Nightshade

by Jack Butler

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871133156
• ISBN13: 9780871133151
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Poet Journeys To Mars

Jack Butler is probably most known for his contempory fiction and (perhaps to a lesser extent) his poetry. This is his first foray into Science Fiction (his later novel "Dreamer" may qualify if the definition is stretched a bit). While the transition could have been a little more graceful, the results are compelling.For starters, Butler paints the same kind of landscapes that Robert Heinlein does. You won't find a lot of exposition, the action comes at you fast, and the reader has to do some work keeping abreast of the slang of 22nd Century Mars. There's also a slight political undertone. Never pedantic, Our Author prefers to show situations that have resulted from the extremes of human nature and technology.Hellas is a Martian frontier town, a community living in one of Mars' 30 mile wide craters. The atmosphere being thin, an enormous tent keeps the air pressure at habitable levels. Within this settlement live the kind of folk one expects to see in any Martian Colony of the future: genetically engineered beasts, ranchers, enhanced people, and intelligent robots.The story (and I don't like giving stuff away), deals mostly with a war for independance from Earth. But focus is kept on our hero--a rancher turned leader of the cecessionists--who is about 400 years old.The book gets off to a bit of a slow start. Somewhere about a quarter of the way through--somewhere about the time you've figured out how this world works--the story sinks it's talons into you and takes you away. You're helpless. Nightshade is not without it's flaws, but I really enjoyed this book and would love to see it come back into print. In the meantime, see if you can find a copy somewhere.