Welcome to this stop in the
New Frontier blog tour, sponsored by Novel Publicity Book Tours!!
About the Book
New Frontier
Jeremy Lee
Trade Paperback, 286 pages
Neverland Publishing Company
November 12, 2013
Literary Fiction, Science Fiction
Book Synopsis: As a new era dawns for humanity, finally breaking the bonds that left us
tied to the Solar System, this giant leap is to be marred by greed and
erupting violence. The new frontier, ripe for colonization and
opportunity, is filled with the honest and ruthless alike. Two rival
corporations have all but supplanted nation-states, keeping governments
around only as a necessary fiction to pacify populations, as the realm
of business now reaches into politics, military, religion, and all other
aspects of human life. The frontier regions of space, barely able to
keep from slipping into total anarchy, are filled with new homesteaders,
miners, merchants, bandits, and scientific minds. When one company
gains the edge and is the first to crack an engine to bring the
Alcubierre formula into reality, and thus travel faster than the speed
of light, the rivalry between the two multi-national conglomerates is
taken to a dangerous new and martial level. The battle for profits in
the market place is now being waged by armies and fleets in space. The
Argos, adrift and crippled far from home, is the only hope for its
remaining crew. These survivors of a mysterious attack struggle to hold
their ship together and come to the rescue of homesteaders and
compatriots relying on them. Contrasting with the dubious motivations of
those in power, the crew of the Argos are people who crave adventure
and are above the miasma of greed that sends them their orders. As the
great battle breaks out at the moment that should have been humanity's
greatest triumph, the gallant and the selfish alike are forced to face
the best and worst of human civilization far from home and decide what
they truly believe in.
My Review
Science fiction gives a reader the fascinating opportunity of dealing not only with scientific and technological advances, but also with the timeless existential dilemmas faced by the human race -- extrapolated into a possible future.
Jeremy Lee's latest novel, New Frontier, is an excellent example of this. The ever-present themes of greed, violence, the lure of adventure, the relentless human need to create new technological breakthroughs, the coming-of-age passage into adulthood, the power of money to buy nearly everything, the boredom felt by those who live a dissolute life -- all these are dealt with in this novel, which is written in a prose style that often sweeps the reader along in its effortless flow.
The opening sentences of the first chapter are flawless in their scope and brilliance: "Space is a silent and vastly dead expanse, yet filled with marvels of life, twists of physics, furnaces of unimaginable fire, and wastelands of matter-shattering cold. There is no greater ocean for humanity to sail, no more perilous journey, and none more yearned for by generation upon generation. Tentative steps into the endless frontier inevitably are loosened into giant leaps, but adventure brings with it failures as often as glory." These words aptly express the feelings of those who are pulled by the lure of the unknown, risky as it might be to pursue. They were also written by a master prose stylist.
Lee's characters are embodiments of the themes he portrays in this book, and they are appropriately drawn from several different nationalities and ethnic groups. There's Davi Cardoso, the nearly incorrigible Brazilian playboy. There's Suresh Singh, the gentle, boyish scientist from India. Cameron Eyre, the idealistic Australian, is totally dedicated to his duty. Most of all, however, this novel is remarkable for its very strong, very memorable female characters. There's Shannon Drake, from England, who turns her back on love because of the allure of space travel. There's Wangari, the timid Kenyan mechanic-cum-spaceship engineer. "Danny" Morgan, an American, whose real first name is Danielle, gets away with making her own rules as she goes along. And then there's Rimiko Mamiya, the brilliant, as well as arrogant, Japanese surgeon.
All of the characters mentioned above are on the side of good, and are realistically depicted, with a mixture of strengths and weaknesses. The evil characters, in contrast, are more one-dimensional, more stereotyped. It's obvious that Lee feels no sympathy for them -- they are all depicted as self-serving, uncaring of the suffering they might cause to millions, since it's their ruthless ambition for power and profits that dominates their existence.
The book's main storyline is the launching of the very first spaceship that can reach speeds faster than the speed of light. This is due to the invention of what Lee calls "the Alcubierre Drive". There are other mechanisms aboard the Argos that hint at very advanced technology, such as the "anti-matter reactor", "matrix and positron conduits", and "the FTL drive". As I read, I was at times reminded of my favorite TV series -- "Star Trek" (the original version). The situations that the crew of the Argos had to deal with also reminded me of the series. However, Lee has created his own original SF universe here. The time period is never
mentioned, or even alluded to. From the technology involved, it might
be about 100 to 200 years in the future.
