Flesh and Gold
Sex and money...interests haven't changed much in a few thousand years
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Flesh and Gold
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By Phyllis Gotlieb
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Tor Books
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$23.95/$29.95 Canada
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Hardback, Feb. 1998
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ISBN 0-312-86523-6
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Review by Susan Dunman
 n the distant future, myriad life forms make up the Galactic Federation, and greed and corruption are universal traits among sentient beings. A large part of the Federation's function is to uphold the law and dispense justice, a task taken on by circuit judges Thordh and Skerow, who traverse the galaxy holding court and sentencing the guilty. Hailing from the planet Khagodis, the judges resemble small allosaurus dinosaurs. Weighing hundreds of pounds and standing seven feet high, these brain-searing telepaths command attention in any courtroom. But while working on the dark, grimy planet of Starry Nova, Thordh unexpectedly excuses himself from his last case and asks Skerow to take over.
Skerow agrees, but she is surprised when a prisoner claims that Judge Thordh previously arranged a light sentence for his serious crimes. Anxious to confront Thordh with this accusation, the lumbering Skerow takes a shortcut through the seedier side of town to Thordh's apartment. Passing the Zamos brothel, she notices a mermaid-like creature on display in a huge water-filled glass bubble. Like Skerow, the creature is telepathic and communicates that she was enslaved by others from Khagodis and is being held in the brothel against her will. Promising to investigate, Skerow proceeds to Thordh's apartment, only to find that he has been murdered. Shocked at the implications of corruption within her own people, Skerow launches an investigation that requires federal agents to risk their lives inside the brothels, casinos and gladiator rings of Zamos, an entertainment conglomerate catering to the very worst instincts of every species in the galaxy.
Is that a tentacle in your pocket?
The future has stooped to new lows in the entertainment industry, and Zamos is determined to satisfy every desire of paying customers. An entire social class trains as gladiators to fight in vacation pleasure palaces, while ubiquitous brothels exact their toll from another set of unfortunate citizenry. Author Phyllis Gotlieb conjures up problems and possibilities inherent in both activities when a large variety of alien physiques, abilities and expectations are thrown into the mix. She paints a picture of corruption so vivid that it's easy to feel contaminated. Yet rising above the mire is the indefatigable judge Skerow.
Gotlieb displays a quirky sense of humor throughout the book, but seems to have the most fun with Skerow and her Khagodi kin. The image of a pudgy, off-balance dinosaur presiding in black robes over a dignified courtroom is simply hilarious, and when Skerow returns to her home planet via starship for a little R&R, the principle form of land transportation adopted by the indigenous behemoths is broad railway flatcars drawn by steam engines and shaded with umbrellas. This juxtaposition of the Jetsons and the Flintstones is only one example of the small surprises which unexpectedly erupt within the narrative.
However, the plot is not as strong as the characterization, with gaps and predictable outcomes that diminish some scenes' impact. A hurried ending not withstanding, readers who enjoy the telling of a tale as much as the actual story will certainly appreciate the work of this septuagenarian poet and SF writer from Toronto, Canada.
The Khagodi win my "aliens of the month" award.
-- Susan
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Maximum Light
A global fertility crisis and monkeys with human faces converge in mystery...
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Maximum Light
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By Nancy Kress
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Tor Books
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$22.95/$31.95 Canada
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Hardcover, Jan. 1998
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ISBN 0-312-86535-X
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Review by Clinton Lawrence
 hana Walders is nearing the end of her mandatory tour of duty with the National Service Corps when her company is assigned to help the Army secure a neighborhood contaminated by a train wreck. She talks her sergeant into allowing her to help escort evacuated residents back to their homes to rescue their pets. But the man she's shepherding breaks away, enters a home, and runs off with a cage full of monkeys that appear to have human faces.
Later, a congressional committee calls Shana to testify about the incident, which smacks of black-market DNA labs. Most DNA research is outlawed, even to find a cure for the ongoing world fertility crisis. But only one person on the committee believes her story--Nick Clementi, a scientist who was appointed to the committee by FDA Commissioner Vanderbilt Grant. Nick believes the monkeys could have been created not through DNA technology, but by vivifacture, a method of growing tissue on a host without combining genes.
After her testimony, Shana receives a letter declining her application to join the Army. Dismayed by this turn of events, she reluctantly agrees to go with some buddies to the city to beat up some gays. But she notices that one of their intended victims--a pair of ballet dancers--has the same face she saw on the monkeys. She thwarts the attack and later confronts the man. His name is Cameron Atuli, and he recently had induced amnesia to wipe out the memory of a traumatic incident.
Shana is arrested, and without anyone else in Washington to turn to, she calls Nick. Nick bails her out, setting into motion events that will bring all three characters together to find out just what Cameron has to do with the bizarrely altered monkeys and the fertility crisis.
Much more than a mystery
In Maximum Light, Nancy Kress creates a richly detailed future in which the fertility rate has fallen by 90 percent for reasons no one completely understands. Kress weaves an intricate mystery using the threads of the scientific, political and economic implications of the crisis. Her tapestry is an exciting suspense story, with clues revealed logically and with a tension-filled conclusion that resolves the major issues of the plot without seeming at all contrived.
But this is much more than a mystery novel. Kress uses her world to explore a vast array of issues, ranging from the conflict between religion and science to the high social and personal costs of selfishness, not to mention abuses of power. She portrays her characters with precision, giving them the kinds of flaws that lead to mistakes and ethical dilemmas.
The story itself is told from the separate viewpoints of Shana, Nick and Cameron in alternating chapters. This technique allow Kress to explore various dilemmas through each character's perspective. Since each has different motivations and reactions, they help to bring Kress's world into a focus that's both sharper and broader than a single viewpoint alone would have allowed.
Though it's still a little early to predict such things, Maximum Light could well turn out to be one of the year's best science fiction novels. It certainly has a great deal to say, and it's a joy to read, even if readers are just looking for an entertaining mystery.
Kress certainly has become one of our best writers.
-- Clint
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