Out on Blue Six - Ian McDonald

Out on Blue Six (1989) is one of a number of books by McDonald that have been reissued by Open Road Media recently. Last year I already reviewed his novel The Broken Land (1992), a strange blend of science fiction and magical realism and now the publisher has been kind enough to supply me with a review copy of this book. Out on Blue Six is one of McDonald's early works. It's his second novel after Desolation Road (1988). Like many of his earlier novels there is a distinct flavour of magical realism present in this novel but also many science fiction elements. In fact, in terms of ideas, this may be one of the densest novels he wrote. I get the feeling that this is a love it or hate it book. It's a novel that certainly isn't going to work for everybody.

Imagine a society where pain is illegal and people's lives are arranged according to genetic predisposition and psychological profiles. Choice is not an option, the Compassionate Society watches over your happiness and arranges your life accordingly. Jobs, partners, entertainment, every little detail is looked after and interference is swiftly and thoroughly dealt with. In this designed utopia everybody is forced to be happy and there is no room for dissidents. That doesn't mean there isn't any opposition however. Many people find this life stiffing and the mediocrity of society too much to bear. A group of dissidents is struggling to get society moving again and try to push the Compassionate Society out of stagnation.

My first reaction after finishing the book was 'what the hell was he on when he wrote this?' The book is weird beyond measure really, filled to the brink with all sorts of strange science fictional notions, odd societal models, monstrous medical science and outlandish technology. Walking through Yu, this one vast city humanity is confined to, one wouldn't know where to look. In fact, you need to put your creativity and imagination into overdrive to imagine the city at all.

One thing is clear from the start. McDonald has been inspired by some of the classic dystopian novels. I'd say Orwell's 1984 in particular. The government he describes is oppressive in ways that makes Big Brother look like an amateur. The Ministry of Pain - what a lovely name for such an organisation - insists its tests are flawless and can only be made to admit a mistake every century or so. Its decisions are final and do not appear to be subject to any sort of restraint. Deviants are subjected to intensive reprogramming, essentially destroying entire personalities. All in the name of the greater good, preventing the population form experiencing pain. Sarcasm is counterproductive, satire banned, the ministry's choice of career and partner mandatory. The level of surveillance and censoring is staggering and even more devious than it appears to be in the opening pages of the novel.

The story follows a number of characters that have run afoul of the Ministry. Their acts of resistance have not gone unnoticed and they are forced to go underground. Often quite literally. McDonald takes them to parts of the city rarely seen by ordinary citizens and reveals the origins of the Compassionate Society to them. During their explorations of the dark underside of Yu they also uncover the ultimate threat to the city and humanity itself.

The journeys of the main characters frequently take on a surreal quality when they encounter yet another strange product of Compassionate Society. There are oracles with numerous additional body parts grafted onto them, machine deities, kings ruling over a sentient, genetically engineered raccoon people, and completely vertical societies (in more ways that one.) McDonald rushes through one strange concept after another, rarely taking the time to explore anything in depth. All of this is of course delivered in McDonald's trademark lyrical language. To keep up with him is a challenge in itself.

The main theme of the novel is clear though. Humanity needs to be in control of its own destiny to have a shot at survival. It needs to be free to make its own mistakes and engineer its own triumphs. It needs to be free to choose. Any kind of control over this process, or brake upon it, will result in the extinction of the species. In fact, some of the characters feel that the species is close to the point of no return in this novel. Looking at it from this angle, one interpretation could be that it's novel with a libertarian streak to it. This is not uncommon in science fiction but very atypical for McDonald when you think about it.

If I had to sum up my feelings about this book I guess I'd say that the barrage of ideas and strange cityscapes that McDonald unleashes on the reader goes at the expense of plot and characters. It doesn't help that he divides his attention over several point of view characters either. Sure, each has their motivations to challenge Compassionate Society but McDonald doesn't do that much with them beyond that. I felt that my attention was constantly being redirected to the next technological marvel or biological adaptation, without any of them really getting the attention they deserved. I tend to like books with strong worldbuilding but even for me, McDonald is being too elaborate here.

Out on Blue Six is a marvelous trip though a dystopian future but in the end I think McDonald doesn't manage to put all that creativity in the service of novel as a whole. That being said, there are people who absolutely adore this book. Author Cory Doctorow, who wrote the introduction to this edition, among them. For some readers this novel works, but I suspect it has a quite modest following. Creatively, McDonald pushed the style of his earlier work as far as it would go in this novel. So far in fact, that it feels erratic at times. I would advise people to try some of McDonald's other early work to see if it suits them before tacking this one.

