1968: The Last Starship from Earth (Boyd, John)

Sociological impetus concedes to plot twists (3/5)

This was Boyd's first novel back in 1968 and part of a trilogy, of sorts, based on classic myths. Myths have never been my forté and nearly all of the novels which heavily rely on myth connotation are lost on me (Delany's Einstein Intersection to name one). With novels like these, I try to adjust the plot's pressure from the pillar of mythology to the load bearing pillar of science fiction. Sometimes the load is just too much (i.e. Einstein Intersection) and the house of a novel's plot comes crashing down with me shoulder-shrugging in a carefree yet disappointed manner. Thankfully, The Last Starship of Earth wasn't overladen with obvious mythology to topple the novel... Boyd's inexperience was enough to do that.

Rear cover synopsis:
"In the futuristic society that serves as the setting for this elegantly chilling novel, the State decides whole one will choose as one's mate. In any case, professional boundaries cannot be crossed, and thus the young mathematician Haldane IV cannot fall in love with or marry the girl of his choice, the poet Helix. But as the young couple studies ever more closely the long-hidden poems of Fairweather I, whose work years before had completely altered the whole nature of society and who is universally acknowledged to greatest mathematician since Einstein, they realize the verses hold important messages for them--and for the world. What, for example, does this couplet mean?
      That he who loses wins the race,...
      That parallel lines must meet in space.
Even as they ponder, they know that the price, if they are caught, is exile to the planet of Hell."

Welcome to the prefecture of California, part of the Union of North America, itself part of the World State. The triune State is governed by the Three Weird Sisters, "an agglomeration of sociology, psychology, and priests." (52) Where the sociologists and psychologists are concerned about the legality of the State, the Church's main concern is its morality; the psychologists take the broad view and monitor the police activity while sociologists are the administrators and tackle the judiciary side of the law. The population of the earth is divided between the proletariats as "insensate brutes" (136) and professionals as "sheep" (136) to the powers of State.

The professionals seem to be classified by their colleges where prefix "A" stands are ART, prefix "M" stands for MATHEMATICS, and prefix "C" stands for CRIMINOLOGY. Other professions are experienced but the classification seems to be a simple dystopian tag to adhere to the two victims of its own society: Haldane IV (M-5, 138270, 2/10/46) falls in love with the idea of and the ideals of Helix, A-7, 148261. 13/15/47) (I believe the latter numbers refer to their birthdays in regards to the rather confusing 13-month Hebrew Calendar). Each professional classification is mated within its own college, the mate chosen for their genetic synergy in order to produce a greater knowledge-based professional class to drive forward the specific needs of the State, where the proletariats act as general means laborers.

On one fateful day, Haldane was meant to go to the science museum but ended up crossing paths with Helix at the art gallery. The mathematician is intrigued by a facet of the legend of the greatest mathematician to even live that he never knew about--the man also wrote poetry. Helix quotes some poetry by the legend and Haldane never looks back twice. The two clandestinely meet to exchange notes of the subject to ascertain what Fairweather was pointing at with his dichotomous poetry. Haldane's roommate's loaning of his parent's apartment is perfectly suited for these trysts and for his weekly visitations to his father's house.

Fairweather was noteworthy for his contributions to light-speed travel, which allowed ships to traverse space and colonize stars. However, the State was against such an expansion and the trips were limited to the planet Hell, a planet shrouded in propaganda as being desolate, frozen, and four million light-years away in the Cygnus system. One more contribution Fairweather made to society was his invention of the electronic pope, a supercomputer which has the last word on any sentencing done by the State's courts.

The non-physical relationship between Haldane and Helix borders on amorous but their social conditioning is so strong that only a special circumstance (i.e. plot twist) can force the two to a more physical situation. The relationship develops and ends with yet another hasty special circumstance (i.e. predictable plot twist). Thereafter, Haldane spends his time in jail with his lawyer being prepped for his trial against the World State, which calls for subversion against professional all three of the "Weird Sister" fields: sociology, psychology, and The Church. The trial ends with Haldane unsuspectingly given the worst sentence possible.

