olin Laney lives in a cardboard box in a Tokyo subway station. A
former data analyst for a tabloid TV show, Laney is now a sort of mad
prophet. Growing up in an orphanage, Laney received an experimental drug
that has given him the ability to perceive hidden patterns in vast oceans
of data. Laney now sees the "mother of all nodal points," heralding an
unspecified event that will profoundly and irrevocably transform the
world.
Reclusive billionaire Cody Harwood also feels the winds of change, and
he's willing to take drastic steps to make sure that he emerges on the
other side of the nodal point with his wealth and power intact. He hires
a team of thugs to hunt down Berry Rydell, an ex-cop recruited by Laney
to go to San Francisco on a mysterious errand.
Others swept up by events include Rydell's former girlfriend Chevette,
who's fled to San Francisco to get away from an abusive ex-lover, and Rei
Toi, a computer-generated celebrity, or idoru.
Like a band of motley magi following the Star of Bethlehem, Rydell and
company converge on the locus of the predicted cataclysm: the San
Francisco-Oakland Bay bridge. Closed to traffic after an earthquake, the
bridge has become a bizarre shantytown. The community's raffish charm
threatens to turn the bridge into a tourist trap; Chevette is horrified
to find a Lucky Dragon convenience store at the entrance to the bridge.
However, the Lucky Dragon, the pinnacle of banal 21st-century
consumerism, has a key role to play in the imminent End of the World as
We Know It.
Motley magi in a shantytown Bethlehem
All Tomorrow's Parties is a continuation of Gibson's earlier books Virtual
Light and Idoru. Gibson made a conspicuous break with his
cyberpunk roots in those novels, creating near-future narratives notable for
their maturity, sophistication and strong, thoughtful characterization.
Sometimes the books were also kind of dull.
All Tomorrow's Parties carries on the traditions of its
predecessors, except for the dull parts. Where Virtual Light and
Idoru lapsed into sluggishness, this one moves along with
precision and economy.
As always, Gibson's writing is stylish and assured. In earlier works
the brilliant glare of his virtuoso prose threatened to overshadow the
story. Here Gibson reins in the verbal pyrotechnics to make room for
sharp wit, a vivid portrayal of 21st century America, and an engaging
procession of quirky, often beleaguered characters. There still isn't
much of a story, but Gibson is one of the rare writers who can get away
with that.
What he can't get away with is failing to provide clear-cut objectives
for the bad guy. The "nodal point" involves nanotechnology, but Gibson
never spells out what Harwood is trying to accomplish, or prevent.
Readers acquainted with nanotechnology can make some educated guesses,
but there's no answer key at the back of the book.
When the earth-shaking "nodal point" finally emerges from convenience
stores around the world, the results are both hilarious and
anticlimactic. It's a 2001-style apotheosis, or perhaps the Second
Coming, in the guise of a sophomoric practical joke. The world will never
be the same again, but it should be pretty interesting.
reated in the likeness of musician David Bowie, Carleton is an android
from a production batch well known for its eccentricity. Exposure to his
employers--a pair of stand-up comedians named Muscroft and Ashby--has not
helped a bit. In fact, it has left him intent on understanding the mechanics
of comedy. Even though he has no sense of humor and cannot grasp even simple
irony, Carleton embarks on a detailed and secret study of the two comedians
as they tour the solar system in pursuit of the ultimate booking--a show on
Mars.
As a first step, the duo auditions for a contract to work the cruise
liner Princess Di. There Muscroft is smitten with Katy Wallace, the
mistress of the cruise ship's owner. It is an unfortunate crush--a
mysterious old man is trying to contact Katy, and terrorists are willing to
commit massacres to prevent the two of them from meeting. When a careless
remark by Muscroft kills the team's hopes for a Princess Di gig, they
are diverted to the H9 colony, where this meeting is to take place. In short
order a friend of Muscroft's is murdered. Naturally, he is suspected of
committing the crime.
All of this activity provides ample research material for Carleton, who
is still attempting to master irony when the H9 colony suffers a disastrous
accident. As the comedians' ship drifts helplessly into an asteroid belt,
the Bowie 4.5 android continues to probe the co-dependent mysteries of
comedy and human existence. The cruise ship fills with refugees, spies, and
mad bombers while the comedians blunder deeper into trouble. Carleton must
unravel the conspiracy that threatens his employers and, more importantly,
his comedic research.
But will he get the joke before it's too late?
Always look on the bright side of life
Eric Idle's The Road to Mars is a mix of light comedy,
science fiction, and thriller, and it's ambitious too, offering readers more
than just a few cheap laughs. Carleton's quest to understand comedy provides
genuine insight into humor and its place in human culture. At times the
narrative, interspersed as it is with the android's observations and
analysis, is faintly reminiscent of the fiction of Connie Willis. Readers
who are fans of stand-up and sketch comedy--and especially those fans of Eric
Idle's work in the comedy troupe Monty Python--will enjoy seeing this world as presented
through the SF lens.
This novel has much to recommend it. The SF elements of the story are
well-integrated and the science, what there is of it, is solid and
convincing. Carleton's story is told in an appealing voice, and the book is
very readable. It is also delightfully funny. Idle's voice is clear and his
prose perfectly evokes the cockeyed world of the Princess Di. The
disaster which befalls H9 is especially vivid, one of the book's best
passages. The subsequent celebrity rush to exploit the refugees is all too
believable.
Unfortunately, the plot grows increasingly muddled with every chapter
and resolves itself--barely--in an unsatisfying melee. This
leaches away much of the book's potential humor as well as its suspense.
Readers will also find that while Carleton's research pays adequate
attention to the contributions of women comedians, the novel's on-stage
female characters fall into two distinct categories: shrewish control freaks
and helpless victims.
The result is a book that provides plenty of entertainment, but
ultimately fails to deliver its promised payoff.
