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Spares
Cloning promises longevity and an infinite supply of fresh body parts...just not for the clones
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Spares
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By Michael Marshall Smith
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Bantam Books
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$22.95
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Hardcover, May 1997
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ISBN 0-553-10604-X
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Review by Susan Dunman
 ichael Smith offers a disturbing vision of America 100 years in the future where the rich get richer, the poor get shafted and the wall between economic classes becomes increasingly impenetrable. At the very bottom of the social heap is Jack Randall, an ex-cop who agrees to be caretaker of a "farm" that raises humans as replacement parts for wealthy clients. Unable to tolerate this inhumane situation, Jack escapes from the farm with six "spares" in tow and heads for New Richmond.
New Richmond resembles an urban metropolis but is actually a huge aircraft five miles square and 200 stories high that was inexplicably grounded 83 years earlier near Richmond, Virginia. The immobilized craft has been gradually transformed into a bizarre, self-contained city that Jack calls home. Jack's efforts to protect the spares fail miserably. The spares are captured by unknown assailants and Jack's best friend, Mal, is ruthlessly gunned down.
Jack believes these events have been orchestrated by the same gang lord who destroyed his career as a police officer. When he decides to avenge both the wrongs of the past and the trespasses of the present, the by-ways of New Richmond become a hunting ground where predator and prey are often indistinguishable.
The clues relating to Mal's murder and the whereabouts of the spares seem to lead in three different directions. While key players in the underworld scene are likely candidates, they also point to New Richmond's wealthiest citizen, Arnold Maxen. Even more baffling is the appearance of war veterans thought to have perished in a foreboding parallel universe called the Gap.
A future Detective Columbo on drugs
The dog-eat-dog world of a depressingly bleak future is vividly portrayed in this detective novel with cyberpunk overtones. Gritty and almost surreal, the urban sprawl of New Richmond is portrayed in all its grimy glory.
Most of the characters are like the scenery, dark shadows illuminated momentarily only to fade back into oblivion. The one shining light that will attract readers is Jack. As the central character and anti-hero of this story, Jack tells the tale in his own words, and his words are a delight to read. For example, this is the gun-toting detective's take on weaponry:
"Guns are one of the many things which haven't changed as much as everyone thought they would. Sure, there was a period when you saw laser pistols in the streets...they were just a bit plasticky. When you go marching into some bad situation you want to be racking a shell into a pump-action shotgun. It feels right. It feels tough. It scares the shit out of the other guy. Nervously fingering a little switch wasn't visceral enough and neither was the sound the lasers made. You don't want something that goes tzzz or schvip. You want something which goes CRACK! or BANG! Trust me; I know what I'm talking about."
Even though he has a foul mouth, a foul disposition and likes to blow ne'er-do-wells away, it's impossible not to like the guy. That said, those with weak stomachs may be put off by the fairly constant depiction of bodies in unpleasant states of demise.
The worlds of New Richmond and the mysterious Gap reveal intriguing environments which eerily reflect social conditions within them. Guiding readers through this unfamiliar territory is Jack, who must come to terms with his own horrific war experiences, tattered family relationships, and ruinous drug addiction before finding the answers that will bring him peace.
I marked so many passages to go back and read again that it will be easier to just re-read the entire book. -- Susan
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The Road to Science Fiction, Volume 4: From Here to Forever
James Gunn's historical review of science fiction continues...
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The Road to Science Fiction, Volume 4: From Here to Forever
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Ed. by James Gunn
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Borealis
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$14.99/$19.99 Canada
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Trade Paperback
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ISBN 156504-822-9
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Review by Clinton Lawrence
 n The Road to Science Fiction, Volume 4: From Here to
Forever, editor James Gunn collects 32 short stories and one novel excerpt, covering the years 1950 to 1988. As with the previous volumes, Gunn's purpose is to trace the historical development of science fiction. A large portion of this volume overlaps the years covered in Volume 3, but Gunn's emphasis has shifted, from the development of science fiction concepts to science fiction's literary development. As he states it, Volume 4 "attempts to remedy some of the omissions from the earlier volumes" and emphasizes "the quality of the writing rather than the quality of the visions."
Gunn opens the anthology with a long introductory essay, in which he discusses the literary developments in SF since the Golden Age. Each story includes an introduction, in which Gunn gives an overview of the author's career, and comments on the specific story included. The stories themselves are a diverse lot, all well-known, that demonstrate a wide variety of styles and techniques. Gunn doesn't confine himself to English-language science fiction, either. He includes Jorge Luis Borges' classic "The Library of Babel" and the very funny Stanislaw Lem story "The First Sally (A), or Trurl's Electronic Bard." In contrast to Volume 3, the stories in this volume quite frequently veer towards surrealism, and many of the stories overtly use mainstream literary techniques. As Gunn states, this may well be a consequence of the increasing entry into science fiction by writers trained in the humanities rather than the sciences.
