Books: Docking Is Difficult By Gideon Defoe (2014)

"On what might be the worst planet in the universe, a young man dreams of the stars. Adventure! Lasers! Women! And the ultimate goal - to become Elite! Unfortunately, Misha has to do his chores first. And learn how to talk to Phoebe, the beautiful customs officer. And leave the planet. But the death of a famous author unexpectedly drags Misha and Phoebe into a system-wide conspiracy, complete with smuggling, international art thieves, multi-system corporations, canapés and exploding pigs. This is Misha's chance to prove he has what it takes!

"After all, surely anyone can be Elite if they dream."

I’m not exactly sure how much of Docking Is Difficult follows the computer game ELITE: DANGEROUS (though, apparently, it’s lacking in that regard a lot, if I go by some information I pulled up), but I don’t think that is required to enjoy this short novel. As pointed out in the advertising, there was several novels released to tie in with the game during its 2014 launch and all were “subtly” linked to it. But as noted a few sentences ago, this novel is seemingly only tenuously connected to the game.

Gideon Defoe is a British author who wrote some very funny novels, five to be exact, set in his Pirates! Universe (and one was turned into a animated movie, 2012’s The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!, though it was released in North America, along with Australia and New Zealand, as The Pirates! Band of Misfits). Much like those Pirate! books, Docking Is Difficult features the same mix of referential humor, a few in-jokes, and just plain silliness. I’ve often compared Defoe to Monty Python, but with this book, he comes closest to being compared to the late, great Douglas Adams. Here is a companion style novel all fans of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy can enjoy. 

So the book is a parody of science fiction, but it also takes aim at fan culture. There are some delirious head-on take downs of fans who “ship” characters (which created a “shipping war” that lead to many deaths) and those who are critical of certain aspects of long-running shows (“There was some grumbling about pacing, and about some glaring continuity issues, and about how Phoebe had pronounced the name of the planet “Treambilis”).

Defoe also takes on publishing, offering some real truths: “To be honest, ‘being alive’ isn’t very high up on desirable traits an author can have. These days it’s more of a nuisance than anything. I mean, look at Robert Ludlum. The man has been dead for a millennium, but that hasn’t seemed to get in the way of him knocking out a new book every year.”

To be honest, a lot of Docking Is Difficult just seems to be about Defoe taking hilarious pot-shots at science fiction than anything to do with a science fiction based video game. I think this book is a worthy follow-up to Adams and his brilliant world.