In Lodestar, Flynn has very definitely moved from
Mariesa Van Huyten’s generation to the generation of the kids she and
Belinda Karr had helped in Firestar and Rogue
Star. Although many of
the characters are the same as in earlier books, Lodestar has a very different
feel to it as those once young characters have managed to establish themselves
and no longer are the children they once were.
This is epitomized by Jimmy Poole, once the world’s leading computer
cracker, now a wealthy and reasonably respected businessman.
The relationship between Mariesa Van Huyten and Roberta
Carson continues to be one of the most realistic relationships in recent
science fiction. The two
women’s lives are still intertwined and rife with a mixture of love, hurt,
reliance and hate which means they can never break completely apart from each
other, nor become friends or confidantes as was indicated might happen in Firestar.
Given the earlier novels’ preoccupation with asteroids
striking the earth, Lodestar is remarkably silent on the subject for
much of its length. However, by
removing Mariesa Van Huyten from center stage, Flynn is able to ignore many of
her concerns and focus on the hopes, dreams and fears of his younger
generation: Poole, Hobie, and the
even younger Jacinta.
Much of Lodestar revolves around Jimmy Poole and
the mysterious David Desherite. By
electing to focus on Poole, Flynn effectively moves the story away from the
realm of space exploration which occupied such a central position in Firestar
and Rogue Star, replacing it, instead with a computer-based future
which, while not quite cyberpunk, has a very different feel from the earlier
novels.
Flynn has a good ear for slang, and most of the terms his
characters use throughout the novel ring true.
They are used in such a context that their meanings are immediately
clear as well, in most cases, as their derivation.
Jacinta and her colleague at the Glenn Academy are,
it seems clear, going to play an increasingly greater role in future volumes
of Flynn’s series, which points out one of the weaknesses of Lodestar.
Whereas the earlier books had cliff-hangers, they also came to
reasonable conclusions. Lodestar
seems to be more of an interim book, setting up a situation which is
completely unresolved when the book ends.
The threads which Flynn does wrap up tend to be tied off in a quick,
almost off hand manner.
While Lodestar was as good a novel as Firestar
or Rogue Star, the nearly complete change of focus which Flynn
perpetrates tends to catch the reader off guard. Standing on its own,
without the rest of the series, Lodestar would be a good, although
unfinished story. Taken in light of the rest of the series, Lodestar
seems a trifle out of place.
