Jacob Foxx's Blog, page 56

Healing Powers

Imagine you had the power to heal your body using only your mind. You’ve seen it in fantasy but it has rarely been mentioned in science fiction with the exception of force healing in Star Wars. It just doesn’t seem plausible enough for sci-fi. Well, we might be wrong on that one. A team of bioengineers in Switzerland may have uncovered the means for an individual to heal without the need for a trip to the hospital.

The experiment involved the use of brain activity to activate mechanisms at the cellular level within the body. The research group started with a typical brain-computer interface, commonly used to help amputees operate their new prosthetic limbs. This technology is very new and exciting in its own right. They took it a step further, introducing a new method of triggering protein production inside human cells using an electromagnetic field. Experiments involved mostly luminescent proteins, or the ability to make cells glow but the concept may be applicable to other important biological activities inside and outside the cell.

Protein interaction is important in numerous therapeutic areas including cancer. Drugs called kinase inhibitors block protein kinase activity, disrupting processes that help tumors grow and metastasize. The biological processes involving protein kinases affect numerous activities, which may be the key to treating a number of serious diseases. If we are able to manipulate protein production, kinases, or other more intricate mechanisms, we may be able to heal wounds with our own thoughts.

Of course,detecting and translating brain activity is not like reading minds. We currently have only the most rudimentary means of detecting brain activity and translating it into action. The researchers had test subjects play Minecraft or meditate in order to stimulate the electromagnetic fields. The subjects weren’t “thinking” about producing the proteins. It is the most primitive brain-gene interface at this stage. The level of concentration and focus to alter cellular mechanisms may be enormous, beyond the abilities of regular people.

The Star Wars movies hinted at the ability of Jedi to use the force to manipulate their own biochemistry. The mention of Midichlorians as the means of manipulating the Force suggests a molecular organic basis for a Jedi’s power. The expanded universe acknowledges a Jedi’s ability to heal herself or even drain the life force from another. Such an ability would be indistinguishable from the magic and witchcraft of countless fairy tales and horror stories.

As Clarke’s famous law states: “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Maybe the future will be an age of magic.

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Review: Lock In by John Scalzi

Author John Scalzi stands out by combining unique and interesting plots with an accessible writing style. When you read Scalzi you are in for a fun reading experience perfect for summer time relaxing by the pool. It is a departure from other recent novels that are long and needlessly complicated. Lock In is his most recent novel and an excellent example of his style. Although not his best work, it will not disappoint.

Lock In takes place in the near future where a bizarre disease puts millions around the world in a coma-like state. The condition, called “locked in,” is unique in that the sufferers are fully conscious, only they are completely paralyzed. The world develops ways for the locked in to have a life through neural net technology and robots called threeps. Sufferers of the condition can experience a virtual reality called the Agora or can choose to transfer their consciousness into a threep, allowing them to walk around in the real world. There are also integrators, those who suffered from the disease but were able to recover and are now able to connect with those locked in, allowing them to share their real body.

The story centers around the murder by an integrator. The question becomes who is responsible, the integrator or the person using them? FBI agent Chris Shane, a sufferer of the disease, uses a threep to do his job. He partners with a former integrator, Vann, to investigate the murder. The trail leads to a sinister corporate conspiracy related to the future of the locked in.

The best way to describe Lock In is as an easy going approach to technothriller. The characters speak plainly and with clarity and the technical explanations are easy to understand. They are all likable, with a kind of wit that makes them relatable even if a bit unrealistic. The murder mystery combined with futuristic technologies reminded me a little of Michael Crichton. The key to solving the murder involves uncovering the secrets of neural interface technology that allows people to share bodies with integrators. The sharing raises questions of personal autonomy, consciousness, and criminal responsibility. If an integrator commits a crime, how do you determine if the integrator had the intent or the person that uploaded themselves into the body. It turns the elements of homicide on its head.

