Ace, Jan 2004, 5.99, 288 pp.
ISBN 0441011284
After the contact was made between the alien ship and the earth, the leaders of the world decided that even if the planet was invaded, mankind would survive. Huge spaceships, nine miles long and five miles wide, were built and sent into outer space looking for worlds outside the solar system that the inhabitants of Alpha can colonize. Over time, the good of the whole supplanted individuality.
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Most residents were fed psychotropic drugs to keep them docile and any deviation from what is considered normal behavior is swiftly dealt with. Even young children were indoctrinated from the time they were little. One day the scientists observe a blight in one of the agricultural pods and it is spreading to other pods. Unless a planet can be found that they can survive and thrive on, the residents of the starship will die in eighteen months.
Generations of suppressed rage led to the conspiracy concerning the food supply. People feel outraged that they were brainwashed and drugged into thinking along the party line. Once the food supply was destroyed, chaos became the norm except for those who were frantically trying to find a way out of the mess those in authority put them in.
STARSHIP is a fascinating novel that shows what living in a closed environment means. Kevin D. Randle is a natural storyteller who shows both sides of the issue leaving it to the reader to make up their minds if such extreme measures in relation to the residents were warranted.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner
