stopped reading the book because of it.
There was also—and this is super nitpicky—a moment near the end of the book where Gev answers a phone. Not a sci-fi, spacetech phone, just a phone. Like a normal landline. I’d hesitate to state affirmatively that such a detail is anachronistic to the setting, but it was definitely a moment of “Oh, yeah, this book is from the 70s.”
So, despite Carver’s best efforts, I kept reading, and the book does have a fairly satisfying, if not a bit obvious conclusion. Throughout the whole story, through all of Gev’s searching for his friends, Cephean, his alien-cat co-pilot sticks around. Maybe the real Star Rigger’s Way was the friends we made along the… way.
Additionally, learned from Goodreads that this is part of a longer Star Rigger series, so I might try to find one or two of the other books to see what else Carver does with this world. Because the world is interesting. But so help me, Jeffery; one more terribly conceived romantic entanglement and I’m done.
For the past year or so, any time I travel down to Florida for work, one of my sci-fi enthusiast co-workers has gifted me some vintage sci-fi book or another. The first was the book we’ll be speaking of today: Jeffery A. Carver’s 1975 Star Rigger’s Way. I mostly enjoyed it! But the parts of it I didn’t enjoy were really bad! Star Rigger’s Way is a textbook mixed bag. Let’s dive in:
The world of Star Rigger’s Way is probably the most intriguing thing about it. In the setting, spaceships are piloted by “Riggers,” who do not control these spaceships as terrestrial pilots might fly a plane—as is often depicted in the genre. Instead, the Riggers navigate these ships via rigger-nets—a sort of virtual-reality system by which they steer the ship with their minds and emotions. We might see this as a sort of progenitor of ideas that would later be found in works like The Matrix and Neuromancer, or in the drift-compatibility of mech operators in Pacific Rim.
This neural-operation is necessary because, within the setting, ships do not just navigate through “normal space,” but an extradimensional “Flux” space akin to Star Wars, Cowboy Bebop, or Babylon 5’s hyperspace. But within the setting of Star Rigger, this Flux space is not as nondescript as in other stories. Here, the appearance of Flux space is determined by the minds of the riggers themselves. We get this description of starship-rigging at the beginning of the second chapter:
Starship-rigging had been regarded… as clearly one of the most peculiarly demanding of professions. Piloting a starship involved a mastery of technology, of course; but more than that, it required curious aptitudes of personality, of emotional set. Star-rigging involved not only spaceflight but also the mastering of the Flux—that subjective realm underlying the normal-space of Prime Reality, a realm akin to but distinct from freewheeling fantasy, and as intricate as the mistily mapped waking dream.
Our POV rigger in this story, Gev Carlyle, has this experience of the Flux in the opening chapter:
…the starship floated in a vast, luminous space. Sculptured lemon clouds drifted in the distance, and russet layers of smoke twisted outwards to form a sea as board and as deep as the entire arm of the galaxy. …interstellar space rendered as an airy red and orange-yellow watercolor.
Gev calls this the “subjective sea,” “partly real and partly a creation of [his] imagination.” And it’s in these moments where the book is at its most interesting. The central conflict comes from what has occurred prior to the book’s opening pages. Gev was just one rigger amongst six aboard the Sedora, but an accident in Flux space killed off all the crew but him. And he’s picked up another stranded spacefarer in the form of the alien, feline-esque Cephean—a runaway who bit off more than he could chew whilst attempting to flee his home planet. The Sedora, meant for six riggers, cannot be safely piloted by one; so Gev must train Cephean, a stranger and an alien, to rig the ship with him. We are quickly informed of the dangers this poses.
…no two riggers viewed the Flux identically, teamwork in the net demanded a gestalt, a near-perfect intermixing of visions, perceptions, and intuitive judgements. Several riggers functioning as a gestalt could sail a ship smoothly and speedily between stars. But working at odds in the net, they could tear a ship apart and leave the pieces boring lifeless in the Flux.
Gev knows to get to a safe port, but doing so requires navigating the Hurricane Flume, a particularly tempestuous stretch of the Flux. With all this setup, and given how relatively thin the book was, I expected this would be the height of the third act, before the denouement. But, shockingly, Gev and Cephean navigate the Hurricane Flume in Chapter 4, leaving the remaining pages for the actual story: Gev trying to reconnect with his previous crew.
You see, Gev wasn’t really meant to be on the Sedora. He was crewed as an apprentice aboard a four-person starship called the Lady Brillig; but, for reasons not told until much later, the crew of the Brillig could not find a good sync with one another in the net. They were all good friends in normal space, but when they needed to connect to pilot the ship, things weren’t clicking. And so Gev was reassigned to the Sedora to better cut his teeth as a starship-rigger, to eventually return to the Brillig as a full-fledged member of the crew.