What separates Scalzi from Crichton is also what prevents Lock In from being a truly special book. While the characters are likable they are not very authentic. All of them speak with dry sarcasm and wit similar to a teenager or college student. The problem is the characters include a US Senator, lawyers, corporate executives, and other individuals that absolutely would not speak like a kid. Younger readers won’t mind but older readers will find it unrealistic.

Without thoughtful and serious characters the book is unable to closely examine the fascinating themes that arise. Most are glossed over or presented as already settled. The detached sarcasm also makes it difficult to get a feel for the impact of world events on the main characters. It feels like they were all just recently thrown into this near future world rather than actually growing up and being shaped by it.

Lock In is the first in a series, which means there is opportunity to delve deeper in this near future world. However, it is difficult to imagine Scalzi venturing so far from his easy going style to really get into the more profound themes. He is Crichton-lite, making his novels perfect for young adult or non-science readers who just can’t get through the clunky tech-heavy prose of a Crichton novel.

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Review: The Peripheral by William Gibson

William Gibson, author of the first cyberpunk novel Neuromancer, offers up a sophisticated, twisted tale of murder, time travel, humanoid robot interface, nanno-swarms, assemblers, invisible cars, and deadly drones. The Peripheral is surprisingly original with a fascinating twist on time travel fiction. The story is long and a little convoluted, but worth it in the end.

Flynne Fisher is the younger sister of a veteran scarred from his years as a “Haptic” in the Marines Corps, a highly specialized electronic warfare unit. She substitutes for him on an odd job beta-testing a new online game. In the game, she witnesses a bizarre murder but thinks nothing of it. The problem is it is not a game. She witnessed a real murder not in her own time but seventy years in the future in a parallel timeline. To silence her, forces from the future are coming to her rundown, rural town to kill her.

There is a massive number of futuristic innovations that will fascinate readers. Wilf Netherton, a publicist from the future, is able to communicate with Flynne in the past in real-time thanks to a mysterious server connection, in other words, time travel via the internet. Both points experience time the same way, a minute here is a minute there. The two also inhabit parallel timelines, hence Wilf doesn’t know what will happen to Flynne once he has intervened in her timeline and caused it to diverge with its own set of events. The cyberpunk twist on time travel was definitely a new one for me.

Another important innovation is the titular peripheral. A peripheral is an incredibly realistic artificial body that one can inhabit remotely. The future sends the necessary technical information back allowing Flynne to link with a peripheral in the future and walk around 22nd century London. She explains what she saw, becoming the prime witness in a high profile murder mystery.

There are genetic modifications allowing for split eye pupils, night vision, neurally integrated email and Skype, and engineered pets. Security technology advances allow cars to move about with a cloaking device like Predator. Guns don’t fire bullets but swarms of nannobots that consume the target then deactivate. 3D Printers allow Flynne and her friends to fabricate all the parts and equipment necessary to communicate and move about with their future allies, all while avoiding their enemies trying to kill them in both times.

I read plenty of science fiction but many of the technologies in The Peripheral were new to me. This alone, made it worth picking up.

Readers be warned: The Peripheral is not an easy read. At 500 pages the book is long and has plenty of tedious detail into what life may be like in the near future (Flynne’s time) and the far future (Wilf’s time). The beginning is a difficult march through neologisms, unusual sentence structures, and a narration that assumes you already know what’s going on. The book also has numerous digressions, which stretch the novel out well past what was needed for the story.

Gibson’s commitment to world-building and technical supremacy is admirable but I felt at times he short-changed the basic building blocks of a story, namely plot and character development. While the main characters Flynne, her brother, and Wilf, are very well-developed, the rest seem to be nothing more than role-players with very little to offer. Their emotional detachment and simple dialogue made them one-dimensional, despite their interesting physical traits.

Flynne is a true tomboy. She is foul-mouthed, completely unrefined, and largely treated as “one of the guys.” Her appearance is never clearly described but I got the impression she was cute but preferred wearing jeans and men’s shirts. In fact, Gibson stayed true to the character and kept any romantic intrigue in its proper place. There is no cliché love triangle or even the hint of one.

