Science Fiction

For some it may be utopia for others it is dystopia what Vernor Vinge pictures our society may look like in just a few years. Rainbows End offers an account of what technological (and medical) progress can mean for society and the individual.

There are several themes, though not necessarily original all of them are thought provoking. There is the “who watches the watchmen” theme in a world where computing power and interconnectedness allows the monitoring, profiling, and manipulation of individuals and crowds in real time. There is the advancement of personalized medicine and its failure to be beneficial for everyone to the same degree. There is the “smart devices and dumb people” theme (or should I say differently skilled people?); the technological progress puts a high toll on the older generation whose skills become obsolete (and subsequently needs a re-education to fit in the new world) and a high toll on the younger generation who lacks basic skills of today’s world. And there is the sad escape from reality into the virtual world, many distinct virtual worlds leading to a segmentation of society, a living side by side without a living with another.

Vinge’s novel is not an easy read and many things remain open, questions unanswered. Yet, this just contributes to a certain feeling of satisfaction: the novel not just entertains it makes you think. Well done!

Speaks the king to the priest: “You keep them ignorant, I keep them poor.”

Take some technologically advanced settlers; give them a means to reincarnate, i.e. transfer their mind, memories and skills to a fresh body once their old one becomes too frail, thus give them relative immortality; make them the rulers of their world. What will they do?

Roger Zelazny explores one possibility. In the Lord of Light the original colonists establish themselves as the gods of a Hindu society. By improving upon their own abilities in a hostile environment and obtaining a fresh body every once in a while they become the gods of their own descendants. Their descendants, however, do not share the god’s technological sophistication. There is neither a printing press nor indoor plumbing. In brief, they are kept ignorant. Hence, the more absolute is the power of the gods, the more complete is their domination of their world and people.

If it were not for the protagonist, Sam, a renegade First who wishes to bring a time of enlightenment, to accelerate development and free man from the shackles of their gods Light of Light would be a rather dystopian novel. Though he, too, tricks his fellow man. By introducing Buddhism as a rival religion to weaken the power of the false gods he employs the same shoddy tactics. Keep man ignorant about their fate.

I cannot help but wonder: Is this the true purpose of religion?

Even though science fiction is one of my favorite genres I seem to have read rather few SF novels recently. High time for another classic.

Grimwood’s Replay is such a classic.

Some science fiction novels or series just do not let their protagonists die, the protagonists enjoy or suffer from relative immortality and the story spans several thousand years telling the tale of changing society and technology. Other achieve basically the same by reincarnations or regeneration. Time goes on and on. The characters stay the same.

Grimwood does the opposite. Time repeats itself, again and again. It’s the protagonist that changes with each replay of his own life. Always dying at the same time, the same day in 1988, and then regaining consciousnesses in his own younger body to live his life again with the full knowledge of all his earlier experiences. Doing things differently, taking other paths than before he first seeks riches, then meaning, then happiness.

Grimwood achieves the perfect balance between detail and advancing the story. There is no razzle-dazzle, everything seems rather credible. Replay is thus an almost modest account of this afflicted man’s journey through life.

By withholding an explanation for the repeated replays Grimwood leaves the reader with one question: Why? Not getting an answer to this question may be disappointing for some. I think, however, it is a good choice.

Farmer’s second World of Tiers novel, The gates of Creation, is a bit of a disappointment. Its brevity and, admittedly, its innovative ideas for a number of artificial universes / planets that do not adhere to the common understanding of what planets are or should be speak in its favor. The novel’s characters are, however, underdeveloped, without personality and easily exchangeable. Without the first World of Tiers novel this novel’s protagonist would remain a total enigma.

This is quite a pity. There are a some good ideas that could be hammered out in more detail. However, whenever there is an opportunity for adventure and character development Farmer skips ahead advancing the rather weak plot. The few twist and turns do not help to make this whole sad and sorry little book more interesting. Instead, they feel like a last effort in showing some story telling skills. Famer’s Riverworld series is definitely his better work.

After the imaginative Riverworld series it was only a matter of time for me picking up another Farmer novel. The World of Tiers series seems to be rather closely related as, again, there is an artificial world, some alien überlords playing gods and a bunch of underlings gifted (?) with relative immortality. They can get killed, though they will not die of old age or illness.

Considering when Maker of Universes was written, Farmer sure shows some imagination and original ideas – at least others who came later (like Stargate) seem to have borrowed from him. Compared to more modern works Maker of Universes is short. Too short actually, part of the story advances so fast that you wonder what happened in between, when the protagonist learned something that he should not yet know, that the reader did not know so far. Despite this discrepancy between length of the novel and progress of the story this first novel in the World of tiers series will certainly not be the last one that I read.

Here is another instance of my last December’s book buying spree: Neal Stephenson’s Anathem. I loved this guy’s Cryptonomicon.

While being compelling Stephenson’s books also have a big downside, they are huge tomes. It takes ages to finish one – or rather you are so captivated that everything else is afflicted. I do not think that I will start his Baroque Cycle any time soon for that reason.

Yet, Anathem made it on my reading list. In contrast to Cryptonomicon it’s more obviously science fiction even though both novels won the Locus Award for the best science fiction novel. Anathem’s story does not even take place on Earth. Also in contrast to some of his other works it does not relate to (the advancement of and effects of) technology, its focus is much more philosophical. Thus, as a side effect you’ll learn something about Philosophy.

I’d like to point to a similarity and contrast to a completely unrelated work. As Tolkien did, so does Stephenson. Both invented a new language that is spoken in their fictional worlds. Both authors like to sidetrack from the actual plot and include lengthy elaborations. Granted, Stephenson did not go to the same length as Tolkien when inventing a new language, his diversions are, however, certainly not shorter. Yet, they do not feel like diversions at all. They are integral for the story. And this is something that many (me not included, though) do not seem to feel about Tolkien’s detailed elaborations on Middle-earth’s landscape. I think this clearly speaks in favor of Stephenson.