Erik's Reviews > Elder Race

Elder Race is a glorious specimen of the Scientia Ficta species; it is a Platonic Ideal of the Science Fiction novella.

So I’m a sort of sci-fi alchemist, seeking in my reviews to distill science fiction down to its purest essence. A frivolous pursuit perhaps, but I believe that seeking and understanding ground truths is the foundation for all personal and cultural growth. So, if I’m going to read and review sci-fi, then I want to know, What is science fiction? What is its essence?

In general, sci-fi has a huge emphasis on technology, such that in many people’s minds, the essence of science fiction is laser swords and rocket ships, much like the essence of fantasy is knights and wizards and dragons, while books without either are something else.

But - and this is a major theme of the Elder Race - technology is really just nature, captured in some cultural framework. Is the sun a piece of technology? Probably not. But a fusion reactor is. Why? Because a fusion reactor is controlled to serve some cultural purpose. So science fiction - even hard sci-fi - isn’t really about technology or science. It’s about the relationship between technology and culture. What types of cultures create what technologies? And then, once created, how does that technology change that culture? Which is why Harry Potter - which often explores the relationship between magic and magician culture - is more sci-fi than Star Wars, which focuses more on the heroic adventure.

So I consider Elder Race the ideal science-fiction story because this technology-culture relationship forms the very core of the protagonists' interactions:

It’s a split narrative, told from two perspectives, the first of Lynesse the princess from a human colony that’s technologically and culturally regressed into a medieval state. The second perspective is that of Elder Nyr, an anthropologist from a second-wave of space exploration sent out to study the first-wave of human colonization. The two meet because the princess seeks the help of Elder Nyr (a “sorcerer” in her mind) in dealing with the threat of a “demon” invasion.

The princess’s narrative is fine, but it’s the anthropologist’s perspective that makes this tale. It’s so rich, with so many wonderful layers.

Nyr’s primary conflict is that, as an anthropologist, he doesn’t want to interfere with the culture that he’s observing. That he did so in the past (and that he does so now) is a huge regret for him. So he tries to play his role as a “sorcerer” without contaminating the culture with his own perspectives. But he’s incredibly depressed and lonely and often wonders why he even bothers. Who will even read his anthropological reports? From what he can tell, everyone on the original Earth is dead. They haven’t contacted him in centuries. So he’s constantly activating a mental system called DCS that allows him to distance himself from his own feelings, to avoid being paralyzed by anxiety and depression.

But - and this is a minor spoiler - he does eventually reach a point at which he’s had enough and just wants to tell Lynesse the truth of it all. And the chapter that follows is simply awesome. It offers side-by-side paragraphs. One is in Elder Nyr’s “language” while the other is Lynesse’s “language.” Both English of course but, for example, Elder Nyr’s “Your ancestors came from outer space on generation arks” gets translated into “Your people came from boats that sailed the sea of stars.”

And that’s the cultural framework I’m talking about. It’s like Arthur C. Clarke’s “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” but I now find that misses the mark. It’s not about ‘sufficiently advanced’ but rather ‘sufficiently inexplicable.’

If I use that definition of magic, then Elder Race contains not just the joys of linguistics and psychology, but even a bit of magic too. Unequivocal recommendation. Simply a delightful reading experience.