Prisoner's Hope

David Feintuch

New York: Warner, 1995. ISBN: 0-446-60098-9. Pp. 528.

Nick Seafort is back in command, but not for long. When he reaches the Hope Nation colony, he is forced on leave on account of the obvious psychological trauma his travails and self-recrimination have inflicted. He seeks solace by marrying the transpop Annie but her affair with another ex-trannie and Seafort’s inability to understand trannie custom leave him stranded yet again. Appointed to a makework assignment as a liaison officer with the planters on Hope Nation, Nick tries to fulfill the call of duty with a dogged determination that belies his bleak despair caused by him deliberately violating his sacred oath.

The novel next veers into Heinleinean territory with a rebellion erupting on the faraway settlement chaffing under the colonial rule of the United Nations: in a clear parallel of the American Revolution, he planters resent the burdensome regulation of the remote government that would not even allow their representatives a seat. So much tracks with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, of course. But in Feintuch’s universe, the God-ordained order re-asserts itself as the planters recoil from the chaos ushered in by the revolution at a time Hope Nation finds itself under relentless attack by the alien fish-shaped creatures who apparently home in on the N-waves generated by the fusion drives.

As the sole remaining representative of legitimate authority, Seafort is shanghaied yet again to lead a band of counter-revolutionaries as they reinstate lawful order despite many attempts to separate Seafort from his life. The aliens return with a vengeance, throwing stones at the army base and central town on the planet, wreaking havoc and causing (indirectly) immense personal loss. The only way to ease up the pressure of the invading aliens after the remnants of the defending fleet fuse for home requires Nick to commit an overt act of treason. He has to face the consequences of survival that may well be grimmer than perishing in the holocaust of a nuclear explosion.

This chapter in the Seafort saga follows the previous two rather closely in the central premise of the series: if anything can go wrong for Nick, it will, and then it will get worse. It’s as if at every turn Feintuch is thinking “what is the worse thing that can happen to this guy?” and then doubling it, at the very least. It is astounding that Nick survives despite the best efforts of rebels, aliens, and whatnot to cause his premature demise. He is his usual duty-bound impetuous and hot-headed self: once assured of his course, he never flinches no matter how much misery the course brings to him or others. And yet he is a normal human being, warts and all. He makes mistakes, he regrets them but usually finds himself unable to correct them without undermining his authority. People around him suffer terribly but they often see through his unyielding exterior and once they penetrate his motivation, the bond with him until death.

The characters are by now easily typified. First, there is the stern lieutenant (Tolliver) who will resent Nick but after a while will learn to admire him, as long as he can follow the somewhat devious ways of the Captain. Second, there is the great personal friend whom Nick occasionally savages but who will always provide the steady backup in a hitch. Unfortunately, Alexi gets amnesia after being blasted in a failed assassination attempt, leaving Nick without the shred of personal warmth he sorely needs. Third, there’s the eager middy who cannot do anything right but who learns a lot in Captain’s often rather brutal protection. Fourth, there’s the admiration of basically good people who come to know the Captain, rely on him, and trust him. Finally, there’s the unwilling recruit who, by the end, will be begging Nick to let him join the Navy. And of course, no matter how awful a break of regs Nick commits, we are sure that in the end something will come about that will ensure that he’s going to get the hero’s welcome home.

As a pastiche of characters, Prisoner’s Hope is a bit on the “we have seen all of this already” side. And yet, Feintuch’s bravura story-telling simply allows no pause in which to contemplate the sometimes palpable unreality surrounding some people and events. That Nick can be oblivious to his commanding skills, his leadership abilities, and the immense attraction of his personal devotion to the cause he considers right simply beggars imagination. No one is that stupid. But we’ll make allowances for the stress of loss, of betrayal, of illness, of shock, and all those nasty things that happen to him, and we’ll choose to believe that Nick is that way. And we’ll continue rooting for him.

He will do his duty and drag others to do theirs. Kicking and screaming, and sometimes shooting, they will follow and in the end he will turn out to have been right. Feintuch definitely oversimplifies things here to make the point stick (for example, Alexi regaining his memory in the end was a cowardly copt out that justified Nick’s rather uncaring flinging of his friend from one experience to the next; what if his memory had not come back?). Still, this is a work of fiction and by now Nick has become greater than life, no matter how much he might resent such a characterization himself. And now I can’t wait to read about his tour of duty as a commandant of Lunar Academy.

May 22, 2006