The novel “Starbound” by Joe Haldeman was published for the first time in 2010. It’s the sequel to “Marsbound“.
Some years after her first contact with aliens on Mars, Carmen Dula must undertake together with her husband Paul, a few other humans and two of the aliens encountered on Mars, a journey to the aliens’ home planet to try to reach an agreement with them.
Within a few years, humans have learned to use the seemingly unlimited energy source of the aliens though they don’t really understanding how it works. In this way they could set up the interstellar voyage to the planet of the Others. From the beginning, however, they all know that at their arrival they might be killed and anyway the fate of humanity might depend on what they’ll achieve.
“Starbound” starts with a brief summary of the events of “Marsbound” and what’s happened in the years following the end of the first novel. That means that in theory you can read “Starbound” without reading “Marsbound” but I think you’d lose too many details.
Carmen Dula is no longer the young girl arrived on Mars who by chance came into contact with a group of aliens who’ve been living on Mars for millennia. Over the years she got married, had two children and was put in charge of the most important mission in human history.
In fact, “Starbound” ended literally with a bang, or rather more than one. Humans in fact discovered that the Others came from the star system Wolf 25. One of them lived on Neptune’s satellite Triton but he blew it up after leaving it. One of the aliens on Mars received a message that triggered a powerful bomb inside him and only reacting swiftly flying away into space he prevented a potential catastrophe for humanity.
“Marsbound” was narrated in first person from Carmen’s point of view, “Starbound” instead is narrated in first person from the point of view of different characters. This may cause some confusion because in each chapter the perspective changes and the reader is forced to try to figure out which character’s become the narrator through indirect references.
The fact that one of the narrators is one of the aliens is helpful to know his species a little better even if the aliens living on Mars don’t really know the Others of Wolf 25 nor the one who lived on Triton. Much of the novel is actually based exactly on the unknown factor represented by the possible reactions of the Others at the arrival of the expedition from the solar system.
Unfortunately, much of “Starbound” is about the journey to Wolf 25 and the crew activities to spend their time. Joe Haldeman described interstellar journeys in some other of his novels and in this case I had the impression that he just put together some elements he already used in the past.
The result is that in particular the tale of the first part of the journey is a bit boring. Because it lasts a few years, it’s a good thing that the narrative sometimes jumps forward in time to finally get to the really important events.
Luckily, the second part of “Starbound” gets more interesting with the contact with the Others. In my opinion it would’ve been better to devote more space to this part of the story because Joe Haldeman tried to create aliens out of the classic clichés and an ambiguous relationship between the two species.
It’s clear that the intention was to write a novel of limited length by today’s standards but in my opinion focusing more on the relationship between the humans and the Others would’ve improved it.
Like “Marsbound”, “Starbound” has an ending that also lays the groundwork for the next novel, published in the U.S.A. last year. It’s a sudden end, which in the last page of the novel offers the last twist.
“Starbound” contains several elements, some positive and others negative. The result is a mixed bag that I think is altogether decent which can be of interest only for the readers who appreciated “Marsbound” and want to know how the story goes on.
