Someone recommend this as a noirish SF novel:
Algis Budrys, ROGUE MOON (1959) (aka THE DEATH
MACHINE (2001);
Turned out I'd had a copy sitting in my to-be-read pillar for
about three years, so I got out it last month and read it. I
can see why it was suggested, but I found it only
middling.
It's the story of a project to investigate a strange object
found on the moon. (People get there and back by making
remote copies of their bodies, similar to Brin's KILN PEOPLE,
but their minds stay meshed.) The lunar object, left by
aliens, has been killing everyone who enters it, and the
Earthbound original people go mad. The lead scientist on the
project talks to his personnel man, who knows the perfect man
for the job, a death-defying adventurer who's flown planes,
dived deep under the sea, raced cars, and more. He's a
strange one, and so is his girlfriend. He can stand dying
over and over and still keep on trying to solve the
puzzle.
There's a weird relationship between these four people. They
test and push and grate on each other. It reminded me of a
David Goodis story that way. Much of the book is about death
and madness, and though it involves trips to the moon, it
feels very claustrophobic and constrained. I hope anyone
who's read it will speak up about why they like it, because I
never did get a real grip on it and I wouldn't rate it as
high as many people do.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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