Galaxy's Edge Magazine: Issue 7: March 2014 (29 page)

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New Earth

by
Ben Bova

Tor Books, 2013

ISBN: 978-0765330185 (Hardcover)

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Ben Bova’s
New Earth
picks up where
Farside
left off. Both books can be read as stand-alone novels, but
New Earth
leads a group of Earth explorers to the planet discovered by the Luna-based astronomers di
s
covered in
Farside.
The planet, Sirius C, should not be where it is; it’s apparently brand-new, in cosmic terms, and could be totally artificial.
New Earth
details the explorers’ adventures.

At this point in Bova’s career, he’s master enough of the adventure novel (and how one plots such a beast) to know when to leave things out and when to get to the nitty-gritty. This is perhaps the best example in his Grand Tour series of such a mature writing style. Bova doesn’t waste time with telling us about the space ship that made the eighty-year journey. Nor does he waste time constructing a back-story about the kind of planetary society (and wealth) it would take to mount such an expedition. (See John C. Wright’s
The Golden Age
trilogy about what such a solar-system-wide culture would look like to build a slo
w
er-than-light interstellar craft.)

Bova gets right to the point in telling his story I think because he knows we’ve all seen it before, told any number of different ways, and so he just gets down to the action. The disadvantage, of course, is that we don’t really get to know the characters (as products of such a society) until about halfway through the novel. Bova’s mastery of plot (and his sense of how plots can get bogged down) shows in every chapter of
New Earth
.

The team is led by Jordan Kell, a diplomat. They were cryogenically frozen and once out they learn from contact with Earth that the climate’s gotten worse and that there are unlikely to be any back-up missions to rescue them or to provide them with provisions. Nonetheless, the crew discovers that the planet is Earth-friendly, and has indeed been engineered for them.
Specifically for them.

There are humans on the planet who can speak English, and the rest of the novel has to do with Jordan’s suspicions about their friendliness, their secretiveness, and the extent of their technology. Bova is clever enough to nudge the reader along with a slow reveal until we get to the end and discover what New Earth is all about.

I think
New Earth
could have had the depth of Bova’s Mars series or perhaps his Asteroid series. There were lacunae that the reader has to fill in, but the ending I found satisfying, even though there is probably more to tell with this story. What Bova leaves out, in sacrifice to swift plotting, might have made this a major book during the Sixties or
Seventies.
It’s simple, focused, and never deviates from a plot that in the end seems pleasantly inevitable. A little more meat (a bit more edginess, perhaps) would have made this a major volume in the Grand Tour series. But I liked this book a lot, as I have his entire Grand Tour series.

Final note: I told Ben once at a writing convention here at Arizona State University many years ago that I wanted him to take the Grand Tour series to Pluto. He shook his head, laughed, and said “I don’t think so.” (This was before Pluto had been demoted as a planet. Maybe he knew something?)

I’m glad he didn’t. It was inevitable that he’d get out of the solar system one way or another.
New Earth
is how he did it.
Bypassed Pluto (and Uranus and Neptune) entirely.

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Daylight on Iron Mountain

by
David Wingrove

Atlantic Books, 2012

ISBN-10: 1848878338 (Paperback)

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Daylight on Iron Mountain
is Book 2 in the reconfigured
Chung Kuo
series that David Wingrove wrote back in the late 1980s.
Daylight on Iron Mountain
is more-or-less the companion novel (or sequel) to
Son of Heaven
. These two novels are themselves the prequel to the entire Chung Kuo series. (The series is now being published in tighter, shorter versions and I recommend the entire series to you).

Daylight on Iron Mountain
follows the events at the end of
Son of Heaven,
in that we see more of the incredible City being built to the specifications of Tsao Ch’un. The city is made out of an incredible and indestructible plastic and covers the ruins (but not tillable farmland) of Central Asia, China, and much of Europe—but is now reaching into the Middle East and Africa. These two novels really do a great job in setting up the magnificent structure of both the city, the Rise of the Seven families who will rule Chung Kuo (which means “China”), as well as the opposing political parties. This book is about the fate of
master
Ch’un and the rise of his retainers and advisors who will become the Seven families who will rule the remaining continents on the Earth in the main series (books 3 to 20).

