I know it’s become fashionable to say something or other is “chicken soup” for the “something or other” soul. I almost said that about Temporary Duty, then I realized it wasn’t true. Ric Locke’s book doesn’t heal you as such. Instead, it perks up your sense of wonder and sets you dreaming as you did when you were very young and had just discovered science fiction.
I first became aware of Ric Locke’s book, Temporary Duty, through a mention in Instapundit and I emailed Ric — I don’t even remember why. He sent me his book. I read it, thought “wow,” and set it aside.
Then I met Ric at Fencon, and he asked me for a blurb for TD. At which point I thought I might as well do a review. So – here’s the review which would fall under “pimping my friends” and might if I meet Ric a few more times. Right now, we’re just friendly acquaintances.
Ric Locke’s Temporary Duty is science fiction for the soul. Not that it’s in the slightest bit spiritual or about the supernatural.
It is about the first contact between an interstellar-faring species and humanity. The humans who get contacted are officialdom and eventually two low-ranking military men get assigned to serve in the alien ship, to prepare the ship for the detachment of troops who will go with the aliens on a voyage. (Here you must excuse me for using – I’m sure – all the wrong terms. I’m having trouble accessing notes on my kindle, and the reason I never write anything even vaguely military is that I make a salad of official designations.)
Through an intentional bureaucratic trick, the two end up staying aboard and visiting other worlds with the traders.
This is the barest of schematics for the novel, but Ric actually has a few surprises build in there that I don’t wish to give away. We’ll just say that reading the novel brought back the sense of wonder I thought had vanished from science fiction. It made me feel about 12 or maybe 13, in a good way. I felt the same wonder and amazement I used to feel while reading The Adventures of Captain Morgan.
To an extent, it is because it’s the same type of book. It taps into the “young man makes good” mythos going all the way to Babylonian legends.
In another way it’s a serious book of social analysis and critique, all of it wrapped in a bang up adventure. And I liked the way his aliens answered pervasive story telling like Star Trek. Let’s just say there is a reason that Temporary Duty is one of the finalists for the Prometheus Award.
All that said, let me say I know why it wasn’t bought by one of the major houses. The beginning is pure wonder and takes time to develop our understanding of the world, as the main characters learn the language, etc. A lot of the golden-age SF worked that way. The sense of wonder was built slowly, by layers, while the characters discovered things they didn’t know about themselves and their environment.
These days, story telling requires a gun held to the head of the character in the first page – metaphorically if not realistically. There has to be something hanging over your head. Or, of course, it has to be a long disquisition on post modern philosophy with the barest trappings of fiction. Thank heavens, Ric’s story is neither of these. And thank heavens we have indie publishing which allowed this story to be published and allowed me to read it.
Now, kindly, go and buy his book, so that he’ll feel inspired to write the second one. You see, he left a lot of puzzling hints, including an implication humans came from the stars (made me feel about 12 and reading Space Engineers) and I want him to write more about that universe and explain at least some of it.
So, go get it. You won’t regret it.
*crossposted at my blog According To Hoyt*
I bought it for my Kindle, and enjoyed it. It’s different than any military related SF I’ve read recently, I’d recommend giving it a shot if you enjoy using your imagination and think you’d enjoy hearing about Navy guys adapting to a very foreign setting.
I also bought Temporary Duty after Instapundit blurbed it. I found it outstanding, reminiscent of the early Heinlein. One strength is that the main characters are realistic enlisted men, not scientific supergeniuses. the depiction of US Navy culture is very accurate. the aliens are quite alien, and there are some great twists and turns.
Highly worth reading, and a real bargain on the Kindle.
I also got this on my kindle after the Instapundit blurb and i enjoyed it very much, the characters were believable the aliens were alien (a pleasent surprise) overall a good read I’m looking forward to the next in the series… i hope there IS a next one.
Thank you for remembering us SF nerds. I will definately look into getting it.
Also bought it based on this article. Yes, it does remind me of early Heinlein too. About a third of the way into it, enjoying it greatly.
I completely agree about the feelings this book evokes. It was just like reading Heinlein as a kid and I’m 46. I’ve already read it twice.
I read it when it first came out. I enjoyed it, but the Kindle version was full of typos, erroneous punctuation and formatting problems at the time.
I like the book, too, but it’s not a finalist for the Prometheus Award. It has been nominated, but the list of finalists has not been announced yet.
When was Temporary duty nominated for the Prometheus Award? I can’t find an announcement on the LFS website? (Did you just leak this year’s nominees?)
I read it and really enjoyed it with one minor caveat – (POSSIBLE SPOILER??):
Almost all the officers and senior non-coms are presented as wildly unlikeable, martinets, stupid and/or lazy. It felt like ax-grinding. I’d love for some enlisted types to tell me it has ever been so, but it begged belief that the officers/non-comms would be so uniformly bad.
I served 15 years in a joint service command with many Naval officers and senior enlisted. Unfortunately, Mr Locke’s portrayal of the officers and the Master Chief is right on the money. There was only one in the entire group of Naval officers I knew with who I would ever wish to serve again. Bolton’s persona tracks perfectly well with several Commanders (the rank) that I knew too well.
Ditto for downloading it to my Kindle after Instapundit’s blurb. The story is a fun read. So fun I read it again recently! The interactions of enlisted and officers and officious government bureaucrats are realistic and kept the story interesting. If you don’t have this story, get it. And I hope there will be a sequel.
Halfway through, I also find this book very charming. I have a few quibbles — I’d love to have seen the initial contact phase, but that is passed over; the aliens, to my taste, seem far too humanoid (and that coincidence is unremarked upon this far through the book); the protagonists’ socio-political views are pretty much in line with the Occupy movement. That said, I love how this story is told through the judgments and views of two ordinary Navy technicians — the result is delighting. And yes, the tale has a certain Heinlein-like smoothness — a terrific and difficult thing to accomplish.
Yeah, I’m another who bought it for my Kindle following mention on Instapundit. It did have a different take on things than a lot of military S.F. I wouldn’t nominate it for the Nobel Prize for Literature (in the first place it is much too libertarian to have a prayer in that contest anyway) but it certainly is a good read. You can count me among the crowd waiting for a sequel. I’d certainly buy one (or any other book Mr. Locke should happen to publish next).
I bought it for my Kindle several months ago after Insty’s blurb. Fun read, looking forward to more.
I’m surprised that no one has already commented that, in the first few paragraphs, there is mention of a warship named after Barack Obama. Kinda puts a Conservative reader already offended by real-life naval vessels being named for labor activists and still-living legislators off the reading mood. =>[.]<=