Voyage | Clay's Ark | Exodus from the Long Sun

Voyage

The Martian odyssey that might have been

• Voyage
• By Stephen Baxter
• HarperPrism
• $23.00/$32.50 Canada
• Hardcover, Jan. 1997

ven with the recent discovery of what might be fossils of microscopic Martian life, the idea of a manned expedition to Mars seems speculative and remote. Yet in 1969, when Neil Armstrong left the first human footprint on the moon, many saw Mars as the next logical step.

If things had gone just a little differently, Stephen Baxter argues in his alternate-history novel Voyage, the U.S. might have gone on to launch a manned Mars mission in the 1980s.

In real life, Richard Nixon slashed NASA's budget after the first moon landings and came close to killing the space program altogether. In Baxter's timeline, NASA endures equally severe cutbacks, but Nixon ends up approving a Mars mission instead of the space shuttle and unmanned missions such as the Voyager probes to the outer planets.

Voyage's story line switches between an account of the journey of three NASA astronauts to the red planet and flashbacks bridging the years between Apollo XI and the launch of the Ares on its year-long journey to Mars. Leading the large cast of characters is geologist Natalie York, who starts out contemptuous of the space program and its boorish fighter-jock astronauts. But she becomes fascinated by Mars and ends up joining NASA, sacrificing marriage, parenthood and a respectable academic career for a chance -- a very small chance -- of studying an alien geology up close.

British writer Baxter built a reputation for exotic but carefully thought-out settings and concepts in books such as Raft, Flux and The Time Ships, his critically acclaimed 1995 sequel to H.G. Wells' The Time Machine.

Voyage, by contrast, is grounded almost entirely in present-day science and technology. The Ares spacecraft is barely more advanced than the Skylab space station of the 1970s, and Baxter makes readers keenly aware of just how fragile, complicated and failure-prone real-life spacecraft are. A series of references to the Challenger disaster of the real-world timeline casts a menacing shadow over the story.

In his quest for near-documentary realism, Baxter sometimes piles on the technical and bureaucratic details and engulfs the reader in a blizzard of acronyms. But his approach also allows him to create passages of heart-thumping suspense. The journey of the Ares is gripping and wondrous.

Baxter also builds solid drama out of the earthbound happenings, the jockeying of engineers, astronauts, aerospace contractors and NASA administrators, many driven to obsession by the dream of space flight.

Baxter is clearly wistful about this missed opportunity without idealizing his alternate timeline. The Ares mission, like the Apollo lunar expeditions, is a combination of political P.R. stunt, an expensive fulfillment of juvenile power fantasies, and a transcendent and noble human endeavor.

An absorbing and wholly believable adventure. And you'll learn more about going to the bathroom in space than you may ever want to know. -- Curt

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Clay's Ark

Aliens try to conquer humanity from within

• Clay's Ark
• By Octavia E. Butler
• Warner Aspect
• $5.99/Canada $6.99
• Paperback, Dec. 1996

n a car trip through the Southern California desert, Dr. Blake Maslin and his twin daughters are kidnapped by what seems to be a gang of sickly-looking carjackers with strangely enhanced senses and almost superhuman strength. Instead of robbing them or ransoming them, the kidnappers -- under the direction of the unexpectedly humane ringleader, Eli -- take the Maslins to an isolated farm, where they tell them a bizarre tale of being infected with an extraterrestrial organism that has changed them, turned them into something both more and less than human.

Separated from one another and pulled inexorably deeper into the mystery, Blake and his twin daughters -- the tough, impulsive Rane and the shy, fragile Keira -- must each decide whether they want to accept the strange new life into which they have been drawn or to try to escape their fate. Personal as these decisions appear, they find that there are wide-reaching consequences of any choice they make -- not only for themselves and the community of kidnappers, but for the rest of the world and the survival of humanity itself.

