Teaser

Mutinies are rarely bloodless, but the madness that overtakes the Persephone is more violent than most. Yet while the men are space are aggressive, they are mice when compared to the Amazonian warriors of their destination . . .

Review

Everyone knows what a trope is. It’s an idea or motif that has been used so many times that it has been rendered predictable, perhaps even uninteresting. Stories are built on tropes. The fairy godmother. The hero. The brooding loner. Other worlds and rocket-ships to reach them. These ideas are so deeply ingrained in our fiction that we often don’t stop to question them. Science fiction, like any genre, has its own collection of tropes. One trope that has fallen out of favour is the idea of planets of warrior-women. You can see shades of it in Warhammer’s Sisters of Battle, but it’s something that was so rightfully scorned over the years that nobody uses it anymore. The odd thing is, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered it. Futurama, sure, but death by snu-snu was threatened by obvious parodies of an existing idea. Just where did all these Amazons come from? Not from Mutiny in Space, that’s for certain. The attitude with which Avram Davidson writes makes it quite clear that he is poking fun at an existing notion. It’s a satire of something I’ve never personally read. Small wonder, then, that the book falls flat.

Mutiny in Space gets off to a brilliant start. Davidson’s prose is a s quick and violent as the situation it describes. Immediately, I’m immersed in the aftermath of a mutiny. Not sure if anyone is really worth siding with, but happy to be along for the ride It’s exciting, it’s action-packed, and it’s very, very pulpy. there is a palpable sense of danger accompanying all the blood and guts spilling about the Persephone. There are points at which Davidson feels more like a literary author dabbling in science fiction than the reverse, but never to the extent that it pulled me out of the narrative. I recognised some of his allusions, but failed to grasp others, which is as it should be. For the first few chapters, I was having a great time.

And then the women turned up. Now, if there is one thing vintage science fiction could have used, it was more women. Just not like this. These women are all fearless warriors, and their menfolk are little more than boys. Clearly what they need is some strong spacemen to interbreed and build a functional society. The only reason I held out hope is because the idea is clearly a joke. Or rather, a satire. Because while satire is designed to make you think, there is precisely nothing in this book that amused me.

The problem is that once the Amazons are introduced, all the tension of the mutiny flies out the window. Aside from the odd reference, we’re just not doing that plotline anymore. No, we’d much rather speculate on a female-only society and start seducing our way to power. All done in the best possible taste, you understand, but I was finding it hard to read on account of my eyes having rolled all the way back into my head. As soon as this became a book about competition between the sexes, I lost all interest, and not even the strength of the writing could draw me back in for the remaining hundred pages.

Too often, books from the Pulp Era and the Golden Age show brilliant ideas, but suffer in the execution. Wonderful stories poorly written. Mutiny in Space may just be a rare example of the opposite. The writing is astounding, but the story itself fails to live up to that same high standard.

I’m given to understand that Davidson’s short fiction is better than this novel, and I’d be interested to try that theory for myself. Mutiny in Space, sad to say, has proven to be a bit of a dud.

Book Stats

• A Standalone Novel
• Published in 1964
• 159 pages