Wingrove’s talent (with the help of his new editors) is to keep the action moving. The novels that will follow are the earlier series, but trimmed down and streamlined. Even though I was able to keep track of the rivalries and intrigues in the original series (taking a whole decade to do so),
it’s
much, much easier here to follow the characters. Plus, Wingrove doesn’t bog us down or baffle us with too much Chinese. The characters are a mix of Europeans and Chinese and nearly every character is nicely drawn.

What I found most interesting in this book was the City itself as it expanded, and what it covered. What we eventually discover is the underworld. Wingrove cleverly weaves in the foibles of those who get caught underneath the city, some of whom will be used later on as assassins. Topside, we find that Tsao Ch’un’s design for the city is really a massive “arcology” (to use the Paolo Soleri phrase for an enclosed, self-sustaining city melded with the natural environment). This book involves Jake Reed’s relationship
with his nemesis, Tsao Ch’un, now the supreme ruler, and I found Reed to be quite a sympathetic character, since it’s through his perspective that we comprehend the changes wrought on the world, once Tsao Ch’un’s computer virus destroyed the world’s economy, leaving it in ruin. The city, once it starts building itself, rises miles into the sky and covers everything in its path.

It’s a common conceit in American and British science fiction that the future will be ruled by an e
n
lightened humankind (this is what bolsters the
Star Trek
universe). What Wingrove suggests in his Chung Kuo series is that the future might be Chinese and it might also not have a past. (This conceit comes up later in the novels to follow. Humans are, after all, curious creatures.) These books are beautifully made and make for fun reading. But don’t dive into the series without reading
Son of Heaven
first, then
Daylight on Iron Mountain
.

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Across the Event Horizon

by
Mercurio D. Rivera

NewCon Press (England), 2013

ISBN: 978-1907069512 (Paperback)

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Mercurio D. Rivera is an author new to me, but after reading this extraordinary collection of science fiction short stories, I’ll be searching him out. He’s published widely in magazines such as
Interzone
and
Asimov’s
, including British publications and at various online sites. That he’s had to publish his first collection in England seems typical these days. But, then, so many great smaller publishers are in England, so more power to them.

Rivera writes rather traditional science fiction stories, but none in the John W. Campbell Jr. vein. These are stories that hark back to the grand days when editors such as Donald Wollheim, Damon Knight, and Terry Carr ruled the roost. These are stories filled with inventiveness, experiment (but don’t let that turn you off!), and humor. Mostly, Rivera employs metaphor—which is what I’m missing in most science fi
c
tion these days. Science fiction today is a form of realism: the story and characters within said story stand for nothing but themselves. A story that is based on metaphor (and symbolism) has both the character and the conceit working on a number of levels. Rivera’s opening story, “Dance of the Kawkawroons” is a “standard” story of humans encroaching on an alien planet, affecting their environment, but we also get the story from the aliens’ perspective. The metaphor here is that the Kawkawroons’ environment is being soiled by humans—but Rivera doesn’t come out and say that. He’s patient enough, and respectful enough of the reader not to lecture that “we’re destroying our environment and the pelicans are dying.” It’s a story that stands well alongside Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic novella “The Word for World is Forest” (in which Ms. Le Guin “shows,” and doesn’t “tell” us about the harm we do or can do to the environments of ot
h
ers—which is why it’s a classic and why Ms. Le Guin is one of our finest writers).

Rivera’s subjects differ widely in this collection, but every story is a delight. In one, odors (and how to interpret them) are part of the conceit in “The Scent of Their Arrival” with the “their” in the title referring either to conquering aliens or the misguided humans who must deal with them. Odors and mind-manipulation also appear in “Naked Weekend.” Humans being “snatched” from one reality and put in this reality is the main subject in “Snatch Me Another” and its sequel “Dear Annbehls.” The last story, “Answers
From
the Event Horizon,” is a perfect (and quite unexpected) dollop of icing to this beautiful collection.

You may have to order this book, but please take the time. This is an excellent introduction to an author who stands a good chance of revivifying the short story in science fiction—which it desperately needs.