So then, upon finding safe port for the Sedora, Gev’s mission pivots. He needs to get back home, he needs to find his friends and rejoin the crew. None of this comes as easily as he would hope.
Throughout the rest of the planet-hopping story, we’re treated to a lot more fun descriptions of the Flux; but unfortunately, right in the middle of the story, Carver almost entirely derails the story with a misguided and unearned romance with the assistant of the Lady Brillig’s former owner. Look… I have never once felted tempted to include a sex scene in any of my written work, not for any particularly prudish reason but simply because I don’t really think I—me—could properly capture such an intimate moment in words. I feel like you either go one of two ways with it: impressionistic and focused on feeling and emotion, or literal and clinical and focused on mechanics. Carver seems to favor the latter, and let me tell you, it is not fun to read. It was so overly clinical that, in conjunction with the fact that it was clear this subplot served no other purpose than to introduce a surface-level conflict re: Gev’s brief romantic commitment to Janofer, one of his former Lady Brillig co-riggers, and the fact that the assistant with whom he has this new tryst seemed to exist—as Le Guin wrote of the works of Larry Niven—only “to say Oh? and Ooooh! to the clever and resourceful hero.” (The Language of the Night, pg. 93) I did not care for it, and I almost stopped reading the book because of it.
There was also—and this is super nitpicky—a moment near the end of the book where Gev answers a phone. Not a sci-fi, spacetech phone, just a phone. Like a normal landline. I’d hesitate to state affirmatively that such a detail is anachronistic to the setting, but it was definitely a moment of “Oh, yeah, this book is from the 70s.”
So, despite Carver’s best efforts, I kept reading, and the book does have a fairly satisfying, if not a bit obvious conclusion. Throughout the whole story, through all of Gev’s searching for his friends, Cephean, his alien-cat co-pilot sticks around. Maybe the real Star Rigger’s Way was the friends we made along the… way.
Additionally, learned from Goodreads that this is part of a longer Star Rigger series, so I might try to find one or two of the other books to see what else Carver does with this world. Because the world is interesting. But so help me, Jeffery; one more terribly conceived romantic entanglement and I’m done.
October 14, 2018
An interesting concept regarding space travel. I couldn't really relate to the whole "imagine the flux was like a river" thing but not a bad read nonetheless.
November 26, 2025
4/5 if you like psychic sci-fi. If yo don't like psychic sci-fi, your stars will be less.
The Goodreads' reviews here are quite insightful. What I can add is this is a 1975 book, same year as Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The Star Rigger premise--succinctly summarized in other reviews on this page--is analogous to the premise of Seagull. Both were published at a time when educator, John-Roger was popularizing the concept of "soul travel," which briefly is, a more spiritual form of astral travel starting with self-connection and you as simply awareness.
The other point I don't see in other reviews is the wonderful sex scenes. The two characters are right out of 1975. The woman is fabulous, emotionally mature, compassionate, empathetic calm and self-possessed in the best way possible (the best of women's lib in 1975). The male character is anxious, emotionally immature--and--unable to commit to a relationship--and how it could transform him for the better. This is exactly how it was for "soft New Age Men" prior to the success of the 1980s Men's Movement, led in part by poet Robert Bly (the best edition of his book, Iron John, is the abbreviated audio edition). Many men now in their 60s and 70s who turned out well spent years in mens groups in the 1980s-2000s. For better and worse, these two characters in their lovemaking play out the mismatch between healthy liberated women and unhealthy non-liberated men which was a hallmark of heterosexual relations in the US 1970-1985.
The Goodreads' reviews here are quite insightful. What I can add is this is a 1975 book, same year as Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The Star Rigger premise--succinctly summarized in other reviews on this page--is analogous to the premise of Seagull. Both were published at a time when educator, John-Roger was popularizing the concept of "soul travel," which briefly is, a more spiritual form of astral travel starting with self-connection and you as simply awareness.
The other point I don't see in other reviews is the wonderful sex scenes. The two characters are right out of 1975. The woman is fabulous, emotionally mature, compassionate, empathetic calm and self-possessed in the best way possible (the best of women's lib in 1975). The male character is anxious, emotionally immature--and--unable to commit to a relationship--and how it could transform him for the better. This is exactly how it was for "soft New Age Men" prior to the success of the 1980s Men's Movement, led in part by poet Robert Bly (the best edition of his book, Iron John, is the abbreviated audio edition). Many men now in their 60s and 70s who turned out well spent years in mens groups in the 1980s-2000s. For better and worse, these two characters in their lovemaking play out the mismatch between healthy liberated women and unhealthy non-liberated men which was a hallmark of heterosexual relations in the US 1970-1985.