Wilf is unconvincing as the tortured soul with a drinking problem. The inner turmoil stems from his horror at the new world, one that narrowly survived an apocalyptic fall due to climate change and several deadly pandemics. Wilf never articulates why he is miserable other than to say “the world sucks.” Not exactly the most moving insight.

The technology of The Peripheral is worth the read and has a very direct impact on the characters. The book is a little long but manageable for devoted readers. For fans of cyberpunk, it is a great read. For other sci-fi fans there is plenty to like but there are also areas you will very much want to skip over.

J

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Review: Stranger in a Strange Land

Of all the Heinlein novels on my to-read list, Stranger in a Strange Land was described to me as the oddest one. The conservative, militaristic Heinlein managed to a write a novel that became the gospel for the Hippie Movement of the 1960s. It also stands as one of the more controversial social science fiction novels of the 20th century. It lives up to the reputation.

First some historical context: the book was published in 1961 before the Vietnam War and the cultural revolution that took place back at home. The Cold War was near its most intense with both sides building missiles at a break neck pace. American society was very conservative, built on Christian values and civic tradition. Sex was considered dirty and inappropriate for polite conversation let alone public discourse.

Enter Robert Heinlein and his Stranger in a Strange Land.

Michael Valentine Smith was born and raised on Mars, adopting their language and cultural values as well as certain amazing abilities. He returns to Earth as a part of a cultural exchange program. As he learns more of his human side a few things become clear, Martians don’t have two genders, and obviously no monogamous family structure. They practice cannibalism, euthanizing those who cannot thrive. They are also telepathic and capable of incredible feats of telekinesis, akin to the Phoenix in X-Men.

Smith finds Earth a strange place. To him, there seem to be so many formalities and rules for regulating conduct between individuals. He also finds wrongness, what we would call criminal intent. The political and legal system are foreign to him because Martians are incapable of deception or doing wrongness. Any wrongness is detected by others and the Old Ones. As a result, all criminality is strangled in the crib.

The most interesting difference is Smith’s attitudes towards sex. At first he sees it as a practical biological activity for reproduction and fails to see why there is so much discomfort on the topic. As he learns more about humans, and hence himself, he concludes that sex or “growing closer” is a very powerful way for people to bond with one another, aside from reproductive purposes. Smith’s telepathic and other mental abilities give him certain special skills in the art of kissing and lovemaking. The women around him become enamored with him, enjoying growing closer with him. It sounds suspiciously similar to the premise of a late night Cinemax movie.

Rules and mores that restrict growing closer are the problem. Smith sees them as a obstacle to love, happiness, and the seeking of truth. To accomplish all these things, our prudish attitude towards sex must be discarded. Smith forms a new religious sect of polyamorous nudists.

The Smith sect directly contradict traditional Judeo-Christian views on monogamy and marriage. In the book, Heinlein tries to play off polygamy as historically common and that Christianity’s monogamous requirement is some exception. In reality, all three Abrahamic religions as well as most Hindu sects have long preferred monogamy. Where polygamy was practiced, it was often to satisfy the sexual desires of a king or warlord with a harem of female slaves. A true free love society where men and women voluntarily form polyamorous relationships is hard to find.

Judeo-Christian values impose Commandments on adultery and coveting thy neighbor’s wife. They are God’s law but also serve important functions for social harmony. One of the biggest causes of violence and homicide is infidelity. It is believed humans cannot easily share love without intense feelings of jealousy.

Clearly, Heinlein was a contradiction. He was conservative in terms of strongly supporting limited government, individual freedom, and a strong sense of patriotism. Yet his novel became the “playbook” of the Hippie movement, which is associated with the left. It did not sit well with him.

He was likely aggravated that hippies believed free love was all you needed for such a religious society, completely ignoring the other essential elements. Smith’s new polyamorous sect are very intelligent, well-educated, hardworking (believe it or not), and fabulously wealthy. It isn’t for just anyone. There is an initiation that involves a level of self-awareness and emotional maturity, which is accomplished by simply learning the Martian language as well as certain other initiation rites (life-altering sex).

Naturally, the flower children fixated on the sex without attaining any new knowledge. Instead they dropped acid and listened to odd music.

