In TGATSE, the number is considered to be too large to extract the message from, which isn't entirely true, because it has very few small prime numbers. I felt that the chapters with the astronauts on the planets dragged a bit.Īs another reader has pointed out, this is an expansion of Pohl's short story "The Gold At The Starbow's End", and revisits one of the details that he covered then, namely the Gödelized message. We find out early on that the planet that the astronauts are sent to doesn't exist. He doesn't save the surprise until the end of the book. Despite this, I will most certainly return to Mr.
The only other fault I found was that, given how unpredictable so many of the story's twists and turns were, I was able to anticipate the ending in effect, if not in detail. None of the information is irrelevant, but there's just an awful lot of it to reason through and ponder, and at times it can be a challenge. His writing is remarkably economical in a certain sense, but can be overly dense in detail and information. The story continually veered off in unexpected directions and, if anything, Pohl is imaginative to a fault. What I find most remarkable about Pohl are the capriciousness and boundlessness of his imagination. This understated humor comes out in other ways too, particularly in Pohl's ability to push his subjects just over the top, but not too far over. I suspect that some of his more insensitive descriptions of the dystopian future in which his story is set are (mostly) good-natured jabs at the proclivities of Heinlein and his ilk. However, Pohl possesses a quite subtle sense of humor which takes some time to confirm. Not in the conventional sense.)ĭue to the era in which it was written (having been published in 1982), there are elements to the story, here and there, which might not seem particularly "PC" from a 2012 perspective.
(However, it should be also be noted that there are no real heroes or villains in this story. This seemed an odd choice so early on, but it turns out that the character is hardly portrayed in a sympathetic light, and this opening reflection of the character's inner dialogue comes into focus, after the fact, as irony. von Knefhausen is introduced in a manner which seems dismissive of his past as a Nazi Youth. To take just one example, in the opening pages, the character of Dr. Indeed, several things about "Starburst" put me off, initially. I tend to be a harsh critic, so when approaching an unknown author, I brace for the worst. This was the first novel I've read by Frederik Pohl, and despite my early skepticism, he won me over in the end.
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