April 27, 2026
An enjoyable, rather gentle Space Opera about not realising what you already have.
Interstellar travel is achieved by entering a sort of malleable hyperspace that only certain "specials" -read "social misfits"- can navigate (and if this wasn't an inspiration for Warhammer 40k's Warp I would be very surprised... though, admittedly, there is a decided lack of demons in the SRW version).
Gev Carlyle is hopelessly lost in nostalgia, and wants his old star rigger team and ship back together again. Instead he's left with a ship he hardly knows and an alien cat -accompanied by some cute mobile plantlife- that has other ideas about piloting.
Colourful, oozing sensuwunda, and ultimately satisfying (even if you do feel like giving Gev a serious talking to at times). I fully intend to read the others of this series.
Interstellar travel is achieved by entering a sort of malleable hyperspace that only certain "specials" -read "social misfits"- can navigate (and if this wasn't an inspiration for Warhammer 40k's Warp I would be very surprised... though, admittedly, there is a decided lack of demons in the SRW version).
Gev Carlyle is hopelessly lost in nostalgia, and wants his old star rigger team and ship back together again. Instead he's left with a ship he hardly knows and an alien cat -accompanied by some cute mobile plantlife- that has other ideas about piloting.
Colourful, oozing sensuwunda, and ultimately satisfying (even if you do feel like giving Gev a serious talking to at times). I fully intend to read the others of this series.
April 18, 2023
Rescued from somewhere within(I assume) the last ten years or so. This author is unknown to me though, as usual, I may have read some of his stuff way back in the 70's and don't remember. As for the rigging thing, so far it vaguely resembles stellar navigation stuff from "Dune," Gene Wolfe and Cordwainer Smith. And plenty of others, I'm sure.
Pretty good so far. Intense and well-written.
Now done as of a couple of days ago. I thought that this was a mostly unremarkable story, but not bad at all. The most objectionable part was the predictably squirm-inducing and gratuitous sex scene. Nipples should be kept out of sci-fi. The near-the-end developments were entirely predictable and point to the next installment in the series. The many scenes of gestalt-space travel were entertaining and likely partly inspired by "2001: A Space Odyssey".
- Cover artist Gary Viscupic looks up pretty well on-line, but no wiki page...
- "Sea-tarns" are mentioned as restaurant food. Huge "tarns" are bad guy alien monsters in "The Demon Breed" by James H. Schmitz.
- "Sarsoom"... Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Barsoom".
- Chewbacca and Han Solo = alien pals/pilots like Gev and Cephean.
- Glassfish = reminiscent of Dan Simmons' Hyperion series' huge/uber-powerful space entities.
3.25* rounds down to 3*.
Pretty good so far. Intense and well-written.
Now done as of a couple of days ago. I thought that this was a mostly unremarkable story, but not bad at all. The most objectionable part was the predictably squirm-inducing and gratuitous sex scene. Nipples should be kept out of sci-fi. The near-the-end developments were entirely predictable and point to the next installment in the series. The many scenes of gestalt-space travel were entertaining and likely partly inspired by "2001: A Space Odyssey".
- Cover artist Gary Viscupic looks up pretty well on-line, but no wiki page...
- "Sea-tarns" are mentioned as restaurant food. Huge "tarns" are bad guy alien monsters in "The Demon Breed" by James H. Schmitz.
- "Sarsoom"... Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Barsoom".
- Chewbacca and Han Solo = alien pals/pilots like Gev and Cephean.
- Glassfish = reminiscent of Dan Simmons' Hyperion series' huge/uber-powerful space entities.
3.25* rounds down to 3*.
March 29, 2025
Very cool writing over a pretty predictable premise. I was able to scope it out before 1/3 of the way through. That said, his writing is cool and I love the aliens and the adventures through the Flux, so it was still a fun read even if it's a bit simple.
February 10, 2020
This book is about a psychedelic spaceship pilot who befriends a giant space cat. What’s not to love?
January 28, 2025
I liked the idea of this, but I had a hard time getting into this and the characters definitely didn't do it any favors.
