A Million Open Doors

I just happened to read the book that follows this one, so for me, to read this book was to go backards in time, to see how Giraut and Margaret first met, to see his home world and her home world first hand, to see the merits and flaws of both characters and cultures and maybe gain more understanding of the universe John Barnes has designed. The book brings out the wonder and fear of contact, not between alien races, but human cultures. While the novel was published in 1992, it is very much a valid warning for today's readers. The world is much smaller than before, we can't stop that, but maybe we can limit the damage to ourselves, to our culture and to our souls.As for the story, once again, it was a wonderful ride. Seeming to go one way, it jerks off the rails and goes another, as if the very characters and the world in which Mr. Barnes has created had a life of its own. A surprise ending, yes, but also a realistic and even sad one.

Much has been made of the similarities between Heinlein and Barnes, at least it seems to me. Most copies of the paperback I've seen have some reviewer or other touting Barnes as the "new Heinlein" which I think can be misleading. Much of what Heinlein did was similar, granted, but Heinlein tended to take more of a . . . shall we say radical bent toward his topics, which put off more than one reader. The difference between Barnes and Heinlein is that while a typical Heinlein book had revolution plastered all over it (and at his best the man was good enough to keep it from being distracting), the work of John Barnes, and especially of A Million Open Doors is more of a quiet, understated revolution. Instead of hitting the reader over the head with it, Barnes takes us through the tale of a boy finally learning to be a man on a world totally unlike his own. In the process he shows us both worlds and shows us what is wrong with those worlds and why. In this way, I think Barnes can make readers think without forcing them to think, which seems more like Ursula K. Le Guin than Heinlein. Either way, from this book it's clear that Barnes, while maintaining some vestiges of both Heinlein and Le Guin, is quickly on his way to becoming neither of them, instead he is becoming the next John Barnes. That's revolution enough.

Although "Mother of Storms" and "Encounter with Tiber" are no doubt more popular, this book contains his most interesting characters. The main character begins as a dilettante whose only concerns are women, defending his ego, sharing a laugh with his friends, and sharpening his swordplay. Soon he is drawn into the real world, where his actions have permanent consequences and people depend on him for survival. Barnes made me care about Giraut and his friends. And, for a culture in which young women are treated as exhalted (but brainless) objects of chivalry, Barnes' female characters are strong, smart, and witty

This is the first sci fi book I've read probably since I was nine years old. One of the best things about it is Barnes doesn't hit you over the head with the technology existing several centuries in the future, he just throws in casual references to it and lets you figure it out. The subtle commentary present in the simmilarities and differences between the cultures described in A MILLION OPEN DOORS and ours is though-provoking, to say the least. The plot is not as tight toward the end and the romantic plot twists are marginal at best in their importance to the novel as a whole; however, these minor flaws don't take much away from the overall reading experience. I know this novel will appeal to sci fi virgins and I'll bet it will to hard core fans as well