Smith’s Martian free love utopian society thrives due to his incredible telepathic and telekinetic powers, as well as the wealth he inherited. Heinlein avoids providing solutions to the practical and emotional problems of his free love society by giving its members super powers. Soon the men and women in the group learn these super powers as well. It allows them to manipulate their body, cure diseases, and telepathically communicate with one another. Knowledge is learned instantaneously.

In a sect of super humans, just about any social structure would work.

As a child of the 90s, much of the book is antiquated or irrelevant to me. While the country remains dominantly Christian, sexuality is not the taboo it used to be. There is a good case that Heinlein’s ideas have become more prominent in America today, aside from the free love Hippie movement. Sexuality is often discussed openly in public forums, women dress much more provocatively, and we are very close to legalizing gay marriage across the country. Traditional views on sex and marriage are in decline. Stranger in a Strange Land is not nearly as controversial or culturally relevant as it was in 1961. It is an important piece of sci-fi and cultural history but if it were published today it would be perceived as outrageously sexist and boring.

The political and religious rants in the book are self-indulgent and largely unpersuasive. Smith’s close friend Jubal Hershaw is a libertarian who strikes down one straw man argument after another. While those around him argue for traditional values, they are not articulate or thoughtful. The conversations are boring and loaded with sexist comments. Jubal is a real misogynist. Gillian’s comment on rape would start a riot today.

While there are some fascinating aspects to the novel, there are parts that are very dull. Smith is omnipotent, minimizing the drama. Jubal is transparent as the voice of Heinlein. The book also has numerous scenes that are gratuitous. Women kissing everyone, walking around naked, making love to numerous men, and enhancing their own physical beauty by simply thinking about it.

This book should be read with historical context in mind. Otherwise, younger readers may find it odd and repulsive.

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Update on The Fifth World 3, New Novella Series, and More

With the first quarter of 2015 coming to a close, I feel good about the progress made so far. The Fifth World 3 is being reviewed by the first group of beta-readers as we speak. In a few weeks I am going to go through it again myself, with feedback in hand, to do a round of revisions. Next step is to give it to a professional editor. The timeline for its publication is moving a bit due to some financial issues. Namely, we haven’t decided how much we have to spend on developing and promoting the new book. Right now my best estimate of the release date is sometime in August or early September.

Lately I’ve done a lot more reading, trying to make some progress on my 35 book goal for this year. I am behind schedule but closing the gap. Right now I am reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, and The Peripheral by William Gibson. After that it is Lock In by John Scalzi and The Dervish House by Ian McDonald. My reviews will follow soon after.

On the writing front, I’ve drafted two new short stories and begun revising an older third one. One is about first contact with a new intelligent alien species that would much rather be left alone. The second is about a utopian city in the near future that is zero emission and near zero impact on the environment around it. The third is about the first artificial intelligence general of the US military.

Of the three, the AI story is the closest to being completed and shared with others. My interests lately have moved away from space travel and far future stories and moved closer to today.

Meanwhile the Mech series is coming along as well. Three episodes are complete with an outline for a fourth and the beginning of a fifth. My hope is to have them ready to come out in the Fall, possibly October. If not, I will be preparing them for the beginning of the new year.

The challenge with the mech series is the story arc is a lot longer than a novel. My hope is to keep writing episodes for a while, which means some serious world-building, plot development, and character development needs to go into it before the first one is officially released. I’m becoming a perfectionist on certain things, particularly planetology, culture, and the characters themselves. I want the story to have all the awe of a brand new, detailed universe, but it is equally important, if not more important that the characters drive the story and keep readers interested and wanting more.

There are a lot space operas and military science fiction out there with plenty of spaceships, aliens, new weapons, and oddball characters. As such, the world-building alone won’t win the day. The focus is to find ways to separate myself from the stiff competition.

I say “I” won’t publish it because I am leaning hard towards self-publishing it. It comes down to cash. Namely if the publisher of my first two novels is not willing to commit sufficient resources to the new series, I might as well do it myself.  Part of the reason for going to a publisher is their advertising and marketing resources after all.

