Our Discussion of Hull Zero Three

Last night, we met to share our thoughts on Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear.   We had a good discussion (as always) so I'll try to hit some of the highlights here:

• One of the first comments, by Hola, was that "It's just like Pandorum!"   Another person commented that no, it was more like the movie "Moon."
• Either way, Klaupacius said he thought of Mark Twain's comment about Wagner music being better than it sounded.  He said he found that if he took time off from reading the book, and then went back to it, that he couldn't keep track of the story and the characters.  He felt a bit irked at the book, and said he doesn't like it when he's forced to decode a story so much.   As he put it, "I was as confused as the characters felt."   He also said the book overall felt very grim, and other readers agreed with this.   Lastly, he said he felt like the author was showing off, rather than trying to entertain the reader.
• We had a bit of discussion as to whether the illustration in the book was helpful at all, with mixed reactions in the group.
• Mike felt the author was striving for a first-person experience, but got to page 70 and gave up.   He did, however, come back to the book and give it another try.  He said it worked better if he read more slowly, but it was still confusing.  While he started to enjoy the book after a while, he didn't find it a fun read.
• Burt Macklin, FBI said, "This is not a good book.   So much telling, not enough showing."  He noted that he didn't care about the characters, and felt no connection to the story.  He found it frustrating that the character would be saying, "I'm terrified," but it wouldn't be convincing.    Burt said of the author, "He didn't earn those adjectives!"
• Nathan was another reader who found the book too confusing; he put it down and never came back to it.   As he put it, "Yet another hallway, another creature you don't understand . . . "   Kelly was another reader who didn't finish the book, and, as she put it, felt like she shouldn't have to take notes when she's reading.   Theresa said that she ended the book with too many unanswered questions, a sentiment echoed by others in the group.  She mentioned that reading this book made her want to re-read Orphans of the Sky by Heinlein.
• Menolly said that she also found the bok confusing, although she liked that the system was biologically-based.  However, she felt that the descriptions were lacking.  For example, the "terrifying" creatures weren't detailed enough to make them terrifying, or there were just too many.  She felt she was not ultimately satisfied with what it all meant, if anything.    Hola, continuing on this thread, said, "I was not very happy with this book."   She agreed with several of the things that Burt Macklin, FBI found he didn't like about the book.
• We had some general discussion about Teacher and how he would have words come into his mind.   Some readers found this annoying, although Theresa said that she liked how, in the beginning of the story, that he dealt with the availability of language in his mind.  She said, "It's like he's malfunctioning and he knows it."    Menolly pointed out that since our brains are very associative, that this would make sense for this character.  Hola noted that she found it interesting to have a story where it was written without metaphors (at least, at first).
• Furry said that to her, the story was a small glimpse of something bigger.  She kind of liked the whole nihilistic feeling and the disorientation of the main character.   However, he didn't like his descriptions and found them hard to translate.
• Theresa said she kept feeling like it was trying to get metaphorical and philosophical and she wanted more of this.  As she said, this book is all about the questions, "Where have you been?  What have you learned?"   She liked what she called the "philosophical nuggets" in the book.
• Ed said he had read other books by this author, and had expected the disorientation.  He felt that the point here in this story was to stay disoriented  For example, when people are frightened, they don't usually take in small details of things.  
• For a few readers, they felt like there were some good concepts, but they never connected to the book.   Jen said that she read the whole thing, but felt detached from the whole thing, without any connection to the characters or the story.  Kelly said that since this is in first-person, we should feel like we're going through experiences with the main character , , , but she just didn't.   Burt Macklin, FBI said that he got frustrated by how the author would bring up things and then never come back to them again.  He said, "It's like he wrote down a plot summary and his publisher published it."   Other readers mentioned things that would be brought into the story and which they expected to come back to, and then never did.   The little girls were an element that many readers expected more from (like waiting for them to erupt into violence, or be revealed as being much more than they were).   As Ed said, "they were like Hogan's Heroes Germans."  The character of Tsinoy, however, seemed to resonate with readers.
• aNON said that to him, he kept feeling like this read like a quest game.   He said that about 100 pages near the end could have been the core story, although the book didn't work for him at either the beginning or the end.  
• Greg noted that he liked the book because the physics of the ship were very realistic, and this led to some discussion (and explanation) of this.

As you can see, we had a good discussion, even though many readers didn't like the book too much.   We always welcome more discussion, so please feel free to leave a comment!    We gave the book the codes HDS, MONS and QUE and the averaged-out rating was a 2.5