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Dykstra's War
by Jeffery D Kooistra
Review
by: Trey
Stone
I read
books from cover to cover. I watch movies from end to end,
even the credits. I have only walked out on one movie my entire
life, that being Hulk Hogan's "No Holds Barred". Man, what
a pizza shite. And I was seeing it for free, too, on an Army
base while in the field, without much else to do. I found
something, that is, staring at a lovely mechanic whose superior
posterior shaped her BDU britches in quite flattering ways.
But I took a chance when walking out of that movie. The alternative
would have been commiting the rest of that movie to my gray
matter. That was simply was unacceptable, especially without
a single set of breasts on display. Not counting the Hulkster's.
And that, folks, just ain't enough. ZEUS…
But that
movie was crap, the end. Our subject today, Dykstra's War
by Jeffery D Kooistra, isn't. And it is. It's wonderfully
flawed. But flawed, oh dear… The setting is the far future,
mankind is in space, in the solar system, and has been for
awhile. No contact with aliens…until now. A survey ship out
on the distant edge of the solar system was attacked by an
alien vessel. One crew member survived the encounter, and
came back to describe an apparently unprovoked attack, a bizarre
alien spacecraft, and an alien race quite different from any
others I have seen in science fiction. Called the Phinons,
after a long existing project seeking such phenomenon, they
defy easy categorization. They have skeletons made of organic
steel. They run when they take casualties, automatically.
And the survivor who encountered them, described them as lacking
in "souls". First warning bell.
We meet
James Christian Dykstra, a retired scientist now 126 years
old, whose theories have made possible reactionless ship drives,
artificial gravity and what not. And when these aliens show
up with unusual technology and weapons, he is drafted into
service to help figure out the crisis. He is all too ready
to do so, too. He organizes a project to help work the problem,
bringing in Samantha MacTavish, a brilliant geneticist who
lost her husband to the aliens, Arie Hague, another brilliant
physicist and idiot savante and System Patrol pilot, Robert
Nachtegall. Samantha is brilliant, bosomy and grief stricken.
Previously severely anti military, her grief makes her a willing
participant in developing a bio weapon against the Phinons.
Hague was a scientist who was in the employ of the other worlds
of the solar system, who was snatched in a System Patrol commando
raid, who seems content to just work on problems given him.
Robert is a military man seeking action, and he has his eye
on Samantha.
There
are some other interesting characters as well, but much of
the characterization seems kind of, earnest. The only bit
of real war angst and consideration of the larger issues comes
from Samantha, and she kicks that to the curb when the Phinons
kill off her husband. Dykstra seems to think about these issues,
but only as an abstract intellectual puzzle.
He has
plenty of puzzles, too. It seems that everyone is content
to bring their puzzles and problems to him, and he's nearly
always the man to solve it. Just let him go think for a bit,
and bang. Done.
Lot's
of Christian references here, too. Nothing wrong with that,
but those of non-Christian outlook seem to get short shrift.
Interesting view, considering all of humanity is at stake,
and Christianity is a minority religion. It is mine, but I
don't insist on it being the sole lense to examine reality.
And on
that matter, the characters, except for military reminiscing,
some romance and lust, are either waxing Christian theological,
or are thinking of how to wipe out the aliens. Yes, they have
attacked, and have continued to do so, and we are at war.
But there seems to be no true considering of the big picture
of what that means, beyond the military problem.
The Phinons,
on the other hand, are QUITE an interesting bunch. There is
their unique physiology, as mentioned before. They need two
to reproduce, but there are no identified genders. An infant
Phinon grows within one, and makes his way out when he's grown
enough. They have language. They have technology, including
FTL flight. But, it seems to be purely functional. They have
no apparent art, or culture. And all their tools and advancements
are mere reactions to environmental stimulus. When they talk,
it's merely to transmit information. They exist to survive,
and that's it. Interesting, such a race. When they first mentioned
the Phinons' lack of "souls", I feared they were going the
"aliens as demons" route, that is a crackpot theory among
some Christian Fundamentalists who believe in UFOs as real
phenomenon, but claim they aren't aliens, but demons. It's
true. But that wasn't the case, thank God.
Dykstra's
war has an old school pulp scifi feel, and is an earnest first
attempt from Mr Kooistra at a novel. But, in my opinion, he
let his own personal idealogical outlook color his work a
bit too much. If you are going to write about the cosmos,
much less humanity as a whole, allowing for something a bit
more cosmopolitan might be called for. It's ok to have some
of the characters going for their Bibles when they seek meditation,
but just about ALL of them? Interesting ideas, needs MUCH
work, but if ideas are your thing, and you like space opera,
this might be worth a peek.
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