Dark Light by Ken MaCleod

I picked this one up at the library sale this spring. I understand now why it was on the sale pile. This was a slow slog through political commentary on a socialist system in the Universe. Russian politics can be tedious at best, but transfer them to space and a new planet and the story suddenly takes on the form of an afternoon nap.

To summerize greatly, Volkov and Matt are from a different time...old Earth. Somehow, in the distant past, they were granted longevity by the gods and now they will live forever. They have suddenly popped up on the planet Croatan with the ship Bright Star with a personal agenda - to start a revolution. They want answers, and they want answers from the gods. With the help of Salasso, the saur who pilots the ship (only saurs and krackens are allowed to be pilots) they have come to Croatan and the city of Rawliston to find help to make spacesuits to accomplish this quest.

They find the natives have the knowledge and capabilities to make very rudimentary spacesuits, they stir up a revolution in the name of progress. After a brief interlude to talk to the gods, in which they find out the gods are preparing various species for a future war, Matt eventually decides this is not in the natives best interest for a revolution and starts to work against Volkov. Yes. It is like that.

This story was fragmented, read a bit like a political history book, was reminiscent of Le Miserables only shorter (not that Le Miserables is a bad book), and really had very little appeal in the character department. I just never quite figured out who I should be rooting for - Matt? For standing up to the socialist revolutionary? Salasso? For standing up to the rest of the saurs and helping the humans obtain the freedom of space? For Lydia? The trader who loved Volkov and went against her clan’s wishes to help Matt and Volkov? For Gail and Stone? Two natives who got caught up in interstellar intrigue? Who? Who do I root for?

Bah. There are better things to read.