George R. R. Martin

Tuf Voyaging

Imzy

This books was mediocre. I originally was going to give it 2 stars but the significance of cats in this book made me up the stars by one (I LOVE CATS!). The main character, Halivand Tuf has multiple cats, and the way he describes them and proclaims their epicness to other people is so funny to read.


   "Tuf, don't we have more important things to do than play with cats?"
"I think not," said Halivand Tuf. "You do not appreciate cats sufficiently. They are the most cicilized of creatures. No world can be considered truly cultured without cats. Are you aware that all cats, from time immemorial, have had a touch of psi? Do you know that some ancient societies of Old Earth worshipped cats as gods? It is true."

Bryan Alexander

Tuf Voyaging is a collection of entertaining science fiction stories. It's not a major work for George R.R. Martin, but will likely amuse the sf reader, and maybe some Game of Thrones addicts.

The book takes place in the far future, when humanity has spread across many star systems. The narraive concerns the adventures of a space trader turned entrepreneurial ecological engineer as he visits planets to solve their largest problems. The protagonist obtains a vast and powerful starship in the first story ("The Plague Star"), and that vessel powers each story from then on.

Tuf Voyaging is clearly a fix-up novel of short stories, mostly published in the 1980s. Each chapter can stand alone as a tale, more or less. This gives the book an episodic, almost picaresque feel.

The central character, Haviland Tuf, provides much of the book's entertainment. Tuf owes a great deal to Rex Stout's great detective Nero Wolfe. Our protagonist is pompous, brilliant, disinclined to physical activity, formal, and often reliant on the labor of others. Instead of orchids Tuf has cats to obsess over.

Tuf's speech is archly funny, especially since most other characters serve as straight men. A sample:"Perhaps I am more aesthetically pleasing when mouthing reassuring falsehoods through a filter of facial hair in melodramatic vidshows reeking of false optimism and post-coital complacency." (251)
His lack of affect is a powerful negotiating tool, making him a perfect poker player. It's also funny at times:
The tyrannosaur roared.
It was, thought Haviland Tuf, a thoroughly frightening sound. He pressed his lips firmly together in annoyance... (70)


Tuf's also a vegetarian, which becomes a major theme in one explicitly anti-meat-eating story ("Guardians"). I don't recall this theme from Martin's other work.

In fact, Tuf Voyaging presents an unusual politics. Besides the vegetarianism (not vegan; Tuf eats too much butter) there is also a fierce opposition to animal cruelty ("A Beast for Norn"). Taken together, we could imagine a kind of left/liberal/green/ecofeminist politics. But Tuf is also militantly in favor of birth control ("Loaves and Fishes", "Second Helping", "Manna from Heaven"), while being utterly asexual himself. Eros and romance play no role in this book, unusually for George R. R. Martin, and also strange for stories adopting these politics. Moreover, Tuf is a shameless entrepreneur, ending each story with a profit, which he finagles out of each planet through tough (sorry) negotiation, self-deprecation, and ruthless maneuvering. Governments are useless, sometimes dangerous, often incompetent throughout.* So Tuf Voyaging is a libertarian, vegetarian, animal rights book. I can't think of many others.

The book's style is generally very basic, focusing primarily on displaying and setting up dialog. There isn't much in the way of description nor lyrical prose. In contrast Tuf's tone is ambitious, ranging from comedy to scientific discussion to horror to political scheming. At best these synthesize neatly, as in "Call Him Moses".

So what's not to love? To begin with, the stories all follow the same plan. Locals present Tuf with a difficult problem. Tuf heads to his ship's labs and creates a solution. The locals don't really like it, but have no choice and pay through the nose. It becomes mechanical and doesn't change by the end.

Tuf is too invincible. He wins every time, superior to each situation and all people. The final story sees a sympathetic character proclaim him a god (376). Sigh.

I remain a devotee of good world-building, and Tuf only does this in fits. The overall setting is not even sketched, relying instead on science fiction genre assumptions (FTL travel, interstellar commerce). 

Overall? An entertaining read with some interesting politics. Best read by individual story, rather than as a whole.

*Steven Kaye suggests Poul Anderson's Nicolas van Rijn as an inspiration, especially given Anderson's libertarian politics. This grows on me.

Kash B

Recounts the adventures of Haviland Tuf, a space merchant, whose Old Earth Ecological Corps seedship enables him to handle ecological engineering projects.

Fernando Bolaños

Julia A.

A classic novel from George R.R. Martin, author of the hit HBO TV series A GAME OF THRONES Haviland Tuf is an honest space-trader (one of the few), and he likes cats. So how is it that, despite being up against the worst villains in the universe, he has become the proud owner of the last working seedship, pride of Earth's Ecological Engineering Corps? We'll leave that aside for now - just be thankful that the most powerful weapon in space is in good hands, hands which now control cellular material for thousands of outlandish creatures. With his unique equipment and powerful spacecraft, Tuf is set to tackle the myriad problems that human settlers have created during their colonisation of far flung worlds. Hosts of hostile monsters, a population addicted to procreation, a dictator who is willing to unleash plagues to get his own way - and all that stands between the colonists and disaster is Tuf's ingenuity, and his reputation as an honest dealer in a universe of rogues ...

Tuf Voyaging

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