2009;
534 pages. New Author? : Yes. Genre : Science Fiction; Historical Fiction;
Biography, Time Travel. Overall Rating :
6½*/10.
Galileo Galilei. What a brilliant astronomer and physicist! I read about him back in high
school science class. He was born in
1564, and died in 1633. They called him
“the first scientist” because he relied strictly on making detailed
measurements concerning something, then developing conclusions and equations
from his data.
I
remember that he studied the speed and acceleration of things as they rolled
down an inclined plane. He also climbed
up in the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped objects from there to the ground,
carefully measuring how long they took to fall.
His conclusion was that objects always fell at the exact same speed,
regardless of their mass,
He
didn’t invent the telescope, but he greatly improved it, to the point of where
he could see the moons of Jupiter, and eventually plot their courses. He also studied sun spots and phases of our
moon. This eventually got him into
trouble with the Church, since he concluded that Copernicus was correct – the
Earth revolved around the Sun, not vice versa. This contradicted scripture, and we all know
God’s Word is infallible.
He was brought to trial by the Roman
Inquisition in 1633, and given a chance to recant his heretical views. But Galileo was a proud soul, and was
unrepentant. He was burned at the stake
in 1634.
But wait! I just read the
Wikipedia article on him, and his biography reads differently there. That’s impossible! I’m sure I’m right. Something’s changed!
I
wonder how that happened.
What’s To Like...
Galileo’s Dream
is Kim Stanley Robinson’s ambitious blending of science fiction into the biography
of Galileo Galilei. It starts at the
point where he discovers (or “invents” as he asserts) the telescope,
with some timely help from a mysterious stranger. Galileo becomes passionate about observing
the skies at night, which leads to some unexpected space traveling, followed by some head-butting with the Church.
I
liked the way Galileo is portrayed. Yes,
he is a brilliant polymath, but he is fully aware of this and full of
himself. He knows he’s smarter than
anyone around him, and assumes that he can boss them around, win all debates
with them, and subtly mock them without them being aware of it. He’s right about those first two, but
dangerously wrong about that last one.
To
a certain degree, this is “hard science fiction”; the mechanics of the time-traveling is
done quite innovatively via the use of syncopes.
Yeah, I had to look that word up too.
The fact that the aliens are from 3020 AD means Kim Stanley Robinson can
infuse quantum physics into the story.
So things like multiverses and the ten dimensions of time/space crop up. The biographical parts are well-researched; I
read Wikipedia’s page on Galileo after finishing the book and was surprised how
many of the story's details were historically accurate.
The storyline flip-flops between Galileo’s life on Earth and a crisis up
on Jupiter into which he’s drawn. The
aliens may be far more technologically advanced than us, but they suffer from
the same human foibles present in both our and Galileo’s time.
The text is a wordsmith’s delight.
A couple of the more prominent fancy words are given below, but there
were dozens more. If
you’re looking to expand your vocabulary, this book’s for you. Learning the nuances of déjà vu, presque vu, and jamais vu
was enlightening, as was attending a Jovian Carnivale with some Dionysians.
I
thought the ending was so-so, but that’s probably because I was already
familiar with Galileo’s life. The
final chapter deals with events going on a century after his death, and I
thought it was quite powerful. The
“Author’s Note” after that is well worth reading.
Kewlest New Word ...
Syncope (n.)
: a temporary loss of consciousness by a drop in blood pressure.
Others: prolepsis
(n.); analepsis
(n.); anno
mirabilis (n., phrase); ephemerides (n.,
plural).
Excerpts...
He had been so
sure that the tides on Earth were the result of the ocean sloshing around in
its basins of stone, shifting as the Earth both rotated and flew around the
sun, creating differential speeds. But
here they said it was not true. In that
case, what causes tides? The tug of
celestial bodies – but that was astrology all over again. And yet they seemed to be saying it was
so. Was astrology right, then, with its
celestial influences and its action at a distance, action without any
mechanical forces applied? He hated such
nonexplaining explanations. (loc. 2851)
“Galileo has
always had a remarkably strong sense of proleptic intuition. Indeed, when judged by that rubric, of
anticipating future developments, I’ve read commentaries that rate him as the
third smartest physicist of all time.”
“Third,” Galileo
scoffed. “Who are these supposed other
two?”
“The second was a
man named Einstein, the first a woman named Bao.”
“A woman?”
Galileo said.
Hera shot him a
look so full of contempt and pity, disgust and embarrassment that Galileo
cringed. (loc. 3055)
Kindle Details…
Galileo’s Dream sells for $4.99
at Amazon. Kim Stanley Robinson has a
couple dozen other e-books for your reading pleasure, all of them in the science
fiction genre, and ranging in price from $2.99 to $13.99.
“If I have seen less far than others … it is because I was standing
on the shoulders of dwarfs.” (loc.
2906 )
There
are some quibbles. There’s a lot of
cussing, and while I’m sure people in the 1600s swore just as much as we do
today, I didn’t feel it added to the story in any way.
The sci-fi-to-biography ratio is skewed heavily to the latter, so if
you’re in the mood for some epic science fiction, you may be disappointed with Galileo's Dream. There are a bunch of
historically real Italian characters to meet and greet, and it was quite the
challenge to remember who was doing what. In
fairness, I think Kim Stanley Robinson’s attention to historical accuracy at
times constrained what he could do with the storyline. A number of characters who really existed die at untimely
times.
Also,
the history-tampering ploy seemed obvious to me. It’s the same literary device as was used by
Jasper Fforde in The Eyre Affair. But to be fair, if I hadn’t read that Fforde novel, I’d be praising the way Galileo’s fate was handled here.
Last, and most importantly, the Jovian crisis is never tied up. We do get some hint at what's causing all the grief, but the conflict is still there by book's end. Still, if you think that 2001 - A Space Odyssey had a great ending, you'll probably like this one as well.
6½ Stars. Add 1 star if you have no idea who Jasper Fforde is.
Don’t let my quibbles deter you from reading Galileo’s
Dream. This was my first Kim
Stanley Robinson novel, and I have a couple others of his on my Kindle. They look like they’re straight-up science-fiction, so I’m looking forward to reading them.
No comments:
Post a Comment