Argonaut by Stanley Schmidt, Tor, $25.95, ISBN 0312877269 Reviewed by David Barrett
WALKING through a park, a man spots an unusual insect. He moves closer and it suddenly stings him between the eyes. He’s hit by an overwhelming rush of his most emotion-filled memories, so powerful that he blacks out – but not before grasping the insect in his hand. Later, in hospital he teams up with a young medical technician, and together they take the insect to an aged entomologist. Spotting metal flecks in the insect, she sends it to her grandson, a nanotech expert. By halfway through chapter four, the insect isn’t real, and it’s way ahead of human capability; it must be an alien spy device.
Argonauts begins with this intriguing tale of “First Contact”, one of the staples of science fiction. But the rest of the plot is slower. Our three characters become involved in the US government and military response to the perceived alien threat. “It’s just a small part of our larger mission to learn everything about the Universe.”
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This is a pleasant read, but it’s a very traditional novel, much in the style of Clifford D. Simak or, more recently, Robert Charles Wilson. But it doesn’t have Simak’s pastoral charm, or Wilson’s writing skill or ideas. This is surprising: author Stanley Schmidt has been the editor of Analog SF magazine since 1978.