In this compact little alien-invasion thriller, Octavia Butler creates a surprisingly complex and affecting tale about the nature of humanity. The story of the Maslin's ordeal is paralleled by the flashback story of Eli's first experiences with the invasion of his own flesh by the alien organism and his fight to remain human in spirit, despite a new set of decidedly inhuman genetic imperatives. At the same time, the human society of 21st century North America -- the supposed civilization from which the Maslins have been torn -- is shown as being capable of producing the same kind of inhuman behavior as the alien organism, giving a nice counterpoint to the struggles of the main characters.

This is no message book, however. It is a strongly plotted story, fast-paced and full of vividly drawn characters. Butler does an amazing job of detailing entire lives, places and societies in just a few words. The action is strong -- at times brutal and harrowing -- and the ending is both surprising and inherent to what has gone before. It's a short book, though, -- only about 200 pages -- and while this, combined with Butler's compact writing style, ensures a tight story, the resultant headlong rush into climax seems to short-change some of the characters -- denying them time to fully resolve their intense inner struggles.

This is only a minor complaint, however and all in all, Clay's Ark manages to be a powerful little story with implications about what makes us human that will continue to resonate with readers long after the book is finished.

Clay's Ark was originally published back in 1984, but Butler's receipt of a MacArthur "genius" Grant in 1995 has renewed interest in her work. Warner Aspect's reissue of this and several other early works provides a good chance for readers to get acquainted (or re-acquainted) with this excellent science fiction writer. -- LRC

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Exodus from the Long Sun

The long journey is almost over

• Exodus from the Long Sun
• By Gene Wolfe
• Tor Books
• $23.95/$34.95 Canada
• Hardcover, Nov. 1996

atera Silk, now calde of Viron, has been rescued from the Ayuntamiento in Gene Wolfe's Exodus from the Long Sun, the final volume of The Book of the Long Sun. But the surviving councillors of the Ayuntamiento still have an army loyal to them hidden in the vast network of underground tunnels. And there is growing tension between the Vironese loyal to Silk and the leaders of the Trivigaunti troops who have come to help overthrow the Ayuntamiento.

In the aftermath of battle, Silk is searching for missing friends, especially the woman he loves, Hyacinth, and Auk, the thief who has helped him in the past. And General Mint, leader of the civilian insurgents, and Patera Remora, the second-ranking priest in Viron, have been captured by Councillor Potto, who threatens to torture them. Silk's friend, the thief Auk, meanwhile, received instructions from the god Tartaros to reach Mainframe and help carry out the plans of Pas, the father of the gods. They must leave the Whorl for a new home. Auk, now Tartaros's prophet, has gained a large following of his own.

Silk, seeking peace for his city, has a secret meeting with two members of the Ayuntamiento. He tries to offer the councillors a deal to bring peace and restore the city's charter. But the Trivigauntis find out about the meeting and arrest Silk and his advisors, including Auk. And the time is approaching when Auk must lead the people from the Whorl to their new home.

Exodus from the Long Sun is a brilliant conclusion to another Wolfe masterpiece. Throughout the series, he has built a fascinating culture within Viron, where the technology that enabled the building of the Whorl is mostly forgotten, and the electronic remnants of the founders are worshipped as gods. Its residents no longer even remember that it's a spaceship and think of it as the entire universe. And it helps that the electronic remnants of the gods make appearances on old computer monitors, possess characters occasionally, and issue edicts. This religion is particularly fascinating -- a bizarre synthesis of pagan polytheism and the trappings of Catholicism. In the final volume, Wolfe explores beyond Viron, and shows us how vast the Whorl really is, both culturally and physically.

But as wonderful as the mythology and history of the Whorl are, Wolfe's real wonders are his characters and the political and spiritual events they encounter. In one remarkable scene near the end of the novel, for instance, just as Silk and his followers are nearing success, Silk questions not only his own motivations, but the trustworthiness of companions. He's introspective by nature, but it's rare in science fiction to find a hero quite this honest and flawed simultaneously.

The myriad of ideas here should quiet anyone worried about whether the sense of wonder is missing from modern science fiction. This series is one of Wolfe's greatest works.

As always, Wolfe treats us liberally to stunning images, witty insights, and elegant prose. It's high art and great fun at the same time, and you can't ask for more than that.-- Clint

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