A friend of mine strongly recommended that I read the latest book in the Pournelle-verse. He actually did this a while ago, but I’ve not been reading much these days other than technical literature and what I can quickly read online. I’m too busy. I’d taken to writing to reduce stress, but while it works, there are days when I am too kaput to write and would like to enjoy someone else’s imaginary world. Given that I did the post 4000 on the Pournelle verse and Carlos said that Outies was a very good book. I thought that I ought to dive into that, like returning to an enjoyable restaurant that I used to visit for years. Except, now, the proprietor is the daughter of the owner I knew and there have been changes. For the most part, they are good ones.
Outies is set as a sequel to The Gripping Hand and The Mote in God’s Eye. It has a different flavour than those two works. The first was largely a POV from the aristocracy of the Empire of Man: Pournelle the Elder was probably the stronger voice in the setting and characters. The second was the POV of Bury, Renner and the kids of the aristocracy: Niven was a far stronger voice in this work and it had more akin to his works than the others in the Pournelleverse. Unfortunately, The Gripping Hand was an infuriating work. There was no Heinlein to write a novel length critique on it and it showed. A lot. Outies is a VERY different POV work and this is due to Jennifer Pournelle’s rather different experiences, as an officer and archaeologist in Iraq. Her POV characters are both academics and field personnel that are not exactly of the power structure. The glimpses of Rod Blaine et al are rather different than those in the first two books and there are realistic reasons for it and authorial ones.
Let me come out and say that despite the fact that Pournelle the Elder was one of those that helped found milsf as a genre, this book does not belong to that tradition. There are probably more commonalities with those that explore the great game between Britain and Russia on the frontier which have more in common with this work than milsf does. Likewise, if you are expecting lots of shiny $tech, this is not the place either: it makes a gracing at the end, but by and large its not important to the story. This story is about people. Be warned.
There is too much that is too important to the plot which would be far too easy to give away. The basic premise is that New Utah is being offered a place in the Empire of Man. It was offered one 21 years prior and it turned it down. Normally, this would be a disaster for a world, then being completely colonized by the Empire if it was a weak world like New Utah or being declared an Outie and all trade cut off. New Utah has an intermittent jump point and the Empire won’t be back in force for some time. When New Utah declines, they are declared Outies and trade cut off. However, the Empire is back and offering a chance again. This causes all sorts of hell to break loose. Ascension politics is something not exactly explored much before other than King David’s Spaceship. This is a very different take.
The world of New Utah was obviously deeply influenced by the author’s experiences in Iraq. While Muslims do have their place in the book, instead there is exploration of the factions between an extrapolated pair of religions: the Latter Day Saints and the Himmists. The latter you will recognize from the original book in the series. The former is more familiar. I normally approach authorial treatments of the LDS with dread: either they uber praise them or completely misconstrue the LDS. Caveat: I grew up Mormon, but have not been to church in a couple decades for my own reasons. However, Pournelle treats this with care. There are several LDS churches now and Dr Pournelle has written a nuanced view of them. Given this is over a millennium in the future, I can take misconstrued doctrine as acceptable. The Catholic Church of 1013 is not exactly the Catholic Church of 2013. I also liked that there were heroes and monsters and everything between, but for the most part, they were just plain human.
Of the characters, I rather liked the Librarian and Asach. I’ve known and in some ways been both of them. The scathing commentaries about HG had me in stitches: not because they were outright funny, but because I’d known my share of such people. One of the things that I really liked about Asach was, despite all the experience that this individual had, despite all that this person had seen, mistakes were still made based on preconceptions and assumptions. I really, really liked a very competent person could and would misunderstand despite the fact there was no deception, no hidden agendas. Laurel was not a bad character, but not as relatable for some reason. The hypercompetent are a bane of SF with unrealistic expectations of problem resolution. Its nice to see a more realistic take on the polymath than what I have in the past: Manfred Macx and Carlos Wu, I’m looking at you. Perhaps she was simply not given enough time on page for me to build up some understanding of her past her as an engine of the plot.
I did have an issue with the ending, a bit in certain regards, but it was not one that was out of place for the genre. Unfortunately, in a setting like this, I have an issue in some ways with the basic premise. In a current world of Digital Globe and Landsat and whatnot, I’m more than surprised that, well, anything would be left unfound on a world. We’re entering a world of cubesat sized spysats soon and given that the 2nd Empire of Man has at least 100 years on us…well…if you can accept that, then all else falls into place.
The book in general is good. The beginning a bit denser in the beginning, but once I was in, I was really in. The ending could use some shoring up, but I liked it. I’m intensely interested in a sequel. Whither New Utah under the Empire? Whither the Mote under the Empire? I sincerely hope Pournelle the Younger takes up the pen once more and should she, I’d be delighted to buy the book. I strongly recommend that you do, too. (ie: Go and buy it!)
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