FIRESTAR

Reviewed 10/11/2012

Firestar, by Michael Flynn
Cover art by Vincent D. Fate (per the ISFDB)
FIRESTAR
Michael Flynn
New York: TOR, March 1997 (May 1996)

Rating:

5.0

High

ISBN 0-812-53006-3 885pp. SC $6.99

The tale revolves around one Mariesa van Huyten and her plan to save the world through education, delivered via corporate entities (the public school system having become a lost cause, though apparently not acknowledged as such.) This is not just abstract high-mindedness on her part; there is a very specific thing from which she wants to save it. That being the case, education is not the sum total of her method; but it is a critical component.1

In a Prologue, Flynn shows us the seminal event which, on 10 August 1972, sets Mariesa on her lifelong mission. He also uses this Prologue to establish his chops as an author who does not shy away from crude language. That's good, because this type of language is necessary to honestly depict some of the characters that appear later — and also to underscore their transformation, because they stop using it.

"She could remember that day, every detail of it. Sometimes she could even remember the naive, young girl she had been and feel that first moment of certainty and purpose blossoming within her like a flower of flame. And she wondered, staring into the mirror at the woman she had become: How would her life have changed—how would the world's life have changed—had she let Wayne fuck her brains out on the boat on the lake on that day?"

– Page 6

The beginning of the story proper has Mariesa, now (in 1999) grown and the owner of Mentor Institute (one of many enterprises comprising VHI (van Huyten Industries, of which she is chairman2), formally presenting Mentor's takeover terms to the principal of Witherspoon High School. The corporation is, in essence, staging hostile takeovers of public schools in order to run them its way: by definition the way that will really teach kids the skills they, VHI and the nation need. The scene has all the expected props, including kids lounging around the entrance wearing Goth clothing and defiant attitudes, some smoking. One of them even propositions Mariesa, but her hunky limousine driver advises him to forget it. (Like Spenser for Hire's Hawk, he's real good at advisin'.)

Later that year, Mariesa puts on a wig and a cheap dress and goes incognito to Mentor's introduction of its methods at another school, mingling with the teachers as they grouse and speculate about the changes coming. This sets up the basic conflict of the novel.

"So, schoolteachers are going to save us from the Apocalypse. . ." Gwen Glendower leaned between Barry and Mariesa to set her now-empty glass on one of the small hotel tables nearby. "How?"

"Oh, it's simple," the bald man said mildly. "First, we duck into a nearby phone booth. . . "

"No," said Mariesa. "It's because you will touch a student. Someone. somewhere. And she will mature into the scientist or the engineer or the doctor who finds the solution."

"Bread upon the waters," said Gwen.

"More like a trail of bread crumbs in the forest," said Barry. Mariesa looked at him.

"Meaning. . . ?"

Barry shrugged, remembering the drink in his left hand in time to keep it from spilling. "Well, we can toss out seeds of knowledge and hope that one or two sprout. Or we can lay them down in a way that will lead the kids toward some goal."

"Education," said Bernie. "E ducere is Latin for 'to lead out'."

The young woman in the sweater said, "That sounds more like indoctrination than education. Engineers, scientists, doctors. . . . We need people who can feel more than people who can think. Who decides what the goals are supposed to be?"

"From now on," said Barry with a shake of the head, "it will be corporate managers."

"Is that worse than politicians and pressure groups?" asked Mariesa.

Barry shook his head. "The profit motive is as out of place in a schoolroom as a catcher's mitt on a surgeon. Education deals in intangibles, in things that never show up on an accountant's bottom line. Mentor will be lumped in there with steel and chemicals and—Lord knows what all is in the VHI corporate egg basket. Decisions will be made so far up the totem pole that they can't see children, only dollars. There will be constant pressure to cut budgets and do without necessary supplies."

Gwen cocked a smile. "Sure. Not like the cornucopia we were getting from the county freeholders."

Barry laughed, too. "I guess you're right. But corporate droids are control freaks. They won't tolerate free spirits."

Mariesa said, "But Dr. Karr explained that each school will be led by the teachers themselves—"

"By an elite group of teachers," said the young woman.

"—by the 'principal' teachers, like a law firm or an architectural partnership."

"Like any professional practice," agreed Gwen. "We call ourselves professionals; we should act like professionals. This takeover may be worthwhile if we can focus on teaching again."

– Pages 23-24

There it is in a nutshell. The conflict is between teachers who want students to feel and those who want them to think; those who hold that the purpose of education is to impart knowledge and skills, versus developing students' self esteem. This is made crystal clear on page 26, where the young woman (her name is Dottie3) proclaims, "I want to be real in class and be a human being. And I want my students to know that they are free to be themselves and I'll listen to them. I want every one of them to have a chance to express himself or herself. Those are my priorities."