Witnessing the budding relationship of Haldane and Helix amid the social restrictions imposed by the State was a small spectacle in itself. The technocracy of genetic pairing is familiar territory for science fiction readers yet the entrapment is a fairly old hook (i.e. Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel We). Up until the point of the back-to-back plot twists, the book was on a 4.5 mean average, with swathes of sociological implications and heady passages of love yet to be fulfilled. Call me a hopeless romantic, but the combination of the two was an opiate for me.

Then... duhn duhn duhn, the suspenseful soundtrack of an ill attempt at a natural plot twist, which Boyd half-way failed at. I had faith in this unknown author at pulling off the dual plot twists as I had already invested my faith in the first half of the novel. My trust remained strong even through the THIRD plot twists, when I met the scenario with much skepticism and narrowed eyes of disbelief. But when Boyd played his time travel card, I immediately knew that Boyd made the most critical error any author could perpetrate: don't write a story you don't have an ending for. I would usually use "deus ex machina" to describe the sudden event, but this came flying straight out of his rusty bullet hole.

Like the mention of the Hebrew Calendar above and the unmentioned time travel stint with Jesus and the Wandering Jew (oops), there's a more latent judeo-christian underpinning beneath the novel. One lingering questions which a social theologian may want to tackle after reading this novel is, How has the Church affected the course of the sciences of sociology and psychology? It's my final opinion that the years of mention (1850-1966) are of an alternative history. Some historical names of mention (A. Lincoln's "Johannesburg Address" isn't Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address") are altered and point to the alternative history origin.

While most of the historical and mythological portions were lost on me (neither a historian or mythologist, but acquiring the temporary persona of a mathematician), the sociological implications affecting the amorous couple are a highlight... but after the plot twists the wait for the conclusion is all downhill if you subtract the details concerning the government and its history. I already own the second book of the trilogy, The Pollinators of Eden, and glance at it hesitantly. As for book three, The Rakehells of Heaven... I release of ominous sigh of near future acquaintance.

1967: Garbage World (Platt, Charles)

Superb setting fizzles with steamless plot (3/5)

Charles Platt has written a smattering of novels and short stories from the 60s to the 80s; none of which have been out-right successes, save for a handful of 1970s Prometheus award nominations and a John W. Campbell award nomination. I've only read one other novel by Charles Platt: The City Dwellers back in March, 2010. His writing in that novel never struck me as memorable and only tidbits of flashbacks about the plots reoccur to me. Because of the author's elusive span of work, I was interested in one of the more popular items in his bibliography: the rather generically titled Garbage World.

Rear cover synopsis:
"Life on the small asteroid Kopra, the dumping ground whose sole function was to receive specially packaged waste material from surrounding pleasure worlds, was harsh and dirty. Carefully avoided by Off-Worlders for centuries, Kopra and its rough and ready, filth encrusted inhabitants suddenly became the object of extraordinary interest to officials from the United Asteroid Belt Pleasure World Federation [UABPWF]. What happens when the two opposing cultures meet; the super-sanitary citizens of the Pleasure World and the filthy underfed villagers makes an adventure as exciting as it is bizarre."

Oliver Roach is an Observer and Recorder of Data under the direction of a pompous Minister from UABPWF (Zone 2). Oliver's mission is to simply assist the minister in disseminating information about the planned temporary evacuation of the planet for ten days, as the gravity generator keeping the planetoid together is in need of replacement. The once modestly-sized asteroid 100 year ago has since become a dumping ground for garbage from the entire Federation. Now, the asteroid is piled 10-miles deep of ecru sludge, jagged protuberances, and radioactive debris. Once the temporary evacuation is complete, the Koprans can return to their malnourished, alluvial, squalid but still quite happy existence.

Oliver works for Minister Larkin, whose "pride is too great and his mind is too inflexible" (121) yet must span the bridge between the opposing cultures. His unwillingness to adapt to the crude local ways is countermanded by the impudent mannerisms of the local headman, Isaac Gaylord. Once superficially soiled, Oliver allows the dankness to penetrate his thinking, too. With the assistance of a mud-covered love interest, Juliette Gaylord, Oliver becomes accustomed to the filth which surrounds him and joins the Gaylords on a mission to contact the nomads on the asteroid for evacuation. Oliver soon learns that the mission could have been a fateful one because of the minister's ulterior motives for the planetoid's fate.

