Saturday, September 14, 2013

In the Time of Green Blimps -- Henry Melton

Henry Melton's Project Saga begin with Star Time, and it now has two branches with four novels in all.  Kingdom of the Hill Country and this one are set on earth.  Tales of the U'Tanse takes place on an alien planet.

In Star Time, Earth's technology is knocked out by a star's going supernova.  The current book is set 100 years in the future of that time, and technology is coming back on two fronts, the genetic and the mechanical.  So you get sentient blimps.  Airship fans should love this, as a major plot thread is set on one of the blimps.  What I liked best about it was the story of blimps going rogue, necessitating wild blimp roundups.

Another plot thread has to do with Samuel Bolls, a young man whose plan is to make it big in this future's version of YouTube.  (The technology of the Internet is much improved.)  A war begins between the green technology powers (Australia leads the way) and the mechanical techonology powers, which are discovering space travel.  It's not a pretty war, and as usual with wars it doesn't end well for some of the characters.

This is an engrossing installment in an ambitious series.  If you haven't gotten on board yet, this would be a good one to start with.

1 comment:

Fred Zackel said...

I have worried about sentient blimps for a long time, especially after I learned they spoke war-time German, i.e., "Zeppelin," obviously a code word for NSA-type espionage. I worry how they hover over golf & football events, spying upon and sapping the precious bodily fluids of our greatest atheletes.