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Finity
Who stole America?
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Finity
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By John Barnes
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Tor Books
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$22.95/$31.95 Canada
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Hardcover, March 1999
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ISBN 0-312-86118-4
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Review by Curt Wohleber
 inity starts out with a familiar science fiction scenario: an alternate future in which the Nazis have won World War II and conquered the United States. But before readers can say "Sieg Heil," Finity speeds off into refreshingly unfamiliar territory. Mathematician Lyle Peripart knows his life will never be the same when he's offered a job by the eccentric, secretive CEO of the powerful ConTech Corporation, interrogated by a female Gestapo agent named Billie Beard, and targeted in an assassination attempt at a Saigon restaurant.
He's saved by his fiancee, Helen, a mild-mannered historian who occasionally transforms into a gun-toting secret agent with an appetite for rough sex. He later meets his ex-wife, though he doesn't remember ever being married. Lyle's house mysteriously explodes, but Helen's long-dead cat, Fluffy, reappears.
In 2063 reality isn't what it used to be. People don't talk about the past much: everybody remembers history a little bit differently. The United States has been missing for years, but hardly anyone has noticed due to a combination of electronic censorship and global brainwashing. Who--or what--is behind it all? Nazis may be the least of Lyle's problems.
Lyle's obscure specialty is "abductive" logic, a sort of mathematics of intuition, and it may hold the key to understanding the seemingly random collision of parallel realities. Lyle, Helen and several of their friends from a virtual-reality chat room end up in Mexico in hopes of sneaking across the border and finding out just how and why America has been erased from existence.
"Only a little weird"
John Barnes, the author of books such as Earth Made of Glass and Apostrophes and Apocalypses, takes an ingenious premise and spins a fascinating and complicated yarn in Finity. Barnes uses the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum theory to fashion a potent metaphor for the increasingly elusive and pliable nature of consensus reality in the fast-paced, media-saturated world of today.
But Finity is a curiously insubstantial novel. In the acknowledgments Barnes quotes someone who asked, "Just once, would it kill you to write an adventure story, with a reasonably happy ending, only a little weird?" Finity fits the bill as if written to order: almost non-stop action that ends happily-ever-after, and the weirdness plateaus at a level where, say, Philip K. Dick would just be getting warmed up.
That may be the problem. Barnes holds the weirdness and unhappiness to a minimum, and thereby misses out on the dramatic potential of his premise. Barnes has also miscast the lead role. The admirably well-adjusted Lyle never wavers in his resolve, misplaces his trusts, chases red herrings or suffers the temptations of his baser instincts. The flat narration makes tragic and traumatic events seem little more than inconveniences. He is not profoundly changed by the events of the novel. He is an excellent role model but a bland hero.
Finity has passages of genuine suspense and horror, and a very funny scene in which a military-surplus robot leads a funeral service. Yet the novel as a whole reads less like a story than a thought-experiment carried rigorously and methodically to its conclusion.
Barnes may be onto something. When I surf the weirder spots on the Internet I sometimes think people really are living in parallel universes.
-- Curt
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Vigilant
Can Faye Smallwood overcome her past... or will plague spread across her
homeworld again?
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Vigilant
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By James Alan Gardner
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Avon Books
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$5.99/7.99 Canada
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Paperback, Jan. 1999
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ISBN 0-380-80208-2
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Review by A.M. Dellamonica
 s the newest member of the Vigil, Faye Smallwood's job is to scrutinize government, police and business activity on Demoth, a colony shared by humans with the graceful, winged Oolom. Kept honest by technology that links them directly into the planet's electronic network--the world-soul--Vigil proctors ensure that governments at all levels act quietly and fairly, for the good of their constituents.
Fleeing a past rife with tragedy and unwanted fame, Faye has struggled to put a meaningful life together--a life in which becoming a member of the Vigil is the last step. Her first job as a proctor goes horribly awry, however, when she and her supervisor are attacked by near-indestructible androids. Faye is rescued by a mysterious, peacock-tail colored force, and suddenly she is the one being scrutinized--by the Admiralty, by the press, even by the Vigil itself. Then an ancient--and possibly insane--proctor appoints himself to replace Faye's murdered supervisor. And that is the least of Faye's worries--only minutes after the supervisor's funeral, she is kidnapped.
The action never stops in Vigilant, which is James Alan Gardner's third book and the second featuring Festina Ramos from Expendable. Here Festina plays a welcome role at the edge of the limelight, cooperating with Faye as they race against time to find the murderers, unlock the mystery of Faye's peacock-tail, fend off the military, save endangered friends, and discover the source of Demoth's vicious plagues.
Danger behind every tree, rock, and nano-wall
James Alan Gardner is one of SF's best new writers, and Vigilant is his best book yet. Fast-paced and funny, it is a story that combines adventure, mystery, tragedy and--oddly, since Faye is no teenager--a coming-of-age tale. Light moments and lots of action play out in the present, but readers are never allowed to forget Demoth's painful past, when millions of Oolom died in a plague. Humans on Demoth were completely untouched by the disease, and suffer from collective survivor's guilt. Faye's own angst is complicated by her father's role in the colony's history--the doctor who cured the epidemic, only to die months later in a tragic accident. Vigilant displays an extraordinary range of mood and scope, and in pulling it off Gardner has managed an incredible balancing act.
The book is also hugely appealing because its view of humanity is an optimistic one. The human culture of Demoth is noble and altruistic, and sincerely grieved by the plague deaths of their Oolom friends. It would have been easy for Gardner to affect a cynical vision, a humanity fraught with racism towards the other colonists, or racing to make a quick dollar from the tragedy. Instead, he argues that the human race might just turn out rather well, if proper care is taken, if attention is paid to the right things, and above all if it esteems itself highly enough to make the effort. There are cynics and villains in Vigilant, but in aggregate humanity has transcended mere petty grafting.
Will Faye learn the same lesson? On Demoth, the answer will determine whether or not her people have any future at all.
James Alan Gardner's trademark is a great voice, and Faye tells her story so well you'll be sorry when it's over.
-- A.M.
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