emains, the latest novel by Philip K. Dick Award finalist Mark W. Tiedemann, combines science fiction with a suspenseful mystery story set in the not-too-distant future.
A cave-in on Mars kills 89 people, one of whom may be Helen Croslo, the wife of Mace Preston, corporate security officer for PolyCarb Intra-Solar on Mars. What at first looks like an accident may actually be sabotage; while investigating, without his company's authorization, at the site of the accident, Mace trips a mine that should not have been there and is injured. As he recovers, he learns that Helen, who may or may not be a victim, since her body has not been found, is suspected of being the saboteur. Concerned about his wife and expecting to be reassigned to work, Mace is instead strongly encouraged to declare his wife dead and is soon being escorted to a space vessel bound for Aea, the habitat that was Helen's original home.
Mace's story is interwoven with that of Nemily Dollard, a cyberlink who leaves the insular settlements of Lunase for the more open culture of Aea. Without her "augments," the modules that she plugs into herself to heighten various sensations or to process particular kinds of experiences, Nemily is troubled and uncertain of her own feelings. When she and Mace meet, he finds himself falling in love with her but soon realizes that Nemily may be connected with a conspiracy of terrorists that involves most of the solar system. She may also hold the key that can unlock the truth about what has happened to his lost wife.
Hard-boiled prose and plot
Readers looking for a suspenseful and well-plotted story will find it hard to put Remains down. This is a propulsive narrative, intelligently told, with a wealth of meticulously depicted technical details. Tiedemann also has a gift for characterization. Nemily and Mace succeed in the roles they are meant to fill here, those of the hard-boiled detective and the mysterious and seductive woman. Other characters, such as Mace's associate Cambel Guerrara, the "vacuum" trader and violent criminal Glim Toler, and the shady but well-connected club owner Reese, are both necessary to the plot and well-depicted characters that illuminate some of the darker corners of Tiedemann's complex and plausible future societies.
The author also has a gift for inventing convincing and genuine technological details, along with a crisp and clean prose that makes this book a novel that should both satisfy science fiction fans and be accessible to readers unfamiliar with the genre. Some may find that Tiedemann's hard-boiled style hews a bit too closely to that of its ancestors in detective and crime fiction, but it's a style that's appropriate to the material. It's not hard to envision Remains as the basis for an updated, futuristic film noir.
Tiedemann also accomplishes one trick that's difficult to pull off in science fiction, that of writing what turns out to be a closed mystery while playing fair with the reader. Remains is a solid and intelligent entertainment.