Well that is all for now. I’ll report back when I got news.

J

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Review: Brilliance by Marcus Sakey

Superheroes have dominated the box office and the comic book arena for some time now. The novel was one of the few formats that wasn’t conducive to the subgenre. Marcus Sakey is among the few that have broken through to write a great superhero novel without shamelessly catering to adolescent male fantasies. Brilliance is a thrilling action sci-fi novel that gets better the more you read.

In 1980, an unusual mutation appears that gives children enhanced cognitive abilities. As time passes, the world becomes uneasy with their gifts, calling the children abnorms or twists. Their fear is vindicated when a group of abnorm terrorists assassinate a U.S. Senator and kill dozens of innocent people. Nick Cooper is part of the Dept. of Equitable Services, a covert special operations group tasked with identifying abnorm threats and taking them down with no regard for civil liberties or due process. His ultimate target is a man known only as John Smith. To take Smith down, Cooper goes undercover, pretending to be a rogue abnorm who has switched to the dark side.

Brilliance is essentially a realistic version of X-Men. Instead of incredibly outrageous superpowers, the gifts of the abnorms are much more credible and actually have some foundation in genetics and neuroscience. The story and dialogue is more Bourne Identity and less Marvel Comics. The conflict between the majority normals and minority abnorms touches on themes of discrimination, prejudice, fear, and even childhood bullying. But make no mistake, Brilliance is primarily an action novel. The deep themes are touched upon but aren’t the focus. Sakey also did his homework on law enforcement tactics, surveillance, undercover ops, and bureaucratic process. I greatly appreciated his attempt to build a serious plot with plenty of detail, rather than just another superhero fantasy.

At the same time, it is not groundbreaking, and sticks closely to the X-Men tropes. Nick Cooper is the protagonist that feels like a combination of Wolverine and Cyclops. Smith is Magneto. There is also the beautiful Shannon Azzi, a talented operative working for Smith who plays the Mystique role. The love story wasn’t the typical male fantasy of a beautiful, fawning, passive love interest you find in sci-fi action novels. It is yet another way Sakey successfully separates himself from the mediocre sci-fi action.

While not particularly original, Brilliance is well-written, exciting, and leaves you wanting more. The sequel was recently released and is on my to-read list. I highly recommend this one to science fiction readers, comic book lovers, and fans of the Bourne Identity. With such broad appeal, it’s no wonder why Brilliance has enjoyed commercial success.

5 Stars

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Review: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

The critically-acclaimed Ancillary Justice does not disappoint. Brilliant world-building, interesting characters, and some unique themes on consciousness make this one of the best high tech novels in years.

The novel centers on an military artificial intelligence comprised of a network of AI-controlled soldiers, small ships, and a giant city-sized warship as its core. It exists as a collective consciousness called the Justice of Toren, the official name of the warship. A military occupation gone wrong leads to the destruction of the ship leaving only a single Justice of Toren soldier left, known as an ancillary. The surviving soldier wants revenge against the ruthless emperor responsible for its death and the death of its human crew. Joined by a long discarded and disgraced officer, the AI makes it way back home to confront and kill the emperor.

The concept of an AI capable of being a starship, shuttles, and hundreds of soldiers simultaneously is an amazing concept. It is impossible to imagine being multiple bodies and machines at once, all working in unison. Justice of Toren works alongside a human crew, which requires it to build a closely-knit relationship with its captain. When an AI loses its captain, it is prone to the electronic equivalent of madness. This unique take on AI consciousness is reminiscent of Asimov’s robots or the machine consciousness in The Matrix.

Leckie nails another essential element to top notch space opera: superb world-building. The political, social, and military systems of the Radch Empire are intricate and compelling. Of particular interest is its emperor, a being known as Anaander Mianaai. The ruler is actually hundreds, maybe thousands of humans all sharing the same consciousness, ruling most of human space as a semi-fascist state. The parallel to the Justice of Toren becomes apparent but also presents the question of whether a human of any capacity can exist as a collective consciousness. For a machine its a little easier to imagine.