Book Details
Title: Out on Blue Six
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Open Road Media
Pages: 302
Year: 2013
Language: English
Format: E-book
First published: 1989

Jaran - Kate Elliott

Jaran is my eighth read for the Women of Genre Fiction reading challenge. That means I'm finally more or less on schedule. It's the first book of a series of four, being released in e-book format by Open Road Media. They have been kind enough to provide me with a review copy of this first volume. Jaran was originally published in 1992. It was the first novel Elliott published under this pseudonym after her first three novels sold modestly. Since then, a steady stream of fantasy and science fiction novels have appeared. Definitely a notable voice in the genre for the past couple of decades, it is only fitting that I sample her work for this reading challenge.

After a brief expansion following the discovery of interstellar flight, humanity's empire has been incorporated into that of a more advanced and much older alien civilization. Their rule lies lightly on their subjects but not everybody is comfortable with it. Charles Soerensen starts a rebellion and when it fails is, incomprehensibly to most humans, rewarded with a position in the empires nobility. Lacking children, Charles appoints his much younger sister Tess to be his heir. She wants noting to do with it, preferring her studies in linguistics over a life of political intrigue but she is drawn into it nevertheless when she uncovers an intrusion into the fief of her brother but one of the alien factions. Against her better judgment. she decides to investigate the matter and ends up cut off from interstellar civilization, marooned on a planet with a pre-industrial society. It will take a continent spanning trek to get back in touch again with her brother. As time passes, Tess becomes increasingly unsure if getting back is what she really wants.

I guess you could call this novel science fiction, it has aliens and spaceships and incomprehensible technology after all. Most of the novel is set in a low tech environment however, giving much of the narrative more of a fantasy atmosphere. For good measure Elliott also adds a generous measure of romance to the story, making it something of a hybrid. I don't think fans of had science fiction will find this book to their liking but for readers who read across multiple genres, there is lot be be had here.

Most of the story revolves around Tess. There are short interluded featuring Charles scattered throughout the novel. They are mostly concerned with the search for his missing sister and his political manoeuvres. A lot of these scenes are used to impress on the reader that the planet Tess is on, is not quite what it seems. One unanswered question for instance, is how human beings came to populate it. From these sections it becomes quite clear that this book is the first volume in a much longer work. The bare outlines of what Charles is trying to do become clear but not much beyond that.

Tess' story is much more fleshed out. She faces a whole lot of challenges after being marooned. Learning a new language, adapting to among a nomadic tribe, learning to ride on horseback and use a saber and of course come to terms with the conflict between the duty she has to her family and the feeling she is developing for Ilya Bakhtiian, the leader of the tribe she is adopted into. A large part of the novel is devoted to the complicated relationship between Ilya and Tess and to be honest I thought it dragged a bit. Elliott is quite wordy throughout the novel. I think it could have been a bit more concise here and there.

Elliott uses the conflict between a group of fiercely independent nomadic tribes and encroaching agricultural civilizations as a source of conflict and the driving force for Ilya's actions. He is the man who can  unite the tribes and push back the settlers. There is a district echo of Gengis Kahn here. Ilya is a hard man, driven by an all consuming vision for the tribes. His struggle to unite them is probably harder than the campaign he means to wage against the settlers. The nomads are used to being divided into a thousand tribes, warring and feuding against each other. Their independence is ingrained in their culture, expressing itself in every aspect of life, from leadership to sexual morals. Ilya's ideas are unprecedented among the tribes, getting them to agree, by the strength of he personality, his strong arm or the power of his arguments, is half the victory. Ilya is arrogant, harsh, ruthless and apparently quite irresistible to Tess.

Tess' journey is not only physically demanding. Along the way she finds out that she wants different things from life than her brother envisions for her. She is torn between returning and staying with the tribes. Of course she is a well educated woman and quite aware what awaits the tribes once Ilya pushes them forward in battle. The universe is far larger than they can imagine and this knowledge presses on Tess. I think that aspect of the novel is a bit underexposed. The temptation to enlighten them must be overwhelming. Her brother, in a way, can't resist it.

Jaran is a novel that promises a lot for the next volume in the series and offers a decent story arc of its own. That said, it is not a particularly demanding read. If you can let yourself be carried away by Tess' dramatic journey it is a very entertaining read. There is a deeper layer to the novel that I would not have minded seeing more of however. For a novel with a print length of almost five hundred pages, it makes very little progress in the political intrigue that is introduced. It is a very good adventure novel but demands patience from the reader who wants more than that. I can see myself reading the next volume in between some heavier reading.

