Borrowed Tides

Author: Paul Levinson

Pages: 258

Description

Aaron Schoenfeld has parlayed a Ph.D. in the philosophy of science and a sharp tongue into an improbable second career as director of a project to plan and execute the first interstellar voyage. The trip to Alpha Centauri will take many years and might end up being a one-way journey for the crew.

His old acquaintance Jack Lumet may be the unlikely source of an answer. An anthropologist obsessed with the myths of Native Americans, he once wrote a paper about Wise Oak, an Iroquois sachem who claimed to have ridden a cosmic version of the Hudson, a tidal river that flows both ways, to the stars and back.

In a world where money for space journeys is hard to come by, even a slightly mad theory that suggests a possible shortcut to the stars is an attractive possibility for the people who believe more in humanity's destiny among the stars than they do in safety considerations, minimal risk, or taking no for an answer.

Review

It has some interesting ideas but no depth. The characters seem interesting but we never get a look at their history. The plot twists are good but half of your questions are never fully resolved or when they are it seems like the author doesn't even understand what really happened.

My mom was reading another book by Paul Levinson and had to stop because there was no depth to the characters and it felt like a first writing attempt.

Unless your looking for a really shallow and mindless read I wouldn't recommend this one. There are so many other good books with good ideas that I'm sure someone else has done a better job with these particular ideas or will soon.

Score 5/10

© Copyright 2002 Adam Wendt. Last update: 6/2/2002; 10:42:17 PM.