An outstanding collection of stories...
The Road to Science Fiction, Volume 4 is an outstanding anthology, full of great writing. Gunn presents an excellent selection of fiction in a manner which effectively shows the changes in techniques over the period. Better yet, his analysis is on target throughout. The anthology demonstrates the development of science fiction into a first-class literature in a way that casual readers will comprehend and that more serious students of the field will appreciate.
The main impression, more so than from Volume 3, from this volume is the diversity of the field. In Volume 3, most of the stories -- if they were not completely traditional -- at least avoided blurring the lines between science fiction and related genres. Here, Gunn's choices among the later stories very effectively demonstrate how, beginning in the 1960s, writers began tearing down the ghetto walls. At the same time, even in stories with a solid traditional science fiction heritage, the narrative techniques incorporate the methods and the feel of contemporary mainstream fiction.
Gunn devotes some space in various places to the style vs. content controversy that has raged within the field since the 1960s. On the whole, the stories themselves reveal that the most effective literature is strong in both areas.
The Road to Science Fiction, Volume 4 is a necessity for anyone who wants to read the best short science fiction published over the last several decades.
It's been a real treat to read many of these stories again, and a number for the first time. This series is a great resource for learning about how science fiction became what it is. -- Clint
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Celestis
Can humans and aliens ever truly understand each other?
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Celestis
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By Paul Park
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Tor Books
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$13.95/$19.95 Canada
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Trade Paperback, April 1997
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ISBN 0-312-86285-7
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Review by Curt Wohleber
 efore humans showed up, the inhabitants of the planet Celestis knew nothing of art, music or technology. When human colonists arrived, they freed the Aboriginals from their telepathic masters, the Demons, who now verge on extinction. The liberated Aboriginals have embraced the ways of humanity, routinely undergoing surgery and drug treatments that enable them to appear and behave more like humans. But the Aboriginals may have lost far more than they have gained, and after 70 years of peaceful coexistence, the humans and aliens are headed for a bloody showdown.
When a group of Aboriginal guerillas attacks the estate of a wealthy human family, they slaughter the family and take two prisoners: human diplomat Simon Mayaram and Katharine Styreme, a thoroughly humanized Aboriginal.
Deprived of the drugs that make her almost human, Katharine's alien traits begin to emerge. With Simon, she embarks on perhaps the strangest interspecies love affair in the annals of science fiction, a coupling of souls that are light years apart. To the increasingly alien Katharine, sex has nothing to do with love; in fact, sex doesn't have much to do with sex as humans know it, for in their natural state the Aboriginals are genderless.
Simon and Katharine are eventually set free, left to fend for themselves on the planet's night side (Celestis rotates once every 19,000 years). In the cold, dark desert, Katharine rediscovers states of perception and consciousness unknown to humans. Dreams, memories, language and symbols become tangible, living presences that overlay the bleak landscape of Celestis with rich and powerful visions. She also encounters one of the last surviving Demons, who were perhaps not quite so demonic after all, or at least they weren't until humans made them into monsters.
Strangers in a strange land
In Celesis, Paul Park (Soldiers of Paradise, Cult of Loving Kindness) deliberately flouts many of the expectations readers bring to science fiction novels. The plot doesn't really go anywhere; Simon and Katharine's journey ends neither in triumph nor tragedy. Near the end of the book, a human missionary pretty much sums things up: "You think this is something where you decide on a plan and it's the best plan and you do it? ...No, we're just wandering around in circles lying to each other, trying to do whatever we can. Everyone knows a little part of the truth....It's been like that from the beginning."
Park even shuns high-tech props and settings. An abandoned space elevator looms over the landscape, but just about everything else seems to come from the 20th century: Coke cans litter the ground, a shortwave radio picks up a rock and roll station, and everyone drives around in gasoline powered trucks. When Simon uses a relatively mundane science fictional prop, a radiation suit, he's embarrassed about it: "...Simon felt absurd, in costume for a play."
The strange yet apparently deliberate anachronisms give readers a not-so-subtle hint that Celestis is about humanity's past and present as much as its future, about western civilization's often ruinous encounters with native cultures around the world. The evil of imperialism isn't exactly a new theme in literature, but Celestis is one of the most elegant science fictional explorations of this theme, steering clear of self-righteous sermonizing and creating a vivid and surreal world of loss, desperation and failed communication.
Celestis is a powerful and haunting tale, though a bit more murky and pessimistic than it absolutely has to be. Pessimism can be a welcome, even necessary antidote to endless stories of cardboard, white, male superheroes. But Park portrays a human race that is fundamentally deluded and incompetent, a perspective that is neither helpful nor realistic.
Not exactly a fun read, but I was fascinated by Park's portrayal of a genuinely alien culture. -- Curt
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