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This Week’s Book Review – Starborn and Godsons
The Galveston County Daily News has gone to a five-day publication schedule. They dropped all print-edition book reviews and told me they no longer wanted book reviews from me. This is one of two reviews submitted to them I wrote prior to being told this. There will be a separate post later about my continuing printing weekly reviews later.
Book Review
The Last Novel Jerry Pournelle Wrote Among His Best
By MARK LARDAS
May 3, 2020
“Starborn and Godsons: A Heorot Series Novel,” by Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, and Steven Barnes, Baen Books, 2020, 416 pages, $25.00 (Hardcover)
Jerry Pournelle was one of the great science fiction writers of the last 50 years. In 2015 he had a brain tumor removed, leaving him unable to write. He could plot and edit, but not write out the flow. To get him past this and Pournelle’s ensuing depression, two close friends and literary collaborators wrote a new novel with him. He plotted the story, they wrote it, and all three edited it.
“Starborn and Godsons: A Heorot Series Novel,” by Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes is the result. It is the last novel Pournelle wrote.
The story opens on Avalon, a planet settled by a slower-than-light colony ship. The colony was blighted by a carnivorous life form, known as grendels. These predators almost wiped out the human colony before being brought under control, destroying most of the colony’s technology base, and crippling it emotionally.
“Starborn and Godsons” begins a generation after the arrival on Avalon. The Earthborn, the original colonists from Earth, and settled the planet are old and dying off. The Starborn, born on Avalon are settling into a pastoral life, slowly forgetting their spacefaring roots.
Into the equation comes a new colony ship, populated by religious outcasts, who call themselves the Godsons. Their faith’s central tenant is that man is intended to colonized and rule the stars. Following patterns set in the Age of Exploration and American history, they built a starship, populated it with believers, and are on their way to achieving their dream.
What follows is a classic Pournelle story. Each group, Earnborn, Starborn, and Godsons have secrets they are keeping from the others, sometimes deliberately, at other times inadvertently. Each group is blinded to some extent, by their biases and beliefs. Each has something the other groups need but does not realize it.
Set in an exotic setting with intelligent alien life forms, the combinations of secrets and biases throw the groups into conflict. They become convinced the other groups are acting out of bad faith rather than ignorance. In the end “Starborn and Godsons” is a tale of the strengths and weaknesses of human societies.
Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, amateur historian, and model-maker, lives in League City. His website is marklardas.com.
Published in Literature
I notice Niven is listed on the cover, but you don’t mention him. Did he have nothing to do with it?
Accidentally left his name off.
Thanks for posting this – Jerry Pournelle was probably my favorite author (though there are 4-5 others who battle for the position). I used to have a pretty large Sci-Fi library with a large number of his books until my dad decided to clean out the attic at his house before the big retirement move, and I was living pretty far away so they were no more before I could retrieve them.
So, went to Baen books and bought the 9 ebook bundle of the CoDominium series and all 3 of the Heorot ebooks.
Got time to read, and something I can carry my library around in my pocket with. Life is good.
I was not aware of this third book in the Heorot Series. I really enjoyed the first two books and have re-read them recently. Thanks for posting this!
I’ve enjoyed all of the Niven/Pournelle collaborations.
I assumed there would never be another collaboration from these three authors. When I learned they had produced this last collaboration I had it downloaded and was listening to it within 10 minutes. The return to Avalon was just great. The story is great. The characterizations are superb. Just a lovely experience.
Thanks, @seawriter. Sorry about your newspaper column. You know your reviews are always welcome and looked forward to here! Keep them coming, and we’ll keep reading.
Thanks! I bought the first Heorot book when it came out and have been a big fan of all three of these writers for years. It is very pleasing to see that Pournelle was still able to contribute.