When this attitude comes to mean that rules — whether standards of behavior, dress codes, or the rules of logic and grammar — are optional a priori, there can be no education; the only thing most students will pick up is street smarts. The irony is that Mariesa, and people like her, provide the real self-esteem; for while they respect students for who they are, they also require some understanding of the real world where tough problems crop up and skills beyond charm or bravado are needed to solve them.

Science!

Michael Flynn has in this tale a number of science-fiction developments. Most are solidly based in today's science; a few are farther out.

Though it opens with a focus on education, the story soon brings in another element of Mariesa's plan: space travel. Down in Brazil, she has set up the Daedalus Corporation which has a private launch complex where SSTO (single stage to orbit) vehicles made by another VHI division are being methodically tested. We are introduced to this in the person of Ned DuBois, washed-out test pilot from Lockheed's X-33 program. (Flynn sweetens that history: the X-33 never flew.) A man from Daedalus tracks Ned down in a bar on the Galveston waterfront and recruits him into its stable of pilots.

From there, we gradually learn the full scope of Mariesa's operation, and she has a lot of irons in the fire. Fortunately, she has good people to deal with; if they think her vision is nonsensical, they still run their parts of VHI in a businesslike way and turn out good product. We also learn of the forces opposed to her success, and some of those are close to her.

It all makes for a complex job of storytelling. But Michael Flynn is equal to the task. He knows aerospace technology and space history. He has a sharp ear for dialogue and he draws his characters well. Structurally, he interleaves the plot threads in a satisfactory way, developing the characters and building the tension quite skillfully as the story progresses. Ned DuBois is a good example. It becomes clear at about the start of Part II that his real problem is... Nah; I'll leave that for you to discover.

There are stereotypical elements: Dottie, the touchy-feely teacher; the politicians who care only about getting re-elected; the business executives who care only about their next-quarter bottom line; the ideological crusaders who would shut down a perceived corporate threat to the environment by any means necessary. But there are of course real people who behave in these ways — just as there are people willing to sabotage their colleagues to get a shot at the plum position.

Flynn may have a tendency to arrange unlikely confrontations, as when Ned, coming back from a 3AM tryst, runs into a ninja-style attacker5 in the dark — or when Barry Fast, on an outing with Mariesa, meets his paramour and her husband at a bowling alley, with predictable undercurrents of hostility and anxiety. But he doesn't overdo it. There are minor continuity errors and some grammatical goofs, detailed on my Errata page.

Before starting the book, I looked at Amazon customers' one-star reviews. There were four. They all described it, in generally coherent terms, as a far-right message couched in dramatic form — something like a latter-day Atlas Shrugged, I gather, though none of them put it that way. And the comments to these reviews were few and weak, leading me to believe there must be some substance to the idea. But I am delighted to report that this major defect, half expected because of those one-star reviews, did not appear. This is no space-age version of Atlas Shrugged, no neo-Rothbardian categorical rejection of all government regulations. Consider the fictional interview with Ted Koppel on pages 418-19, and specifically these words of Mariesa's: "I do not question the need for regulations. The players must know how the game is to be played; and government has a legitimate role in guarding against force and fraud on the playing field." The closest it gets to libertarian cant is that Mariesa's secret space program is privately funded and has no, repeat no, contractual involvement with America's government. Various characters, most cogently Mariesa herself, express the view that the U.S., and specifically NASA, blew its chance to do a space program right. But that's paltry evidence for a libertarian slant. And since I emphatically concur with the assessment,6 I can't call the novel's viewpoint off-base.

In sum, Firestar is a real page-turner, worthy of full marks. I look forward to reading the next three novels in the saga: Rogue Star (1998); Lodestar (2000); and Falling Stars (2001).

1 If you look at it the right way, though, everything VHI does is educational. That's because all that effort goes into demonstrating new capabilities; and demonstration is the proverbial proof of the pudding, the most convincing sort of education.
2 She inherited the post from her grandfather, after her father proved unsuitable. But she has grown in the job, managing VHI well and increasing its net worth.
3 What's in a name? Can you say "dotty"? Sure you can.
4 Some apparently do believe this to be radical, based on the four one-star reviews on Amazon. Or maybe they're just four doctrinaire liberals chafing at the thought of corporations doing good.
5 Note that I said "ninja-style." Ned gets kicked in the ribs, but the attacker then runs off. A real ninja would have finished the job.
6 Support will be provided on request.
Errata for Firestar
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