Refugee

My last read left me excited to discover what other surprises awaited me amongst my Dad’s books.

I should have tempered my expectations.

I picked Refugee (Bio of a Space Tyrant #1), by Piers Anthony because it was first on the bookshelf.

I abandoned it after 53 pages. I couldn’t get past the writing.

It opens with an “editorial preface” presenting the series as the private papers of Hope Hubris, the Tyrant of Jupiter. Anthony sets lofty expectations for Hubris’s story.

He was, after all, the most remarkable figure of his generation, as even his enemies concede, and will no doubt be ranked with the other prime movers or disturbers of history, such as Alexander, Caesar, Attila, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Hitler and the like.

This bit hooked me, but things go downhill fast.

The plot is an allegory of Latin American refugees emigrating to America. Searching for a better life, young Hubris and his family abandon their home moon of Callisto and journey to Jupiter.

But the execution drags. Fifty-three pages in, they’re just leaving their house.

Anthony keeps pausing to world-build. We get lengthy explanations of gravity lenses, space colonization and Callisto’s class system. Though interesting, these digressions kill the story’s momentum.

Which brings me back to the writing.

Written in the first-person, it reads like the unedited, unrevised draft it purports to be. Consider lines like:

I sat up, my ear seeing red stars. For a moment I was disorganized, not doing more than hurting and watching.

And later, after detailing how the nations of Earth colonized the stars:

Oops—did I write that the Moslems of Earth took Neptune? I would have flunked that question on an exam! Already my school learning fades and becomes confused.

The “editorial preface” proves Anthony is capable of better prose, so there’s no excuse. I can only assume the fractured narrative, awkward phrasing, and long digressions are an exercise in style. Anthony’s version of method acting.

It may not be realistic for Hubris write like a professional, but it’s a necessity if I’m to read his story. Let alone commit to a multi-book series.