aya was never meant to be their home. For
generations, they have negotiated an existence on its
harsh surface, riddled with active volcanoes and
unforgiving frozen tundras. Some have it
better than others. The Changed are a species of humanoids that have
had their DNA altered over hundreds of years so that
they possess a genetic makeup supposedly superior to
the other "merely human" inhabitants of the planet.
This ultimately enables them to interface with
the Exchange, the supercomputer AI that, at one time housed
on the crashed colony ship once occupied by all the descendents of Maya, is now the organizing principle that
keeps the communities of Maya running.
Such a makeup also leaves the Changed unable to
handle the harsh climate of Maya, so they rule from a
luxurious, protective Dome that sits atop the
Mountain. Their Xanadu overlooks Babelion, a run-down
and grossly overcrowded city that is constantly short
on resources; this is the place where the merely human
live their "primitive," mundane lives of discontent,
worship their "ridiculous" gods and indulge their
"impure" flesh.
Yet, in this harsh world of strictly delineated rules and roles there are a few exceptions, and a few exceptional beings. And it is the lives and the
actions of these beings that will determine the fate
of the world. It all starts with a young woman named
Della, a member of the Changed who, in her own
iconoclastic way, took a lover in one of the humans, a
rebel by the name of Arsen. Their union produced a
child, named Anselm, whose father died a martyr, even
a demigod, and whose mother never revealed to him his
true parentage. And it is in Anselm's journey of
self-discovery, aided and abetted by a mysterious and
wise woman named Auntie Suu-Suu, that the real
conflict begins.
An intriguing mystic meditation
Part epic journey, part political thriller, part
philosophical and spiritual meditation, and part
science-fiction mystery, Rebel Sutra is an
emotionally involving novel of great power and
eloquence, though a little awkward and incomplete in
the realizations of all its aims.
The religion of the merely human is primarily
Hinduism, and author Shariann Lewitt has infused her
book with effective amounts of mysticism and
philosophy, all interestingly adjusted to fit a
futuristic, alien landscape. Her characters, both
Changed and human alike, speak with a certain force
and distinctive voices (if slightly affected at
times). The environments of Maya--the likes of Xanadu
and Babelion, the fiery volcanoes and the desolate and
frozen plains--are also distinctly and exquisitely
represented.
The narrative basically has three points of view:
it begins with a long journal entry by Della
(addressed to her son), ends with one by Anselm, and
is interspersed throughout with a few by Auntie
Suu-Suu--a "Tinker," part gypsy and part
scientist--whose influence and observations tie much of
the plot of the novel together. This narrative
does take awhile to get up to pace and
occasionally drags a bit. Sometimes the many internal
meditations of the characters feel like mantras, but
sometimes they just feel repetitive.
The novel is packed with considerations of "big
issues" of all kinds. There's the mixed and
complicated considerations of history, of power,
gender, fate, politics, class, karma, genetics,
prejudice, love and hate, joy and sorrow, death
and--of course--rebellion. Allegory abounds. But
that's a lot of things for readers to consider, and
while the book's breadth and depth do mesh many of
these elements effectively into the action of the
tale, some of them do get left hanging and unresolved,
particularly as the story moves towards its
conclusion. Though perhaps some things are being left
for a sequel, for which the novel definitely leaves
itself open.
