Let's start with the good stuff: I really do like that authors are trying to imagine new ways we might live, ways to be human without destroying the pLet's start with the good stuff: I really do like that authors are trying to imagine new ways we might live, ways to be human without destroying the planet or ourselves. And this is one such book.
Okay, that said, let's move on to what didn't work, which is: the entire rest of the novel!
So, first, while I do love to see a good "how we can live differently" book, ideally the answer wouldn't be "by creating a panopticon dystopia." Now, I don't know for sure that Beckett knew they were creating one, but that is sure what they did. First and foremost, that panopticon thing: in this future world, every single word you say and move you make and thing you see goes on your transcript, which can be accessed by anyone at any time. That alone made my flesh crawl. And then the rest of this world is essentially "the internet, but with stricter moderation, but that's the entire world," which -- okay, we'll get to the worldbuilding problems in a second. In the meantime: oh god what an absolute fucking nightmare. This is indeed a dystopia, and the fact that everyone is cheerful doesn't change that.
So now let's talk about the worldbuilding. In this universe, we've been through the Setback (what we're doing right now, when everything tips over into apocalypse) and the Clawback (when people are forcibly moved into camps, plagues run rampant, the climate collapses). The book is written during the Bounceback, which is an attempted recovery from the apocalypse. And. After all of that, and despite the panopticon dystopia thing, nothing is actually different. This world is basically "memes and 2020 internet lingo and old fandom references as a culture" and I don't understand how it could be. Also, the author makes a ton of unwarranted assumptions about how humans work. A single example: according to this book, having your every move watched all the time and instant sentencing for any infraction will basically end violent crime. Do they ... not understand why humans commit violent crime? Do they think logic comes into it? (Are they aware that that has been tried before?) And everything is like that. D-, please try to meet some humans before you attempt worldbuilding again. Also, let's just say the political structure of this world is -- vague. There are countries? And a world government? And local authorities? And there is NO explanation of how any of this works together at ALL, or (despite the fact that our main character is a lawyer) how the law actually functions. Again: no.
And I'd like to highlight an especially terrible aspect of the worldbuilding. This is the whitest diverse future I've ever read, and boy, I've read some dillies. People are various shades of brown! That's it, that's the diversity. Oh, sure, we get a mention that Asian countries are the superpowers now, but is there any reckoning with racism? Is there even an acknowledgement that racism existed? Is there any explanation of where it went? No. Does the author acknowledge that their Reddit-inspired social currency (you get strokes for doing well and strikes for doing poorly, and anyone can give them at any time) would be unjustly rigged against specific groups of people? No. Also, Indigenous people -- stewards of the land in many places and EXACTLY who you would want leading your effort to repair the world -- just. Do not exist, apparently. And there's a lot of discussion of Catholicism and its special privileges, and one mention of the Amish, but zero mention of other religions, or how they fit into this weird new world order and what privileges they are accorded. (Also, and this will not surprise you: this book is ableist as all hell. There's a fun note that the father of the main character is no longer entitled to medical care because, uh, he has PTSD, had an episode, and self-harmed. Remember when I said this was a dystopia? YUP.) You get the feeling the author can really only see in shades of WASP.
Beyond that, this book is simultaneously trying to do WAY too much -- there's a plot twist, predictably, about every four chapters, and there are a LOT of chapters in this book, so eventually I was just laughing at the new ones -- and boring as hell. It just. Drags. On. Forever. And then, just when you think it cannot be any duller, you are forced to read a lengthy, play-by-play description of someone playing a video game, which is somehow even less entertaining than you would think it is. And yet it happens SEVERAL TIMES.
I'm going to sum up this review in a way both the author and the characters, despite their immense differences, would find #relatable. TL;DR:
Okay, it's possible this rating is simply an overjoyed overreaction to the vast improvement this book is over the last book I read. But I tell you whaOkay, it's possible this rating is simply an overjoyed overreaction to the vast improvement this book is over the last book I read. But I tell you what: this is a book written by someone who knows how to write. Pace, slow reveal, worldbuilding, characterization, juggling multiple threads: he's got almost the complete toolbox.