There are many more neat innovations but to fixate on them wouldn’t do the novel justice. The really special facet of the novel is its examination of consciousness in a time where technology allows us to fracture it into multiple bodies capable of living centuries. The connection the AI develops with its human crew is also special. While not completely human in its qualities, an AI possesses a programmed attachment to its crew, even developing what one could call an emotional attachment. It is this attachment that drives Justice of Toren into a rage, compelling it to go after the emperor of all humanity.

The culture and religion of the Radch Empire is very detailed. Human and AI members of the empire refer to all citizens as “she” regardless of gender. It is customary for Radchaai men and women to dress and appear alike. Justice of Toren often struggles to tell the difference. The religion bares similarity to Hinduism with a large number of deities, ceremonies, and attachments to aesthetics. Citizens also wear gloves at all times, insistent on keeping their hands clean.

Leckie also creates several subcultures of different frontier planets called Ors and Nilt, all beautifully done.

The examination of unitary versus collective consciousness is fascinating. Leckie seems to liken the common splitting or conflicting thoughts and feelings of a regular person to an actual conflict between two bodies. Despite all being the same person, there is a possibility to split apart each constituent temporarily, or cause all sorts of chaos that one could define as a psychotic break.

On the negative side, Ancillary Justice starts slow, taking several chapters to build up momentum. There is info-dumping early that was difficult to absorb, especially so early in the story. It takes some patience and work but by the one-third mark you feel comfortable. Some of the later scenes are a bit tedious and are likely there to lay the groundwork for the remainder of the series. The Imperial Radch series has a second and third book on the way.

The compelling examination of collective consciousness, intricate world-building, and great characters elevates it above the rest, making it worthy of the Nebula and Hugo Awards. Readers who enjoy high tech, space, opera, and social science fiction will definitely love it. Those who prefer more exciting action and adventure might get bored. Leckie isn’t the best at delivering pulse-pounding action but excels at everything else.

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Update on Fifth World 3 and other Projects

After a slow 2014, the start to the new year has been pretty productive. I finally completed the first draft of The Fifth World 3 (temporary title). As a rule I don’t decide on a title until after a revised manuscript is completed. Currently I am revising the first draft and preparing it to go to the editors in the next month or so.

The writing process for the third novel has been tougher for a few reasons. First, it is a different kind of book than the first two. It is much more action with a stronger focus on the military-aspect of the conflict rather than the political struggle. I don’t have as much experience or confidence in writing military/action and sort of moved slowly to make sure it came out right.

Last year was also spent reading up on fiction-writing as part of an effort to refine some of my skills. There are some weaknesses in my writing from a stylistic standpoint, which I don’t mind admitting. I’m still in the early to mid-stage of my writing career and will always approach it as a learning process. I also got some pretty blunt reviews of my second novel which further highlighted some of the issues with my writing. Specifically my descriptive writing needs some improvement.

When you are learning to refine your writing style while writing a novel, it can make you second guess yourself constantly. Hence I stayed stuck on the same couple chapters for months. By comparison, I wrote the first draft of The Times That Try Men’s Souls in roughly eight months. The third novel took thirteen months. Add in editing, revising, and marketing operations and the publication date looks to be sometime in the summer.

There is also a new project that keeps creeping into my mind, distracting me from finishing what is in front of me. Part of me wants to shift to a different universe than The Fifth World, while the other part wants to finish the trilogy before proceeding to anything else. The new project is a high-tech, space opera-type series that will be written in novellas or episodes rather than novels. Each one will be 80-120 pages rather than 300+ pages. Three episodes are completed and will be reviewed, edited, and revised sometime later this year. When this last novel is complete, I will also be working on writing two more episodes to make it a nice five episode release when its done.

There’s no name yet (due to my rule), but as I’ve explained before, it is about a team of engineers that work in a mech-fighting league. During a match, the government intervenes and tries to destroy it and arrest them for possessing military weaponry. Their mech fights its way out and the team goes on the run. Little do they know, they are caught in the middle of an interstellar war and their mech is considered a game-changing weapon.

