TBR Jar Review: Tuf Voyaging - George R.R. Martin

Review by Coll
4 Stars

So here it is, my first TBR Jar review. Tiina and I have such a backlog of books to read that we have both decided to utilize the TBR Jar, where we put the names of all the books we want to read into it and occasionally we pull one out. The most recent one I pulled out was a book called Tuf Voyaging by George R.R. Martin. Yes, the same GRRM who wrote the Song of Ice and Fire Series. I thought this would be a great TBR Jar book to review because it is a great way to show that Martin has written other amazing books in completely different genres than what he is known for.

Tuf Voyaging is a science fiction / mini-space opera (yay!) that was first published in 1986. The story follows a space trader named Haviland Tuf, who through a series of incidents becomes the owner of the last remaining seedship of Earth's legendary Ecological Engineering Corps. With his, new powerful ship and his desire to now be an ecological engineer, Tuf travels the universe to different worlds, helping colonies to solve problems they have created. This book is a novel divided into six sections, which to me were less like chapters and more like short stories, that all relate together to explain this one man’s life over the course of a few years.

Martin did a brilliant job in his character creation when it comes to Haviland Tuf. He is such an unlikely hero of a story, not only in appearance but also demeanor. Additionally, he has this way of speaking that is so eloquent and smart, yet hilarious at the same time (think V for Vendetta); the use of syntax, choice of vocabulary, morphology, etc. brings Tuf’a language to such a different level than other characters. Oh yeah, and he has an obsession with cats. This huge, smart, and powerful guy has such an adoration for cats and it plays into everything he does throughout the book. To me it made his character so human and he is someone you just can’t help but love. But now where his character is built to be loved and admired, many others in this book are definitely built to invoke the opposite feeling in the reader. But then anyone who had read any of ASOIAF (or watched Game of Thrones) knows how well Martin can write a hated character.

The overall storyline of this book is quite brilliant and often prophetic. In this fictional world we see civilizations facing some problems very similar to those that we may experience one day here on Earth, such as overpopulation, violence, species destruction, bio-warfare, religious and political fanaticism, etc. The problems that Tuf helps to combat are not unlike those we will one day face, and it adds an element of possible truth to this far flung sci-fi story that just pick at your mind the entire time you are reading. I mentioned earlier how the books is broken into six sections that act as almost interrelated short stories. I feel this was an effective story-telling means for this book although the beginning of each section did suffer a bit from its detachment from the previous. Overall this is just a small nit-pick from me and once you get a few pages into each section everything flows smoothly again and you are sucked back in. There are also illustrations (very excellent ones) interspersed throughout the story, which I appreciated very much. The visuals and written descriptions meld together so seamlessly and give a solid idea of what people and places look like. 

For the most part, this book had almost every element I look for in a story. It had amazing writing, ample character development, great visual description, excitement, good guys, bad guys, and many morals. Oh and cats. ;-) There were times when the story dragged a bit and a transition between sections interrupted the flow more than I would like, but in the end this is a minor criticism and hardly mattered to me. If you are a sci-fi fan and like space operas then I highly recommend giving Tuf Voyaging a read. Also, I think this book goes to show that our beloved (sometimes hated) George R.R. Martin has been around for a lot longer than A Song of Ice and Fire and has many other brilliant works that are worth checking out. 

“Monsters are entirely mythological, sir, like spirits, werebeasts, and competent bureaucrats.”

Interested in reading Tuf Voyaging? Check it out on Goodreads.