Book details of 'Starswarm: A Jupiter Novel'

Title	Starswarm: A Jupiter Novel
Author(s)	Jerry Pournelle
ISBN	0312861834
Language	English
Publisher	Tor Books

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Starswarm: A Jupiter Novel':

Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
"Starswarm" is a book of juvenile science fiction. As can be expected, the plotting is fairly simplistic, the ending abrupt, and the characterizations pretty much glossed over. However, in the introduction, Pournelle notes, and attributes to Robert Heinlein, the idea that in juvenile fiction one can do more teaching than in adult fiction. The book postulates an ecology based around, and run by, intelligent entities formed of aggregate creatures. An interesting means of communication is proposed between individual creatures. (It makes sense in the case of those confined to lakes, but less so in the case of ocean based forms of the same ... species?) Environmentalism is a weak subsidiary theme. Some explanation of the complexity of ecological interactions is given, but a number of opportunities for fuller development are abandoned. Most of the plot turns on the existence of an artificially intelligent program, and on communications. In these areas, the book is extremely weak. First there is data security. The AI program has presumably been designed by a very able computer scientist. However, once running, it manages to evade detection for at least ten years. True, it is hiding in plain sight, as it were, masquerading as a virus protection program. (You don't update your antiviral in more than ten years?) Then again, having successfully hidden for ten years, the first time anyone suspects something is wrong, the program is identified almost instantly. There is a backup on earth, but in ten years the program has not managed either to penetrate security monitors (which it must have had access to at a fairly high level originally) not copied itself to other local machines as a backup or for greater protection against detection. Ultimately the detection is made because of a single transmission, picked out of what have to be an enormous number. While this detection is improbable in itself, there is no recognition of differences in bandwidth that could have allowed the transmission to be made with almost no chance of detection at all. Dealing with the alien entities is also problematic. While the entities have been under intense scrutiny for more than ten years, a chance observation of flashing lights not only reveals their nature, but also provides a translation of their language, all in one go. The aliens themselves are phenomenally intelligent, being able to dissect an object to the molecular level, understand its purpose, and replicate an improved version within hours. As everyone reading this series knows, it is unrealistic to expect technical accuracy from fictional works, let alone juvenile fiction. However, it seems that Heinlein and Pournelle's thesis is equally divorced from reality. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1999
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