SF Signal: Commentary: Antagonist by Gordon R. Dickson & David W. Wixon

Commentary: Antagonist by Gordon R. Dickson & David W. Wixon

I've got a new one for the list of books I couldn't finish, hence this is a commentary instead of a review. I did feel it was important enough to write about though, so others would get an insight to this book before they pick it up.

Antagonist by Gordon R. Dickson & David W. Wixon. I just gave up on this book after 300 pages - less than 100 from the end I think. If you are a fan of Dickson's Childe Cycle and have enjoyed some of his excellent books like Dorsai! or The Final Encyclopedia then I think it is only natural that you would be drawn to this book. But let me stop you for second, I think you'll want to listen to this.

Gordon R. Dickson passed away in 2001, and his estate, along with the help of David Wixon, decided to finish off this 10-volume series began back in 1959 - no doubt to the pleasure of many fans. Wixon has used the notes Dickson left behind and fleshed out the story in a way that I'm sure the publishers were confident the fan base would enjoy. However something must have happened along the way - it seems somebody felt they needed this additional setup book that establishes Bleys as the big villain that Hal Mayne (the protagonist in the Childe Cycle) must finally face off against. Hence we have this book as a stepping stone to the end. Sadly, this effort comes off as a money-making enterprise only, with little in the way of effort to craft a meaningful book.

The jacket notes seem out of step with reality, they read:

Dickson's novels depicting the future of the human race has been one of the grand epics of science fiction. His assistant Wixon has brilliantly finished the long-awaited book, working from Dicksons' copious notes. "Antagonist" is a fitting capstone to an ambitious series.

With that you probably think this is the final book with a big conclusion, and that somehow Wixon has salvaged a near-completed book from the ashes. Nothing could be further from the truth. This book resolves nothing (despite not really reading the final pages, I did skim them and read the ending to make sure I wasn't missing something) and instead acts as a setup for a final book yet to come. And Wixon needs to go back and reread Dickson's earlier works and realize that he left out the sense of grandeur and personal style that Dickson had in spades. Wixon might have had a set of notes and back-story on Bleys, I now doubt it was ever intended to be a book, but there is no way it was close to a finished effort. Dickson's characters are here and the plot points are listed, but nothing else of Dickson's is in the book.

A 1/22/07 review by Publisher's Weekly states:

Gordon R. Dickson fans were used to years of anticipating each installment in the Childe Cycle, begun with Dorsai! in 1959, but they may not feel this latest volume, completed by Wixon after Dickson's death in 2001, is worth the 13-year wait. The "classic" space-opera vibe of the series is sliding rapidly toward "outdated," ...

In my opinion, this hits the nail right on the head. Avoid this one if you are a fan of the series - you won't miss a thing and instead can keep fond memories of Dickson's epic in your head rather than have it soured by this second-rate effort.