SF Reviews background image SF Reviews logo image
Contact SF Reviews   |   Get the Newsletter 

Biased and superficial Science Fiction reviews

           
     
Flare

Copyright 1992 by Roger Zelazny and Thomas T. Thomas

In Association with Amazon.com In Association with Amazon.co.uk
SOJALS rating:     
no SOJALS point no SOJALS point no SOJALS point no SOJALS point no SOJALS point    Unrated (0/5)

I first read this in 1994 and most recently on the 4th September 2005

A hundred years in our future, humankind has reached out across the solar system. They've had it easier than we would have expected although they're not aware why. For eighty years there have been no sunspots and no solar flares, not bursts of radiation shooting out of our Sun to play havoc with the electronics and the edges of atmospheres. But now sunspots are back with a vengeance and a enormous solar flare is exploding out from the Sun.

Thomas and Zelazny got together to write a book, with a terribly disappointing result. There's some good stuff in here. There are interesting characters, there's space travel, and even aliens, but is there actually a plot? Well, there is something of one, but it's scampered off into the background and is largely ignored. Instead all we get are these little vignettes of a whole host of characters that don't meld together. I can only guess that the book was intended to be somewhat longer, but they decided to cut it short and wind things up quickly. There's some nice writing in there. There's drama and there could almost be excitement, but it ends up stodgy and disconnected.

For a disaster novel it's a disaster. And remember, I love Zelazny's writing - "Lord Of Light" is my current No 1 all-time favourite SF novel.

Loaded on the 15th July 2006.
    
Cover of Flare
Cover art by Dean Morrissey

Reviews of other works by Frederik Pohl and Thomas T. Thomas:
Mars Plus

Reviews of other works by Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny:
Deus Irae

Reviews of other works by Roger Zelazny:
The Dream Master
Lord Of Light
This Immortal
Isle Of The Dead
Nine Prines In Amber
To Die In Italbar
Today We Choose Faces
Sign Of The Unicorn
Doorways In The Sand
The Hand Of Oberon
Roadmarks
The Last Defender Of Camelot
Madwand
The Changing Land
Dilvish, The Damned
Eye of Cat
Unicorn Variations
Trumps Of Doom
Blood Of Amber

Reviews of other works by Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold:
Donnerjack
Lord Demon