Exodus by Paul Chafe

2358 - Tuesday, 27 October 2009: Last night, just to be thorough, I collated my review of Paul Chafe’s Genesis. Starting Exodus (when I’m not reading Tuloriad) – it’s a few thousand years later and the society appears feudal/medieval with little or no awareness of their origin, beyond ritualized references.

2361 - Friday, 30 October 2009: About ¼ through Chafe’s Exodus, and if you ignore the previous volume it’s a relatively clean adventure/intrigue story so far. –One can continue nitpicking the science – how do you get a “morning” mist in an O’Neill cylinder with no day/night cycle? (Still can’t find the Genesis .PDF, can’t recall if there’s some mechanism in the ship’s design to create weather.) And how, even with an oppressive monotheistic monarchy, do you not advance past swords and arrows in 3,800 years? I can’t think of any human society, at or above the metalworking level, that’s lasted so long in recognizable form – there’s always some inventive iconoclast upsetting the applecart. Humans always bust loose! -Well, he is having a war....

...No gunpowder on Chafe’s Ark? There’s livestock, and KNO3 Happens (hah! Geek bumpersticker!), as does charcoal, but no sulfur deposits designed into the ship, hm. Heeeeeyyyyyy, waitaminnit.... That got me looking....

2364 - Monday, 2 November 2009: Continuing Chafe’s Exodus. After the overthrow of the state/church he jumps a couple thousand years to the turnover point in the boost profile, which freaks out the natives, then jumps another thousand. It’s still alarming that, after more than five thousand years, no one’s been iconoclastic enough to explore the thing and figure out where such-and-such comes from or goes to. Methinks Chafe grossly underestimates the inquisitiveness and inventiveness of humanity, though he does finally seem to be having a scientific renaissance aboard. And he finally addresses the issue of population growth.

2365 - Tuesday, 3 November 2009: Toward the end, Chafe’s Exodus picks up the action, notes the obvious where government handouts and government projects are concerned, and generally becomes more palatable... buuut he has this ever-repeating cycle of just-starting-to-get-out-from-under then some societal or environmental disaster strikes. If I wanted to read about "an iron boot, stomping on a human face, forever" I'd go back to S. M. Stirling. My rebuttal stands; there is a better way.

2366 - Wednesday, 4 November 2009: Finished Exodus, not a bad recovery from the first volume and I do find myself wanting to know what happens in the third.

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