22. Brian Aldiss, Starship

I picked up a hard cover first edition of this book at a used bookstore in Toronto for $7.95!  I think that that must be a hell of a deal and I can't believe that the owner of the bookstore would have this sitting in a general bin with a bunch of other, far less interesting, books.  This is the actual cover of the book.

This book is a precursor to Aldiss' other exploration of human mutation themed science fiction called Hothouse.  The story is set in a large spaceship which has been overrun by vegitation, called Ponics (short for hydroponics), which are plants that are super sensitive to light and grow rapdily when the lights are on and visibly wilt when the lights are off.  The spaceship is also populated by miniature humans (called dizzies), full sized humans (called giants), telepathic rats, and aliens (called outsiders).

30 generations ago the earth, facing severe over population and dwindling resources, decided to send a spaceship to a planet which was 11 light years away to start a new colony.  The space ship made the journey and dropped off the first set of colonists on the new planet.  Immediatly before departing for home, the ship's captain took on a fresh stock of water from the new planet.  This water contained a new amino acid, dubbed paynine, which cuased the fast growing Ponics and the death of the bulk of the ship's complement.  The paynine changed the metabolism and physiology of the surviors such that their bodies operated at four times the speed of regular humans.  As a result, the lifespan of these people was reduced to 20 years.

Soon after the departure from the new planet, the remaining crew became depressed, started shrugging off the authority of the captain, inventing strange religions based on the teaching of Jung and Freud, and, after the outbreak of the paynine related disease, mutinied against the captain.  The fast growing Ponics seperated the crew in different areas with minimal contact with one another resulting in the development of different tribes.

Roy Complain is a hunter in one such tribe which lives in an area called Quarters.  After he loses his wife in a hunting accident he sets off with four other men to find the control room of the ship.  The journey means that they have to leave Quarters which is at one end of the ship, travel through the Deadways, where a bunch of lawless brigands live, and end up in Forwards which, it turns out, is a much more organized, almost authoritarian tribe.  During the course of the journey they come accross the Giants and the telpathic rats and eventually figure out the secrets of the ship and try to devise a way to get back to earth.

[Spoiler Alert]

It turns out though that the ship has been orbiting the earth for many years and none of the people on the ship realized it because all of the port holes have been blocked off.  The ship made it back to earth orbit on schedule but the leadership on earth decided that they should not return to the planet because of the physiological changes to their bodies:  they were now much smaller than normal humans and they lived in something like dog years.  The giants on the ship were guards who had been placed there to monitor the ship's complements.

Just as in Hothouse, Aldiss tries to metaphorically deal with certain social issues.  In this instance he brings up themes associated with racism, freedom, religion, democracy, and lawlessness.  However, beyond bringing them up he doesn't really do much with them.  Perhaps that was his intention.

I found the first part of this book to be a little slow, the story becomes much more engaging in the second half of the book when Roy Complain is getting closer to Forwards and eventually make it into Forwards.  The most entertaining part of the book was the end which turns into an all out disorganized looting battle between the rats, the Giants and the dizzies.  It's a pretty good book but it is not great.