2023-05-03
In this speculative novel set in a postwar future, a retired detective/government operative comes out of retirement to solve the murders of several people who, like him, possess remarkable mental powers.
Giesler, the author of The Nothing Within (2019), sets this tale of futuristic intrigue at the end of the 21st century and the beginning of the 22nd. The United States no longer exists after a violent second civil war that resulted in a “mosaic” of independent regions, now uneasily at peace. Harmony “Bibi” Cain lives in a Wisconsin retirement community in a minination called the Northstar States of America. His mild, retro lifestyle of bicycling and reading printed books (including Octavia E. Butler’s 1993 novel, Parable of the Sower) obscures the fact that he once had a tumultuous career as a detective and, before that, was involved in government mind-based weapons projects. Bibi’s brain structure granted him a sort of psychic insight and empathy with other living things; this, in turn, led to him being part of a project to exploit the human pons adexterum—a mysterious, three-gram part of the brain that, it turns out, can command advanced drones called “motes.” Thanks to Bibi’s particular skills, the Northstar held its own in battle during the Mosaic War. But now, in 2099, he wants to withdraw from the noises in his head; he takes an illegal narcotic called kali to find solace. Meanwhile, the Northstar government is using the project’s technology to join billions of people around the world in online “lynks.” A deadly attack by motes and other drones targets those who happen to share Bibi’s rare powers; the flying automatons can remove neural matter with fiendish efficiency. Is Bibi next on the hit list? As tensions heighten across borders, Bibi reunites with old colleagues, rivals, and lovers to look into what’s going on.
The novel has elements of a trendy cyberpunk action yarn: man-machine interfaces, femmes fatales, techno-assassins, betrayals, rogue AIs, and so on. However, Giesler’s aims appear to be more ambitious than providing a simple genre exercise. He devotes many pages to the thoughtful hero’s introspection and ruminations, and action takes a back seat to descriptions of the ethical, mental, and psychological effects of hyperdeveloped empathy: “Whoever I’m around, however they’re feeling, I’m always experiencing them. I have no choice but to deal with them all the time.” Moreover, Giesler relates the narrative in an intricate, semifragmented fashion, moving back and forth chronologically. Some parts consist of transcribed interviews of a documentarian trying to uncover the truth about an apparently deceased Bibi; others are narrated by Bibi himself, who appears to be having an intimate conversation with an unspecified lynked individual; and still others are excerpts from in-universe published texts. The open ending may frustrate expectations of readers who might desire more conclusive, action-oriented material, à la The Matrix, and less philosophical pondering about the pons and God. But many SF fans will appreciate an older-than-usual main character with romantic partners who are roughly the same age.
A brainy near-future SF novel of exploited neurons and expanding consciousness.
05/22/2023
Giesler’s thoughtful, accomplished followup to The Nothing Within again posits a future dystopia, this time with the U.S. divided in four nations, and tech-shy empath Harmony “Bibi” Cain numbing his way through his later years on kali as he pedals an old-school push bike around Wisconsin’s Marquez Family Farm Golden Grove Senior Celebration Cozyminiums. But the assassination of four of the continent’s top empaths in coordinated strikes by “mote”s—unstoppable drones only an empath can control—upends his malaise, as he’s taken into custody by Homeland Security, who at first suspect his involvement, and then seek to use his talents.
Plagued by wrenching flashbacks to his service in the Mosaic War, Bibi has come to feel that he’s something like a kite, always on someone else’s string, and he vows, in narration, “Before I’m too old, I want to do something important because I chose it.” What that potential rebellion will look like is the novel’s primary tension, more so than the mystery of who ordered the strikes. Bibi tells much of the story himself, in 2104, five years after the fact, to an unidentified collective voice that occasionally interrupts—at one point, bluntly offering crucial information that Bibi was building to, inspiring him to offer a lesson about suspense and storytelling.
That sense of play powers the novel, which blends Bibi’s first-person story with excerpts (some lengthy) of after-the-fact interviews trying to make sense of Bibi’s life—and seeding the mystery of whatever it is that he chooses to do as the novel’s present develops. Also included: occasional poems plus excerpts from a textbook establishing the science of empaths. Giesler pens all this with sharp prose, arresting detail, an ear for memorable dialogue, a fascinating political situation, and a deep interest in empathy itself, though the material’s richness and Bibi’s tendency to recount conversations at length diminishes narrative momentum. The worldbuilding’s exciting and surprising, though, especially a visit to the St. Louis of the future and the potential of war between Canada and the “Old States.”
Takeaway: Provocative, empathetic dystopian SF with a sense of narrative playfulness.
Comparable Titles: Omar El Akkad’s American War, Christopher Brown’s Tropic of Kansas.
Production grades Cover: B Design and typography: A- Illustrations: N/A Editing: A- Marketing copy: A