The novel's structure is a highly unusual one; Lee tells his story through a series of flashbacks, going back and forth between present time and the past. These flashbacks serve the purpose of giving the reader more information and insights into the events and characters of the novel, although I found them hard to get used to, at first. As I went further into the book, though, I could see that they did indeed serve a useful purpose.
For instance, Chapter One is titled, simply, "Now", and opens on the aftermath of the explosion that has crippled the Argos. Chapter Two is titled "Three Years Earlier", introducing one of the novel's villains, the coldly brutal assassin, Grover Grisham. Chapter Three is titled "Fifteen Years Earlier", and introduces another of the characters on the side of good -- the Mexican, Hector de Anza, one of the crew members of the Argos.
The rest of the novel is structured in this way. This type of thing is reminiscent of techniques long used in film and television, which have been influencing the writing of fiction for many years now. Mr. Lee certainly has made very effective use of them.
There were a couple of things I thought were drawbacks, although, as a whole, I did like the novel.
One of these has to do with the matter of a reader's all-important suspension of disbelief. There's an incident early in the book, which involves some of the characters breaking into the Louvre Museum. As part of their escapade, one of them defaces a painting -- Delacroix's "Death of Sardanapalus" -- with a pen, and later actually manages to topple the sculpture, "Winged Victory of Samothrace", from its high pedestal. It falls to the floor and shatters into many pieces.
I realize that the author was trying to make the reader feel rage and contempt for the perpetrator of these crimes. However, The Louvre Museum is one of the most important museums in the world. Surely such an important institution would have the most stringent security measures, especially in a future as technologically advanced as the one presented in this novel.
As for the toppling of the "Winged Victory of Samothrace", I don't see how one person, without the aid of any special equipment, could possibly move such a large statue, and one made of marble, at that. (See A Closer Look at the Winged Victory of Samothrace.)
Another aspect of the book that I'm not totally comfortable with is the author's portrayal of the hypocritical pastor, Reverend Higgle. This character is, at best, a cardboard figure, a totally stereotypical fundamentalist Christian preacher. Lee does portray a very positive Christian character -- Hector de Anza, so I would not say that he has an anti-Christian bias; instead, he seems to be satirizing televangelists, in particular. Still, I really think his implied criticism of all fundamentalist preachers is a sweeping generalization.
In spite of the above objections, I can honestly say that I have greatly enjoyed reading this novel! It's an ambitiously grand one, a tale of humanity's ultimate adventure, in the midst of a greedy, international war for profits, undertaken without regard to the cost in human lives. Its characters, both good and bad, prove that human nature is basically the same, in spite of great strides made in technology and science. In the final analysis, it's still the clash of ideologies that drives the course of human history.
In this novel, the great evil is what Lee himself terms "capitalist anarchy". I totally agree with him on this. In fact, I firmly believe that any extreme -- whether of the left or the right -- can really hurt any society based on democratic principles. Capitalism, when it runs amok, can be just as destructive of human hopes and aspirations as communism, and this is just as true in Lee's future society.
This novel raises some very thought-provoking questions, as great science fiction should, since this genre has always been primarily a literature of ideas. New Frontier is an excellent example of this tradition, and I recommend it to those avid SF fans who like such masters of the genre as Heinlein and Asimov!
MY RATING: 
Reviewer's Note
I would like to thank Mr. Lee
for providing a copy of this novel, in
return for an honest review.
I would also like to thank
Novel Publicity Tours for inviting me
to participate in this tour!
Jeremy Lee
About the Author
Jeremy Lee was born in Odessa, Texas, but grew up in New Mexico. Throughout his childhood, he was strongly influenced by his grandmother's love of history and his mother's love of reading, both of which he took up early in life. Inheriting a work ethic from his father which served him well in the manic world of theater, Jeremy started his professional career writing for the stage, first in Denver and then in small New York venues while attending the New York School for Film and Television. He currently lives once more in Denver, writing ferociously when he can't find an excuse to be in the middle of nowhere fishing or getting blissfully lost in a museum.
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