So far it has moved away from the originally intended cyberpunk style and more into space opera. There will be a military side to it but it won’t be dominant. The story is primarily character-driven. The inspiration for the series comes from Firefly, Battletech, and also from my fictional timeline which was the foundation for The Fifth World. They won’t inhabit the same universe but the timeline will resemble the source material used for my first three novels.

Firefly and Serenity were amazing in terms of drama, comedy, and possessing a profound yet subtle theme of frontier individualism. The technology was steampunk but the true genius of the show was the brilliant cast of characters and great dialogue. Joss Whedon did a fantastic job creating them and developing a chemistry among them.

My goal is to build a more character-driven series, like Firefly, as well as build in some serious themes underneath. I will also be trying out my own brand of comedy and dialogue, which will not resemble Firefly in any way. The technology will also be far more advanced and play a different role in the story.

I can’t get into the fictional timeline too much because it will give away the direction of the series. It is set well into the future, where humanity has colonized dozens of worlds in dozens of star systems.

My goals for 2015 are to (1) publish The Fifth World 3; (2) publish the first episodes of the Mek Series; (3) contribute to my blog at 1 per week minimum; (4) read 35 science fiction novels; and (5) begin work on a new possible novel-length project by the end of the year.

I will try to give more updates and talk more about what I am reading and what I’ve learned during this whole process. I’ve been keeping a lot of it to myself so far and have been told I need to share a little more about the experience of trying to be a successful science fiction author.

J

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Review: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

When it comes to post-apocalyptic fiction, many books focus on the catastrophe and the struggle to survive afterwards. Station Eleven is more of a mainstream literary fiction novel. The apocalyptic events are largely skipped over in favor of a more traditional character-driven story. The novel straddles the catastrophe telling the story of a set of characters from before and after. While parts of the novel are compelling the different stories don’t connect well with one another.

The novel is non-chronological and follows six characters, making for a complicated plot. It follows the lives of five characters from years before the disaster to two decades afterward. Over 99% of humanity is killed in a horrific swine flu pandemic. Linking the characters together is a self-absorbed actor named Arthur Leander. The other characters include Arthur’s ex-wife, one of his friends, a child actor, and the EMT that tried to help him as he suffered a heart attack. As they look back on the tragic events in the world, they find their connection to Arthur important.

The prose is really strong, pulling you in at first. While the character stories are interesting individually, they get lost in the constant jumps between perspectives and times. The exact nature and strength of the Arthur connection is very uneven and often not compelling. For example, the EMT never speaks a word to Arthur, seeing him only once on stage. Although he tried to save his life, the attempted rescue has no connection to the pandemic and a limited one to the other characters.

Arthur is also a pretty bad choice for the hub of a character network. He is a former big time celebrity who falls from stardom to become a small-time Shakespeare theater player. There is an odd mixture of guilt and self-pity for a man who didn’t really care for anyone other than himself, even bashing some for not doing anything for him. He feels a little guilty because he thinks his fame us undeserved and complains of the inconveniences of being a famous celebrity. His constant infidelities, which led to two divorces, don’t bother him in the least.

The other link between the characters is a graphic novel series called Station Eleven. Arthur’s first wife Miranda made it and gave two copies to him just before his heart attack. They find their way into the hands of the other characters and seem to stick in their consciousness. The graphic novels are about a space station that flees the Solar System after Earth dies. There are a small group of dissidents who desire to return to Earth although nothing is there.

Mandel draws a lot of attention to the graphic novel but its significance is unclear. Mandel also wants to be clear that its not a comic strip but a graphic novel. It is unclear why the distinction is important.

The inexplicable fixation on Arthur and the graphic novel make this Cloud Atlas style novel surprisingly dull at times given the subject-matter. Why would these people spend more time thinking about Arthur than say their lost relatives or perhaps the trauma they’ve endured? Either the connection is too subtle for me or just wasn’t enough to make me feel this was one unified story.