I found the civilization living on the garbage planet of Kopra to be most interesting. They are scavengers by 100-year nature, living off the, sometimes perfectly good, unwanted items of so-called more civilized planets (draw comparisons here with Western mass consumption). When the fanciful Pleasure Federation drops in and says, "Hello, we need to change your planet. Get off it!" then the garbage inhabitants get a bit upset. Eve though they've regressed to "the drinking, the dirt, the dancing and the debauchery" (33) they still have some positive qualities about them: family, utility, and pragmatism.

The planetoid of Kopra requires a sense of suspended belief, where rain is "thick and viscous, a sickly yellow-brown color. Particles of dirt float inside the amber liquid. It trickles slowly over his skin like foul-smelling syrup." (81-82) The gravity is only 0.75 earth standard and the sheer amount of rubbish which lays in a 10-mile deep strata is impressive. Yet still, the humans adapt and live off the land, scavenge for food scrapes, amass sentimental hordes of junk, brew moonshine, and generally get on with gettin' on. It's wholly admirable, in a rather hygienically decadent way.

Much like the forgetful prose found (or not found) in The City Dwellers, the drive behind the plot is non-existent. It sadly plods along amidst a great setting with semi-likable characters but it never gains much steam; I'd hardly call is exciting like the synopsis mentions. Even the so-called climax of the plot is more of a mild ascent to a temperate plateau followed by a lethargic waving of pyrotechnic sparklers.

If there's one more Platt book to keep an eye out for, it'll be his 1991 John W. Campbell award nominated book The Silicon Man... but everything else by Charles Platt seems to be as mediocre as the two novels I've read. Little hope for anything spectacular to come out of Platt, but if my 120+ book collection ever becomes in need of replenishment, I may look his way once again.

1972: The City Machine (Trimble, Louis)

Vertically segregated city imbues social revolution (4/5)
From May 3, 2011

Rear cover synopsis:
"The entire population of that colonized planet was crowded into one all-enclosed self-functioning city construction. For the majority the situation was like living forever in the steerage of an immigrant freighter. For a few there were some privileges, and for the Highs, power and luxury had been secured by a change of language and the destruction of the old books. Which was where the man Ryne came in. For he was the last who could read the original language - and if they could ever locate the machine that could build new cities, he'd be the only one to read the instructions. The story of the search for the City Machines, the linguistics and logistics problems presented, and the fight for Ryne's very life is a science fiction novel of edge-of-the-seat excitement."

My first Trimble novel isn't such a bad one. The book's synopsis really nails it as I have very little to add to it. There are three levels of people: at the bottom are those who perform the machine city's dirty work for the comfort of the Highs while those in the middle perform administrative duties. Some Lowers with promising skills can be uplifted to Upper like Ryne. After a successful duty in Upper, one's offspring can be upgraded to the height of the Highs, where everything is comfort and luxury. The Coordinator is an Upper who has hope for his offspring to live the life with the Highs.

There is a lot of double crossing and perhaps triple crossing, if you're keen enough to spot it. The motivations of the characters (for those inside the City and even those living outside the City) are clear. When Ryne reflects on his dedications to his partner in the Upper, towards his duty for Coordinator, towards his belief in revolution with the outside and towards uncovering injustice, he ambles like a serpent between all these duties. He's a bit of a master-of-consciousness.

I found the entire plot to capture my imagination (which any good book should be, period) where a space colony ship crashes and the crew is split between living in the Machine City they have brought with them or to live under stars. This split is where language diverges, customs stray and knowledge digresses. With a rare lineage of old language readership, Ryne's family has been the keeper of the ancient script and Ryne, himself, is the last to be able to read the language in which the manual for the Machine City is written. When the Lowers have this knowledge with the help of Ryne, they hope to construct their own city but without the social injustice experienced in the current Machine City.

I would have liked to have experienced the living conditions, the social atmosphere of each of the levels. I found all of that lacking and therefore I found it hard to sympathize with the plight of the Lowers and the righteousness of the Highs. Barring this one fault, it's a good, thoughtful read. I also have Trimble's The Wandering Variables is my 120+ book collection, which I hope also provides a sense of wonder as The City Machine has done.