Helm

Sometimes trashy sci-fi can be the best kind of fun. Helm is a fun, cool, fast-paced adventure story. Here's the book's description (snagged from the back cover):

“After global devastation, the last remnants of Earth sent a handful of colonists of a distant terraformed world to give humanity one last, desperate chance. Unable to provide the technology required for an advanced civilization, the founders instilled in the colonists a strict code of conduct and gave them a few precious imprinting devices: glass helmets that contain all of Earth's scientific knowledge.

Once in a generation, the heir to the province of Laal begins the arduous training required to survive the imprinting of the Glass Helm and acquire the knowledge of the lost Earth. But Leland de Laal, the youngest son of one of Agatsu's greatest leaders, has climbed the forbidden rock spire where the Helm is kept and donned it, unaware that its knowledge has a terrible price. To an unprepared mind, it brings madness, agony, and even death.”

One of the coolest consequences of Leland's premature imprinting is that he's picked up knowledge of aikido. With further training he hones his martial arts skill and the fighting in the story is filled with slick descriptions of it. This story is filled with chases, battles, double-crossing, betrayal, dark dealings, and many fights with sword, staff, and arrow. Although set in the far-future, Agatsu's society is medieval. Makes for a very fun tale.

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
On a world colonized long ago, the youngest son of a local ruler takes it upon himself to don an ancient hi-tech helmet. While's he's dealing with unexpected new skills (and internal voices), treachery grows in the larger empire.

Review
I knew of Steven Gould primarily from his juvenile novels – Jumper, Wildside, etc. I was pleased when he finally brought his clear, accessible voice to a more adult book, and I remember Helm with some fondness, though it does tend to run together for me with Larry Niven's Destiny Road, which appeared around the same time, had a vaguely similar backstory, and also had a yellowish cover.

What I had forgotten, apparently was just how aikido-focused Helm is. Unfortunately, I'm not really interested in martial arts, and this comes across, more than anything, like the work of a fan who's keen to tell the world all about his new passion. It's a bit tedious, in particular because I just don't find battle scenes interesting, and here we get all the hand-to-hand detail an aikido aficionado could hope for. More to the point, though, all the aikido gets in the way of the story. The characters are developed, and are, in fact, somewhat more mature than Gould's others up until then. But the story is largely a vehicle to get them from one fight scene to another. The story's at its best when Gould can't find a way to shoehorn physical conflict into the scene (or not too much, anyway).

It's not as good a book as I recall, but it's still fairly good. Gould's prose is still clear, the characters still engaging. And, if you're a martial arts fan, it's probably all gravy. If you couldn't care less about sensei and uke, there's still a good story to be found here. Just be prepared to skim the play-by-play.