Many aspects of a typical post-apocalyptic novel are absent. There is very little discussion of the disease or the apocalyptic events. Only one character experiences or witnesses the disease. Everyone else somehow manages to avoid it, despite it killing billions of people around them. The rebuilding phase is largely skipped. All of the post-apocalyptic sections cover the characters over a decade after the pandemic, after they’ve gained a new set of survival skills and adapted to the new world. Finally, the characters don’t seem to experience much emotional pain. It is all so polite, with events being accepted without much deep feeling.

The emotional angst is reserved for the drama that occurs before the apocalypse. This odd reversal of the post-apocalyptic trope makes for some strange moments. Mandel spends more time on what one could call “first world” problems rather than survival problems. Combined with the multitude of third person point of views and jumping from different points in time, the book doesn’t really build up to much of a climax.

The book is well-written from a stylistic standpoint and has some really good moments. Mandel is a talented writer but the novel as a whole isn’t well-executed. Taken as a post-apocalyptic novel, it ignores the most compelling aspects of the subgenre. If you approach it as more of a traditional literary fiction novel, it is short on emotional conflict. If there was some other subtle theme present I did not pick up on it. A few reviews mention references to King Lear but I don’t see much of a connection. The closest analogue I have to Station Eleven is Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. If you loved Cloud Atlas, you might like this one. Otherwise I don’t recommend this for regular science fiction readers.

3 Stars

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Marketplace Getting Tougher for Sci-Fi Novel

Not long ago most filmmakers thought it was impossible to bring Lord of the Rings to the big screen. The sheer scale of the epic was beyond the capabilities of even the biggest production companies. The same has often been said about the sci-fi classic Dune (They tried and failed in 1984). The novel was the best way to experience speculative fiction.

The supremacy of the novel came to an end in the 1990s. Advances in computer graphics allowed movies to better bring speculative worlds to life. In 1993, Stephen Spielberg’s Jurassic Park earned a record-breaking $402 million in the US and the first to cross $1 billion worldwide. The movie brought Michael Crichton’s brilliant novel to life. Moviegoers trembled at the roar of T-Rex (full disclosure, I saw it in theaters three times). The movie demonstrated Hollywood’s new power, establishing it as a strong alternative to the sci-fi novel.

What followed was a movie renaissance that broke one box office record after another. Nearly all the great masterpieces have been brought to the big screen including Lord of the Rings, War of the Worlds, Starship Troopers, The Time Machine, Frankenstein, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Ender’s Game. Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam are about to become miniseries on HBO. The new power of visual media has passed the novel as the preferred medium for speculative fiction.

It isn’t just movies and TV, Damien Walter of The Guardian believes science fiction writers must also compete with video games. One of the most successful video game franchises, Halo, has expanded to become a TV miniseries and has even spawned its own book series. Anyone who has played it knows how addictive it can be. In many ways video games have become just as large as movie franchises. When it comes to action, the written word cannot compete.

All of this begs the question: is the science fiction novel obsolete?

Walter doesn’t think so. Many of the great sci-fi and fantasy films of recent years were adapted from successful novels. In addition to the examples above, there are also The Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, and The Hobbit. The book-born movies possess “deep, resonant, character-driven storytelling” according to Walter, which movies and games often lack. Even the most hardcore gamers would have to agree, video games simply cannot compete when it comes to storytelling; and they certainly can’t match the dramatic and intellectual depth of a great novel.

The sci-fi novel isn’t dead but it needs to adapt. The entertainment marketplace is no different than any other, to compete you must be willing to adapt, exploiting comparative advantage. It isn’t action or fantastic settings. It is the fundamentals of good fiction-writing such as character-driven storytelling. The “clunky writing style” of older sci-fi novels won’t cut it. The fundamentals, often neglected by science fiction, must be embraced, cultivated, and refined.

Some writers have shown the way. Writers like Margaret Atwood, China Mieville, and Hugh Howey are exceptional writers, turning out one successful novel after another. Clearly there is a place in the marketplace for the novel and it certainly isn’t going away anytime soon. It will just have to get better.

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