And he's also writing a story that's fascinating, that's well worth reading. This world, instead of 3D printers, has chemjet printers that allow anyone to print up basically any drug they can manufacture, legal, illegal, or brand-new. It's a chemical wonderland/horrorscape. You can switch your sexual preference, rewire your brain, remove your own empathy -- anything you want.
But Lyda wasn't trying to do any of that. She and her small research team were trying to make a drug to help treat schizophrenia; instead, they found Numinous, the drug that gave users a feeling of being watched by, cared for by, a god. But then, during a party, they accidentally overdosed on their own wares, and their lives went off track, out of whack. The only thing they agreed on: Numinous could never be made again.
Ten years later, Lyda realizes Numinous is being made again. With the help of her chemically paranoid, ultra-intelligent girlfriend, she sets out to figure out who's making the drug.
This story is fast-paced, smart, compelling, entertaining, and just twisty enough to be fun. (And even if I hadn't read it immediately after a disaster book, I would for sure have given it at least four stars.)...more
If this book was made into a movie (and it will not be), the tagline could be: "We're theoretical cosmologists. We get it right or universes die." BecIf this book was made into a movie (and it will not be), the tagline could be: "We're theoretical cosmologists. We get it right or universes die." Because that's what this is: a suspenseful thriller based on physics, metaphysics, philosophy, and cosmology. Admit it, you're impressed.
So. In Distress, a disaffected science/pseudoscience journalist goes off for what should be a peaceful, easy assignment: a documentary on a physicist who is about to announce her Theory of Everything. Except, well, shit gets weird.
For the first quarter of the book, I didn't think I'd be giving it four stars. The opening scene is dynamite, but -- not really indicative of the kind of book it's going to be. And I found the relationship stuff (the narrator and his girlfriend) honestly repelling. And the discussion of autism -- that is a WHOLE other bucket of issues, and while the ending made me get why he thought he needed to include it, I think that was, at best, a bad idea.
But. BUT. Then the book started to gain momentum. Partly it was that the worldbuilding started to take hold. I loved the detailed near-future world; the science advances, the biology changes, the sex and gender stuff. (I'm reading so much hard SF with great, interesting, thoughtful takes on gender these days, like, what even HAPPENED to this genre? If two genders ("normal" and "sex object/plot device") were good enough for the grandmasters, they are surely good enough for you, Greg Egan and Kim Stanley Robinson and Chris Moriarty.) And then, while I was wallowing in the glee of the worldbuilding, the actual main plot kicked in and started accelerating and every neuron in my brain shrieked "YES! MORE!" in unison.
As it happens, I've read a number of books lately about singularities. This is the best portrayal I've seen of one. It was great and I enjoyed the hell out of it. This story is too much the kind of thing I like for me to recommend it to anyone else, but I can say this: if this is your kind of thing, this is REALLY REALLY your kind of thing. ...more
Okay, so let's start with the best news: this isn't going to haunt my dreams and make me feel nauseated every time I think of it. That's excellent, beOkay, so let's start with the best news: this isn't going to haunt my dreams and make me feel nauseated every time I think of it. That's excellent, because the last novella I read by Alistair Reynolds (an author whose work I generally love), Diamond Dogs, left me on a years-long break from his work. So, for me, the best news here is that I can probably read him again. I was fine reading this, which is quite similar to Diamond Dogs, so I guess I truly am cured.
Beyond that -- okay, I enjoyed this. I did. It was gripping, it was plausible, it was very Reynolds. But it didn't feel finished. Yes, okay, the usual twist ending, but -- nothing got solved, nothing got done, but there were hints that things would. It was frustrating not to get that part of the story, too. I got to the "You've finished this book!" page (Kindle edition) and went, "Wait, it's OVER?" It felt like a first chapter, not a complete story.
There's still a lot to like here, though. I did like the twists. (And I'm going to navigate this review carefully to avoid including any spoilers.) I liked the device the cosmonauts were exploring. I liked the worldbuilding, as far as it went, and I liked the setting. And, well, exploring mysterious devices is Reynolds's wheelhouse. He's got the moves down, and it shows.
But that non-ending, though.
Basically, this is a four-star story with a two-star ending. So: three stars. And it's time to see what else he wrote during the period I was cringing away from his name. ...more
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