Book Details
Title: Jaran
Author: Kate Elliott
Publisher: Open Road Media
Pages: 496
Year: 2013
Language: English
Format: E-book
First published: 1992

The Broken Land - Ian McDonald

I've approached Ian McDonald's work completely out of the order of publication, staring with his short story collection Cyberabad Days in 2009. I've read all of his novels from River of Gods (2004) onwards by now but of his earlier work I've only read his debut Desolation Road (1988). Open Road Media is releasing four of McDonald's earlier works as e-books and were kind enough to supply me with a copy of The Broken Land (1992). This novel is one of several books where the American publisher picked a different title than the British one. In the UK the book was released as Hearts, Hands and Voices. I have no idea which title the author prefers. Either works well for me, although the more cryptic UK title might suit the style of the novel better.

In a far future humanity has discovered how to directly manipulate genetic material. This has lead to a revolution in society. Through genetics one can create just about every life form imaginable, catering to every need. It could be a paradise but a deep religious divide runs through the crumbling empire Mathembe Fileli calls home. The tension between Proclaimers and Confessors is rising and when the idyllic village of Chepsenyt is razed through the ground by the empire's forces a civil war erupts. Mathembe looses everything she ever knew and is separated from her family. A nightmarish trek though a war torn country ensues.

McDonald does not go easy on the reader in this book. It is one of the more challenging novels I've read this year. His style has changed a bit over the years from the equal parts magical realism and science fiction in Desolation Road to the more accessible plot and prose of The Dervish House. This novel is definitely closer in style to his debut. It is very poetic, at times surreal and includes lots and lots of strange imagery. All of which is made even more interesting by the fact that Mathembe doesn't speak. There are still dialogues in the novel of course, she does communicate, but they are not normal conversations. They include lots of non-verbal communication and people only partly understanding what she is trying to communicate.

The setting has an African flavour to it but the story is essentially an analogy of the political situation in Northern Ireland. McDonald has lived most of his life in Belfast, including the most intense years of the Troubles and this has shaped his writing. He sees the conflict in Northern Ireland as a post-colonial one and there is definitely something to be said for that. The story contains a religious conflict of course, and a once great empire trying to hold on to its last possessions,  but also the suppression of a language and the messy situation where militias from both sides enter into the fray. Ethnic cleansing, large numbers of displaced people, executions, destruction of property and every other form of terror imaginable show up in the novel. Both sides even go so far as to claim there is a genetic basis for the religious differences that separate them.

To add to the magical atmosphere of the book, McDonald has created a vision of future technology that is as strange as one may hope to encounter in science fiction. Almost all of it is based on living organic tissue. Construction, transportation, and communication are all aided by this new technology, resulting in some creatures and tools that are quite hard to wrap your head around. Even the afterlife The idea of being taken up in a vast organic matrix is an appealing one. Mathembe is very good at manipulating organic matter, something that comes in handy more than once.

Where most science fiction novels assume that technological progress will result in a more rational world where religion becomes less important or will completely disappear, McDonald's future shows a fusion of the messy organic science and religion. There is no sense that science will one day be able to explain everything or that the divine necessarily conflicts with science. They are seamlessly fused in the minds of some people, although the horrors of war do make some characters question their view of the world.

This story has a great many tragic elements in it, Mathembe deals with loss after loss and yet there is always hope an determination to drive her on. Hope of being reunited with her family, hope that she can keep her brother save, that she can drag her mother out of depression, that she can find her father. There is always the sense that no matter their religion, people are basically decent human beings and that differences can be overcome, that maybe the next refugee camp will hold what Mathembe is looking for. Silent, stubborn and resourceful, Mathembe is a protagonist you can feel for. She is one of the more fascinating characters I;ve come across in McDonald's books.

I've been thinking about how good a read this novel really is and I can't seem to make up my mind about it. The story is gripping and Mathembe a great character. I also liked the prose and McDonald's vision of what genetic research but I do think that for some readers the prose in particular is too much of a good thing. Some passages needed several rereads to be able to figure out what the author was trying to communicate, making the The Broken Land a slow read. Readers of main stream fiction might enjoy the prose but it is probably too much of a science fiction novel to have a great appeal for that market. It probably isn't a novel for a large audience. It probably takes a very specific kind of reader to fully enjoy what McDonald was trying to do here. I think I may lake a bit of patience with his prose. The poetic quality of his writing is still present in his later novels but reigned in a bit more. It is a matter of preference but for me, that later style works better.  Nevertheless, if you are looking for a science fiction novel that is challenging and offers both interesting concepts and a mastery of language, this novel would be a good choice. Just take your time reading it.