October 28, 2024
This was a very 70’s Sci-Fi full of psychedelic imagery and metaphysical nonsense, with mostly pedestrian writing and a ponderous, slow-moving story line that revolved around psychic contact and a “real, but fantasy” realm that operates - with a combo of psychic power and Lathe of Heaven principals - under the Universe. Or parallel. Or something like that. Yeah. And though the central concepts were actually quite novel, which is good, they were under explained and (seemingly) as absurd as they sound. Possibly they were better articulated in the earlier books in the series though I doubt it. But I kept with it because the main characters were interesting enough, as was the central dilemma, and when it was on Dry Land (or in real, but real, space), it was much more compelling. And it was not devoid of all prescience, science and technology-wise at least. And half-way through we get an unfortunate and unnecessary mini-romance which results in a few horridly written sex scenes (not that I’ve ever read a well written sex scene, but these were especially bad). So, it wasn’t as fun or sharp as the best of the pulpy stuff from the 50’s and 60’s, and not as deep or precise as an Arthur C. Clarke/Heinlein/Asimov/Le Guin type work. Basically, it reminded me of an early Roger Zelazny work, though with less charm. But it had its moments when it wasn’t focused on ill-defined, ridiculously abstract gobbledygook, and it ended very strong. 84/100
January 12, 2011
Lättläst halvbra SF finns det gott om, speciellt ifrån sent 70-tal. Carvers Star Rigger's Way faller rakt ner i den kategorin. Trots detta har boken sina poänger. Mest på grund av att berättelsen är så pass annorlunda ger den ett intryck av mystik, och lämnar efter sig den där känslan av att ändå vilja veta lite mer, att läsa lite mer...
"His rigger crewmates suddenly and horribly dead, Gev Carlyle is adrift in the Flux, the "subjective sea" that carries starships at faster-than-light speeds. His lone companion, and his only hope for survival, is a cantankerous castaway alien.
Only a compatible rigger team, their visions meshed in psychic unity, can safely harness the most turbulent currents of the Flux--and Carlyle's ship is being drawn inexorably toward a deadly maelstrom, the unthinkable stresses of the Hurricane Flume. For even a scant chance at survival, he needs the catlike alien's help. But the price for that help is a complete merging of minds and memories.
And Carlyle, at war with his own past, dreads that union more than death itself."
"His rigger crewmates suddenly and horribly dead, Gev Carlyle is adrift in the Flux, the "subjective sea" that carries starships at faster-than-light speeds. His lone companion, and his only hope for survival, is a cantankerous castaway alien.
Only a compatible rigger team, their visions meshed in psychic unity, can safely harness the most turbulent currents of the Flux--and Carlyle's ship is being drawn inexorably toward a deadly maelstrom, the unthinkable stresses of the Hurricane Flume. For even a scant chance at survival, he needs the catlike alien's help. But the price for that help is a complete merging of minds and memories.
And Carlyle, at war with his own past, dreads that union more than death itself."
January 9, 2016
Like nothing else!
Thanks to recent promotions, I've found my course set for "flux space," Carver's conception of faster-than-light space travel. It's poetic, hallucinogenic, visual and imaginative - I can't think of another series that presents the travel among stars in a similar way. As a fan of SF in general, and Space Opera in particular, I find this a refreshing change. It doesn't always work for me (maybe my imagination is lacking), but I really like it all the same; it does what science fiction is supposed to do - at least what I expect - stretch the imagination.
This book explores alienation, depression, loss and more. Paired with the well done (and reasonably priced) Audible version, it made for a very enjoyable and brisk adventure.
Thanks to recent promotions, I've found my course set for "flux space," Carver's conception of faster-than-light space travel. It's poetic, hallucinogenic, visual and imaginative - I can't think of another series that presents the travel among stars in a similar way. As a fan of SF in general, and Space Opera in particular, I find this a refreshing change. It doesn't always work for me (maybe my imagination is lacking), but I really like it all the same; it does what science fiction is supposed to do - at least what I expect - stretch the imagination.
This book explores alienation, depression, loss and more. Paired with the well done (and reasonably priced) Audible version, it made for a very enjoyable and brisk adventure.
February 17, 2015
Retroactive Review (11 Sep 2021): "Rigging" is a weird method of traveling Flux space (i.e. hyperspace) since pilots need to be "dreamers" and be able to visualize their routes. This was previously the only Star Rigger novel I'd read before, but after reading Seas of Ernathe and then reading this one, I grew really frustrated with the unlikable and frustrating protagonists. (This novel had a fun premise, though--two enemy aliens having to work together to "rig" their ships.)
March 17, 2015
I picked up a first edition at a used bookstore, based solely on the description and artwork. Had no clue it was the second in a series. In short, the book is bizarre, it's a very different take on sci-fi. And it's great. The characters are very different, and the book made me work to try and make sense out of their thoughts, speech, and actions. The writing is very visual, and made for a very fun read.
January 20, 2016
Star Rigger's Way is a unique look at faster-than-light technology wrapped up in a couple of overlapping adventures of the main character, Gev Carlyle. The Flux is a medium through which faster-than-light travel is possible, but only special pilots, Riggers, are capable of flying the ships that can travel through it. About half the book is spent describing the Flux landscape, and half describes Gev's planetary stories.
June 10, 2009
A forgettable science fiction novel, part of Carver's "Rigger Universe" series, a revised edition being issued in 1994.
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