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Distraction
A future so dim, no one needs shades
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Distraction
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By Bruce Sterling
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Bantam Spectra
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$23.95/$32.95 Canada
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Hardcover, Dec. 1998
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ISBN 0-553-10484-5
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Review by D. Douglas Fratz
 istraction, the latest novel from one of the maturing deans of cyberpunk, is a political satire set in a mid-21st century America that is falling apart. Oscar Valparaiso and his political campaign "krewe" have just managed to get Alcott Bambakias elected to the Senate, and now they are taking a working vacation in east Texas, at the site of a federal biotechnology research facility known as the Collaboratory. In this future, the U.S. government is nearly bankrupt, there are dozens of political parties, various "emergency committees" control Washington, cities and states are nearly autonomous, unfunded military bases extort money from passing motorists, and bands of nomads roam the country. The president is planning to attack The Netherlands, a drowning country of political extremists, just to rally Americans.
Meanwhile, Oscar is trying to find a way to establish himself as a Senate staffer, and he finds the perfect cause in the beleaguered Collaboratory. He chooses Dr. Greta Penninger, a brilliant neurologist, as his ally, and he and his politico krewe proceed to arrange for the takeover of the facility, putting Greta in charge. This angers the powerful and colorful governor of Louisiana, Green Huey, who was planning his own takeover of the facility, having already "rescued" a nearby federal military base using a local tribe of militaristic nomads.
With the governor as an enemy, the stakes increase, and military as well as political maneuvering is necessary. Senator Bambakias, meanwhile, goes temporarily insane, and Oscar has to put a positive political spin on the event. Oscar eventually beats Green Huey by, among other things, bringing in his own group of smarter nomads while uncovering Huey's secret biotech experiments with illegal Haitians. In the end, however, Huey gets his revenge on Oscar and Greta, making their minds "bicameral," able to think multiple things at once.
In the world of politics, reality is satire
Much of the future America portrayed in Distraction is totally over the edge, but in the world of politics, the sublime and the ridiculous often coincide. Oscar is a brilliant political operative who knows how to roll with the punches and how to turn any situation in his favor. Except for the desire to disband the emergency committees, Oscar and Senator Bambakias (who made his fortune as an architect of intelligent buildings that tell workers how to construct them) have no sensible political ideas.
Green Huey is a walking cartoon politician, and the new president sends the entire fleet against Holland, which doesn't even have a navy. The nomad tribes are Internet connected, manufacture their own computers, and seem to be part cyberpunk hacker club, part street gang, part personality cult, part martial arts squad, and part commune. When Oscar needs a place for his krewe to stay, he buys a Bambakias-designed luxury hotel kit, and his group puts it together in their spare time, running it to provide cash for their operations.
Sterling makes all this work because he understands people and how they think, and he is therefore able to make every loopy situation seem plausible. He is uncanny in his portrayals of the games played by political operators in manipulating both the public and each other. He also has a good understanding of how scientists think and interrelate with each other. Because the people are believable, the ludicrous nature of their actions--and the world they inhabit--never ruins the verisimilitude of the story.
The result is a marvelously entertaining novel, and possibly Bruce Sterling's most idea-filled book since Islands in the Net.
Sterling shows that even outrageous political satire can be eerily similar to the actual political world.
-- Doug
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Mission Child
Is Earth rediscovering a lost colony or destroying the new world?
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Mission Child
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By Maureen McHugh
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Avon Eos
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$20.00/$26.00 Canada
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Hardcover, Nov. 1998
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ISBN 0-380-97456-8
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Review by Alyx Dellamonica
 aureen McHugh's novel Mission Child begins on a once-abandoned colony world whose people were left to their own devices for centuries. In the absence of support, a sustainable and varied culture emerged, but now the return of the "cousins" from Earth has disrupted the delicately balanced society. The introduction of weapons brings with it war; germs benign to Earth-born hosts ravage the population. Many of the colonists end up being displaced.
McHugh takes readers on the journey of one such lost soul, named Janna. When the book opens, Janna is 14, a hopeful young woman with a clan and a boyfriend and a pesky younger sister. She lives at the Hamra mission, a village founded by two well-meaning Earthers who hope to shield the clan from the changes taking place.
The mission fails, and in short order Janna and her boyfriend Aslak find themselves orphaned. Fleeing the wars that are consuming her people, Janna loses first her infant daughter and then Aslak himself. Half-starved and clanless, she finds herself in a refugee camp. There, chance and her malnourished state cause Janna to be mistaken for a boy, and she embraces the masquerade. Calling herself Jan, she begins her search for an identity, and for a niche within the dramatically altered framework of her society.
Nearly a perfect novel
Mission Child is nearly a perfect novel. Jan's physical journey reveals layer after layer of her homeworld and the effects of the return of Earth's influence upon its culture. The personal voyage of discovery Jan makes, particularly her exploration of her gender identity, is no less revealing. Jan tells the story directly, and her voice is compelling, evoking a tone reminiscent of McHugh's novella "Necropolis." There are no clear-cut answers for Jan, no neatly tied up plotlines, and in that sense it is also a very believable ride.
This is not to say that Mission Child will appeal to every reader. The story is structured in an episodic fashion, and it is told, for the most part, at a sedate pace. Readers who prefer more action may find it disappointing; those who do not like ambiguity may also find the novel isn't to their taste. There is violence in the book, but with a couple of exceptions, most of it happens off-stage. McHugh is interested in showing the effects of that violence on Jan--she is not out to proffer an adrenaline rush. This book is not a huge departure in that respect from McHugh's China Mountain Zhang, and readers can gauge their likely reaction to Mission Child on whether or not they liked Zhang.
That said, Mission Child offers readers a thoroughly likable protagonist, a fascinating world, and plenty to think about. To ask for more would be nothing short of ungrateful.
I thought this book was absolutely super. McHugh is never trite or sentimental, and Jan's story is vivid and harrowing and wonderful all at once.
-- Alyx
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