review of
Mark Adlard's Multiface
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - December 7, 2012

It's only been 4 mnths since I reviewed the 2nd part of this SF trilogy, Volteface (see my review here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7988858-volteface ), & I don't think I expected to find this last volume as soon as I did b/c Adlard seems like such an obscure author to me. Of course he's published by Ace, so he's not that obscure. The used copy I got is 37 yrs old & appears to've never been cracked open. What a waste. The back cover of the 1st part of the trilogy doesn't mention the trilogy at all. The 2nd volume calls it the "Interface Trilogy" & the 3rd volume calls it the "TCity Trilogy". Whatever.

My appreciation for these bks has increased w/ the reading of each new one. Adlard's future world is one in wch the vast majority of people live in "beeblocks" (read 'hives'), highly congested immense apartment bldgs, in wch all their survival needs are met w/o their having to do anything to earn them. One character hasn't left her apartment for many a yr.. or decade. Their lives are managed by a genetically 'enhanced' very small class who live outside the beeblocks in great luxury. They have most of the space. People in the cities can't escape them w/o revolting.

In Volteface, the enhanced executive class decide that the population needs something to stimulate them out of their apathy. As an experiment, new theme clubs are created AND work is revived - something the population hasn't been required to do for a long time. Work is still not required but working does result in increased financial credit that enables people to pursue more luxurious pleasures.

Multiface picks up where Volteface left off. Many people are working now & it's bringing out the worst in them but they're feeling more purposeful in life - even though it's mostly just bringing out negative characteristics like greed & bullying. Adlard pursues w/ somewhat relentless cynicism the lives of some of the people effected by this new lifestyle. This is all pretty richly explored w/ each of the characters being an astonishing mix of desperate, perverted lifestyles, & an almost total lack of self-awareness.

As an apparent result of the elimination of many survival struggles, "[t]here were disappointments and doubts which the Executives continued to endure. For example, creative ability seems to have died, and they had entered a period that art historians had labelled the Denaissance." One of the parodic elements that recurs throughout the bk is a popular "tri-di" program featuring a princess who gets raped by different creatures in every show until "Coonan" (read: "Conan') comes to save her: "Princess Oriana had once happily submitted to the multiple caresses of a s-x-armed ginat from Alpha Centauri". Such is the 'creativity' of this world. Cf Mike Judge's movie Idiocracy. Much of the bk revolves around the appreciation of a main executive's appreciation of art.

More parody comes in the form of having the citizens allowed to drive cars that they have to rent at exorbitant rates that they're mostly likely to afford only if they work. In general, I think that Adlard's writing is the best so far in this volume:

"'And despite his father,' Jan said, 'Sperry is a budding Buddhist.' He gave the repeated 'b' and 'u' sounds their full explosive force in the accent of the southern sectors.

"Sylvia sipped her vermouth.

"'Sperry is a grrowing gurru,' he added, rolling the 'r' in the Tcity manner.

"'They've changed it again!' she said. 'Too much coriander.'

"'A developing Dalai Lama,' he persevered, using the sing-song intonation of the northern sectors."

Adlard gets beyond having the writing be merely functional to the plot outline & manages to incorporate a rich range of detail. In an executive interview w/ a ruthless member of the newly created businessmen, this detail comes out:

"'Are you happy in your work, Mr. Felixtowe?'

"He opened a lower side drawer in his desk, immediately found what he wanted, and handed it across to her.

"She examined the circular object placed in her hand. In the middle there was a picture of a blacksmith clasping the hand of a miner. In front of them was as a figure of Justice, holding a pair of scales. The entire scene was encircled by the words Workingmen of every country unite together to defend your rights."

[..]

"'The motto on the front of that watch states a great truth,' he said, and only now did he answer her question. 'Yes. I am happy in my work.[..']"

The irony here being that the guy is totally vicious to his fellow works & rips them off as unscrupulously as possible. One of the only Tcity residents who seems to escape the claustrophobic despair, thru an unexpected avenue, ruins it all by creating hios own trap. All of the "-face Trilogy" (as I prefer to call it) is very 'dark' humor. It's hard to tell whether Adlard was a jolly man or unbearably bitter. Whatever the case, for lovers of depictions of dystopic futures, I'd recommend this as one that's a little off the beaten path. ( )

weird