Book Review: Star Bridge by Jack Williamson and James E. Gunn
It is considerable time into the future, and humanity has gone to the stars. At first they crawled out and scattered, because the lightspeed limit meant it took forever to get anywhere interesting and there was no way to establish meaningful ties between worlds. But then the golden-blooded people of Eron created the Tubes. The Tubes allow faster than light travel from one end to the other, a 300 light year distance traversed in only three hours. At last communication and trade between worlds was possible. With one hitch. All Tubes have one end on Eron, and so they first became wealthy middlemen and then an empire.
It’s proved impossible to duplicate the Tubes, so the empire of Eron has lasted a thousand years. Recently, the empire crushed the one free civilization in the Pleiades Cluster. Soldier of Fortune Alan Horn was hired by an unknown party to assassinate one of Eron’s Directors at a ceremony to be held some months hence on the backwater hunting preserve once known as Earth. Our story begins as Horn makes his way across the desert to Sunport, the former Denver.
Along the way, he runs into a jewel thief and con artist named Wu, who speaks in a peculiar old-fashioned way when threatened, and Wu’s alien companion Lil. Lil usually looks like a parrot, but that is by no means her true appearance. Wu knows a secret way into Sunport and reluctantly shows it to Horn.
Horn is able to complete his mission, but must now accomplish the even more difficult task of escape. This causes him to repeatedly encounter the lovely Wendre Kohlnar, another Director of Eron. All Tubes lead back to the imperial planet. It soon becomes apparent that in order to survive, Horn must destroy the empire itself!
This 1955 SF novel was begun by Jack Williamson, but after fifty pages of story and 150 pages of background notes, he hit writer’s block hard and called in James E. Gunn to turn it into a book.
Good: This is a hectic book, with Horn constantly in motion. The chapters are separated by segments of “history” that give background information. Thus things that the characters already know don’t have to be explained to them. There’s seldom a rest in the book, with the exception of a long chapter where Horn is physically unable to move at all, and thus is forced to think. Wu and Lil are an interesting pair of supporting characters with their own motivations and mysteries.
Less good: Wu embodies some 1950s ethnic stereotypes of Chinese people, despite this being well into the future and China itself no longer existing as a culture. Worse, Horn, despite being from nowhere near Earth, “gets” these stereotypes. Part of the “evidence” that Eron has reached the decadence part of being an empire is that its male citizens wear “effeminate” clothing. Wendre is basically a prize to be won by the best man, though she manages to use some soft power offscreen to support Horn’s actions.
The themes pull on the tension between individuals’ ability to make their own decisions and the inevitable tide of history due to aggregate actions. Did Horn ever really have another choice? Only Wu and Lil may ever know the truth from a longer perspective.
Content note: ethnic stereotypes, gender stereotypes, mild sexism.
This is an exciting, action-packed book with some interesting ideas but a bit dated in its attitudes. Recommended to science fiction action fans.