Book Details
Title: The Broken Land
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Open Road Media
Pages: 336
Year: 2013
Language: English
Format: E-book
First published: 1992

At Winter's End - Robert Silverberg

Since I have been reasonably productive over the past few weeks I decided to sign of for NetGalley the other day and look around for a few interesting new releases. Open Road Media was kind enough to provide me with this electronic version of Robert Silverberg's novel At Winter's End. It is the first part in a duology and is written after  his 1975-1980 retirement from writing science fiction. May people feel Silverberg produced his best work in the early 1970s but this later phase in his career has yielded a number of interesting novels. I don't think this one will be ranked as one of his best but it is a very interesting read nonetheless, especially for readers with a taste for post-apocalyptic fiction.

Hidden away in a cocoon a small group of 60 or so creatures is waiting for the end of an asteroid bombardment that has rocked to planet for hundreds of thousands of years. Their way of life has been shaped by the need to survive on few resources and keep sheltered form the falling debris and subsequent drop in temperature. But, as predicted by the ancients, the bombardment won't last forever. The signs of impending spring are felt by the community. When they discover their hideout is being threatened by huge Ice-eaters, it is the last push the need to leave what has been their home for countless generations and venture out into the empty world and reclaim it.

Silverberg takes an interesting approach to post-apocalyptic fiction in this novel. Such a huge expanse of time gapes between the civilized world that has been destroyed and the cold and desolate place our heroes discover on their departure that everything that was known about it, has turned into myth. One of the main characters, a boy named Hresh, is the keeper of a stack of ancient written records that have been handed down for generations, copied and then copied again, until the language appears archaic even to the trained mind of Hresh. In effect, they are facing the world like it is a new planet. There are things of things left behind but the truth hidden in the ancient text has to be rediscovered. Time and again Hresh and his tribe run into things that would be obvious to the reader but hard to accept for anyone not used to it. Silverberg obviously kept that in mind while writing the novel. He pays a lot of attention to the recapturing of concepts from a more complex society.

One of the first riddles Silverberg presents to the reader is the nature of out main characters. They think of themselves as humans, their chronicles tell them they are, but from the description it is obvious to the reader from the very first pages of the book, that they are not. Silverberg builds on this throughout the novel. He casts doubt on what has been written in the chronicles for one thing. This is something Hresh in particular, will be struggling with. He also provides the tribe with the quest of finding out about their origin. As the tribe comes across more and more hints that they are not what the ancients thought of as human, they are forced to redefine their position in the world, just as the reader is forced to question what it is that makes us human.

Another challenge that runs through the entire novels is the huge shift in focus, from a society that is forced to strictly regulate their numbers to one that has the space to expand rapidly. During their time in the cocoon, Silverberg's tribe have imposed an age limit on themselves. Voluntary death at the age of thirty-five to make space for the next generation. It's unclear what the natural lifespan for the species is, but it is quite a bit more than that. The age limit is one of the first taboos that is broken during the trip as the tribe needs everybody in order to replace their losses and build a new society. It one of many such taboos. There are others regarding mating and sex as well as restrictions of knowledge and very well defined social roles for each member of the tribe. When exposed to the outside world, all of these structures crumble and the tension this cause in the community inevitably results in conflicts.

At Winter's End is not an action-packed story but rather a tale that exposes the fault lines in the tribe's culture and stresses them to the maximum. We get to see a culture stressed to the breaking point, on the edge of violence and exposed to circumstances the ancient ones didn't prepared them for. Things get even more interesting when they find other survivors of the long winter. A group whose culture has drifted in quite a different direction. I thought is was interesting to see that in a world so empty, people can still find reasons to fight over possessions of territory.

Technically I suppose you could call this novel science fiction but with the treatment of the distant past as a time of myth and great wonders, it has a clear fantasy atmosphere to it. Maybe Silverberg felt the times were changing, anticipating the rise of fantasy at the expense of science fiction. This novel is a blend that will appeal to readers of both genres. There is a lot of things hidden in the text for the reader that points back to our world and more advanced civilizations but to the tribe, all the ancient stuff is mostly magic and work of the gods. Only a few characters try to understand what they see beyond placing it in their religious framework, introducing yet another source of conflict in the story.

There is more than meets they eye to this book. To a superficial reader it might seem a tad slow and in need of a good dose of action but it provides what a science fiction novel is supposed to provide, food for thought. And plenty of it. The position the characters find themselves in invariably mirrors some shift in the culture and societal structure of the people, and finding out what is going on on that level is perhaps even more fascinating that following the lives of the tribe's individual members. It is perhaps not the most interesting novel for those who like very character driven stories but if you like looking at the big picture, At Winter's End is a novel you'll enjoy.

Book Details
Title: At Winter's End
Author: Robert Silverberg
Publisher: Open Road Media
Pages: 404
Year: 2013
Language: English
Format: E-book
First published: 1988