stepped into the Department foyer off the underground garage. Like everything in DPS, the foyer was done in muted gray and forest-green. Smelled like pine, roses, with an overtone of oil. I released the hold on the gatekeeper, could feel the rush of data pouring into me, then the priority override.
"Lieutenant Chiang! Captain Cannizaro wants you soon as you're on duty."
Even on link, I recognized Sarao's voice and back-linked. "On my way."
This passage from L.E. Modesitt Jr.'s new science-fiction thriller Archform: Beauty sets the tone for a lot of what is to come. The novel is told in very immediate, punchy, first-person narration which challenges the reader to keep up with the action and glean hints about the technologies the narrators take for granted.
Archform: Beauty takes place a few decades in the future, in what could briefly be described as the typical cyberpunk society. Nearly everyone has an implanted "link" allowing direct mental access to something akin to the Internet; civilization is centered on rowdy sprawling megacities; and there is a richer, seemingly cleaner colonial society in space which, while human, is at the same time alien to the left-behind Earthers' daily experience.
Elements of our own society survive in this vision, but everything is accelerated and interdependent to a degree unknown today. Plagues, wars and fads spark, spread and disappear in days or weeks, as linked humanity endlessly churns against itself.
Rushing through this staccato world is a quintet of narrators, all somehow involved in a series of crises plaguing their city, and each representing one of the archetypes of the crime story: police inspector Chiang, reporter Parsfal, politician Cannon, gangster Kemal, girl singer Cornett. The first four are players, manipulating this future world in order to extract or conceal information, while the fifth, a beautiful music teacher as well as singer, is a pawn, but is also the book's moral center, yearning for a more cultured past while struggling in her way to bring the best of it into the future.
The narration rotates quickly among their limited viewpoints, and through these it is gradually revealed how a barrage of suicides, accidents and larger events that afflict this cyberworld are all connected—and perhaps—directed.
A complex plot both hyper and linked
Connection is a vital theme of Archform: Beauty. The characters, although initially isolated and mostly not knowing one another, live in a society so interlinked that even strangers can have a profound impact on each other's lives. They are buffeted by the same forces, and their reactions to these forces have consequences far beyond their personal horizons.
This connection is most vividly portrayed by the ubiquitous "link," which is simultaneously phone system (including VR answering machines), television, library and something akin to a telepathic astral plane. Through this link the five narrators keep tabs on a large web of other characters and events.
Contrasting with this connection between the characters is the lack of communication between them. They are five individuals in a society of millions, and are not especially inclined to speak freely with strangers. This contrast is very effective at creating tension, as the reader can feel how the characters will be pulled together before they themselves are aware of it. In the second half of the book, as the characters start to pull together (characteristically first via link, only later in person) the excitement of them sharing information and working together to prevent calamity transforms the novel from an interesting speculation into a genuine page-turner. This connection vs. communication dynamic is a common theme in the thriller genre, but the way Modesitt uses future technology to incarnate it is inspired.
The other major theme of Archform: Beauty is music. Professor Cornett thinks constantly about it, and it is through her that music's twofold relevance becomes apparent. On the plot level, the characters are brought together by a new form of music called RezPop, which uses harmonic resonance to create profound involuntary emotional response in listeners and which may or may not be at the center of everyone's problems. On a deeper level, there is a suggestion that interlinkage has transformed all of society into some sort of symphony, with the narrators, whose names have an almost Dickensian poetry to them, as the soloists.
Not to say that the resulting symphony is flawless. This is partly a direct result of the first-person narration, which necessitates a balancing act between leaving the reader confused about the futuristic aspects of the society and having characters spend time thinking about and explaining things that should be too common for them to notice. Most of the time it works, but in a few places I felt Modesitt erred in one direction or the other.
A more serious problem for me was the ending, which I felt was far too pat given the complexity that had led to it. This, however, is the sort of complaint that can only be made about an otherwise admirable book.
On the whole, therefore, Archform: Beauty is quite interesting and exciting, both in its plot and in the way it combines the science fiction and thriller genres. Bravo.
