K. D. Wentworth (1951–2012)

After the first volume “The Course of Empire”, this second volume is even better I should say. In this second tome we see in full regalia the centre leitmotiv of the book: nature by association/cooperation. Neuroscientist António Damásio a Portuguese countryman of mine, is far from being a despot/tyrant, and he would agree with the basic premise of the novel. In fact, in Damásio’s book on Spinoza (“Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain”, he cites research which actually proves that cooperation floods the brain with dopamine and brings on a high. It's a product of our human evolution and therefore can be said to be much more expressive of human nature than the attribute of selfishness which capitalism forces us to adopt if we are to survive. In Paleolithic times, cooperation was not something imposed by the state, because there was no state. Nor was it imposed by an all powerful leader. It grew naturally from the tasks people had to do together to survive. Early societies had no authoritarian structures, such as fascism (as epithomised by the Narva caste). To put it in the words of Chief Wanadi in John Boorman's film, “The Emerald Forest”, "If I tell a man to do what he does not want to do, I would no longer be chief." This is the all point of the first and second volumes of this wonderful duology (I’m not counting the third volume as belonging to this same universe because the pedigree is not the same). The Apache chose Geronimo as their leader, but that doesn't mean they had to obey him, if they didn't like the orders he gave. The same with Allie Pluthrak. In the Apache they could vote with their feet. Their freedom to do as they pleased in that respect in no way lessened their ability to cooperate. Despot/Tyrant (epithomised by Oppuk), on the other hand, demands absolute obedience.

Humans are cooperative for short periods when individual needs happen to coincide, once the target is met we all start being individuals again. This not down to our individual natures and is not because of capitalism or any other ism. We are the way we are because that is how nearly all of us are wired. Imperfect? Certainly but better than being like an ant colony with no minds of our own.

All of these in a SF novel (*gasp*). Who could have imagined SF could produce something of such quality as this…unheard of to say the least!… (meer)

In lots of vintage SF, at one time, we thought nothing of referring to "mankind" and "man-made". We defaulted to the masculine pronoun, in unspecific contexts. Mid-, or at least early-20th century male writers routinely talked about what a man might think or do in a hypothetical situation, rather than a person. And of course, everyone knew what they meant. But a lot of people were uncomfortable with the mindset that was reinforced by such defaults. So, eventually, they've become rarer, despite the initial residual weirdness or inconvenience of adopting a different phraseology. Other, more toxic uses of language, also once very familiar, have similarly faded from everyday speech. So language can sometimes change in consciously-directed ways. They may, indeed, seem "unnatural" to start with, but not for long. I would happily put up with the slight inconvenience of not talking about a "war on nature" if it meant we ended up thinking more clearly about the relationship between the world with and without human intervention. This is masterfully executed in Wentworth’s and Flint’s novel. The way the Jao “behave” is truly astonishing SF-wise. I’ve read this one a long time ago and it still holds-up pretty well after all these years. Wentworth and Flint are able to fictionalize a truly SFional setting that we SF readers, even now in contemporary SF, don’t see as being in a truly narrative sense regarding Jao vs. Terran vs. Ekhat: “nature” is not one undifferentiated thing, so it's perfectly possible for one part of nature to fight another part. In fact, since there is no difference between nature and the universe itself, it's impossible for nature to avoid fighting itself as long as living creatures have irreconcilable aims. Nature's one of those words, like 'spirituality', a bit lacking in objective meaning when it comes to SF, and often means only what the writer wants it to mean. It tends to fall into two catagories: 'everything' (not normally very useful), or 'that which functions as part of an evolved ecosystem' (and which therefore excludes modern human culture as it is this context semi-autonomous and therefore ecologically dysfunctional. The distinction is both useful (in the sense that it highlights the damage to the functioning of ecosystems), and part of the problem, as by separating humans from 'nature' it helps normalise the idea that humans can somehow exist alone, that our first encounter with an alien species is merely a question of human sympathy, and not human survival. It feeds our hubristic sense of omnipotence, which is what creates the problem in the first place. Now we're beginning to understand the true nature of self and why it arises. One thing to bear in mind is that, if our ancestors (including those non-human) had no sense of themselves or of self-preservation... well, you get the idea. The singular, conscious mind with a strong sense of self is an evolutionary trick - the physical body utilising the conscious in order to self-perpetuate (tricking us into believing we have to be selfish, fuck other people over, take more than we need etc. - the stuff necessary to survive in a harsh world, basically). What has happened at the same time is the conscious mind utilised the physical bodies to perpetuate, but with the focus of the consciousness still being on the (more or less) purely corporeal. The next stage in the evolution of consciousness will end up being consciousness for its own sake, meaning we will grow out of this form - the end of humanity.

It’s great to read an adult SF novel without the infantilisation bits of contemporary SF (even when said “contemporary SF” is branded as “adult SF” it still read as “YA-SF-for-morons”…Go figure.… (meer)

On the one hand: interesting aliens with their own culture and morals and ethics, which are very (ha!) alien from the way humans view things, including even a simple thing like 'what is time?'.

On the other hand: the US is of course the best country that fought the alien conquerors the longest and bravest while several European countries and Japan surrendered almost right away, and humans are absolutely superior to the aliens in tech an fighting spirit and ingenuity, as even the aliens come around to seeing. Which, well, I guess maybe I also wouldn't love a book where clearly humans were the inferior species, but it all felt a bit grating and smug.

Throw in a quick passage where the female MC reflects that it's a pity the aliens have no sexual interest in human women, so that her 'friends' might have their (admittedly rather rose-tinted and romanticized) views on the aliens corrected via some rape, and I was uh, less than charmed.

Just not my cup of tea.… (meer)

This is a fairly interesting and innovative take on the 'Earth controlled by aliens' theme. It is the first part of a series and it jumps right into things. Earth is under control of the alien Jao and has been for some years now. The Jao, a sort of seal/walrus-like mammalian species has slightly better technology and troops specially bred for warfare. They have occupied the Earth and have organized it the way they are used to, the Jao can't contemplate doing things any other way. That means clans and families are the primary organization, so there are some rivalries between them.
The Jao keep saying that a worse alien race, the Ekhat are coming and that humans and Jao must prepare. Unfortunately, they don't explain anything to the humans, so they all they get is rebellion. When a new high ranking Jao is assigned to the planet, can he change anything?
I thought this was well done, even though it jumped right into the middle of things. It is also somewhat self-contained and reads like a single book, I didn't feel it was incomplete at the end. It did remind me quite a bit of the Chanur novels, but not in a bad way.
A good attempt at human-alien relations where humans don't have the upper hand.… (meer)