Rebel Sutra

Rating:
Summary: Embryos, Empresses, Environment, and Enhancements
Review: Galactic empires have been a staple of SF for many, many years, but the one presented here is quite different. Based on the idea that there is just one individual properly suited to be Empress and one suited to be the Pretender to the throne, each individual is endlessly cloned and appropriately trained to fill their defined role. But in the latest triumph by the Pretender, Suu-Suu, one of the scientists charged with the keeping of the embryos of the Empress, flees to the forgotten colony world of Maya, long isolated from the Empire, taking the embryos with her. The world of Maya, ignorant of the happenings in the empire, has proceeded on its own development path, a colony world split into two factions of (nominally) normal humans and the Changed, people who have been genetically enhanced to interface with a computer AI. But all of this is just background, not really part of the main story line, a pity, I think, as the full development of this societal structure would have been extremely intriguing.

Against this background Lewitt places the story of Della, apparent member of the Changed who becomes infatuated with one of the 'lesser' humans, Arsen, and bears a child by him, Anselm. Arsen becomes the leader of an abortive revolt against the Changed, protesting the human's treatment by the Changed and their abysmal living conditions. When Arsen is executed for his part in the revolt, the stage is set for Della and her son to continue the fight, each in their own way.

During the course of their struggles, each of them journeys down a road of self-discovery, a slowly dawning awareness of the Empire and the role of Maya and the genetically enhanced humans in the larger picture. It is this journey that is main attraction of this book, leading Lewitt's characters and the reader into the realms of philosophical reality, personal identity, the influence of environment versus heredity, fate against free will, prejudice, and the influence of other's expectations on an individual's choice of actions. Della and Anselm are both well drawn believable people, even if neither is the paragon of virtue. However, most of the other characters are flat stick-figures, merely there as props for the action.

The story construction is somewhat odd, starting from Della's memoirs at the end of the revolution, changing in the middle to Anselm's point of view as the revolution is just beginning. This construction only partially works, as at times it allows the good use of foreshadowing, at others it spoils the suspense, leaving a certain level of confusion in its wake and leading to an odd, not-quite-there atmosphere.

The prose style is adequate, but at times more detailed descriptions of places and everyday happenings would have been helpful. I found myself floundering a couple of times trying to imagine a particular scene with too few signposts to direct me. The apparently complex structure of the Changed's society is merely hinted at, not fleshed out in great detail, so Della's position within and actions to control that society remain somewhat ambiguous and nebulous.

A very ambitious work, with potentially tremendous thematic concepts and ideas, enough for three books of this length, but not quite executed well enough to make the story vibrant and demanding.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: Pretty good read. A litle strange. I'd say definitely worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: One man's dream.
Review: Though few people suspect it, the forsaken colony world of Maya - "Illusion" - is aptly named. This frigid, volcanic world is dominated by a twin human settlement: the Mountain - a domed city of the genetically-altered Changed, worshipful of their deranged AI god - the Exchange; and Babelion - the slum city of the would-be wardens to the Changed - the petty, idling humans. What no one on Maya knows, however, is that they are not the only remaining colony - indeed, a whole interstellar Empire has sprung up and fractured while the denizens of Maya shared their delusion. Now the Empire is all but dead, usurped by the Pretender Emperor - and it is up to a hapless scientist to save the last Cloned Empress embryos to perpetuate the rightful bloodline. In clandestinely giving one of the cloned embryos life among the elitist Changed, Suu-Suu has made a fateful miscalculation - for though Della went power-mad without her training as Empress, her mixed-blood son - Anselm - was destined to uncover the true extent of Maya's illusion - even at the cost of chaos.

This sophisticatedly twisted melange of "Ender's Game" and "Fahrenheit 451" is passionately, exhaustively well-written. Shariann Lewitt has adopted an interesting internal structure - the book is told in two halves from two characters' perspectives. Della's story is presented first, in the form of a memoir. It begins at the finale - the revolution - and goes on essentially backwards through Della's time with the Tinkers (Suu-Suu's mysterious band of banished off-worlders) and her brief tryst with Arsen - the young revolutionary from Babelion - Anselm's father. Anselm's story is told in a more conventional fashion - it begins with his forced flight from the treacherous Mountain (the secret of his mixed-blood parentage is anathema to the Changed) and continues on through his time with Babelion's meandering, petty revolutionaries, his tutelage under the Hindu priests, and his final confrontation with his fate. Indeed, Anselm's story is a search for meaning and self-discovery, a quest for identity, a struggle against his own dehumanization and needless symbolism, his battle against those who would have (knowingly or not) made him a mundane pawn of the old . Ultimately, his is a search for truth.

The novel deftly interconnects its parts by having all stories told by knowing first-person narrators in the past tense - there are numerous internal redundancies, parallels, cases of deja vu, and so on. Lewitt interestingly infuses her tale with Hindu mythology and philosophy - and makes it perfectly accessible to the reader. Her voice as a writer has a tasteful twang of femininity - similar to LeGuin's but less labyrinthine. At times, "Rebel Sutra" had me literally spellbound in its clutches.

It does have several flaws, most obvious of them being the numerous allusions to Anselm's apparent homosexuality - which is fine in itself but doesn't quite fit with the story (did she retain this tendency from her participation in "Bending the Landscape", or vice versa?). Several characters are made deliberately flat only so they can add artificial depth to Anselm's dramatic struggle. The author enjoys making allusions to revelations given further on in the book - whcih frequently makes sense within the context of the story, though I hate being baited by lines such as "...but the actual reason for it being the way it is we didn't learn until much later."

Nonetheless, this is a powerful, excellently written work of fiction. Sorry to say it - but this is a "must-read."

Rating:
Summary: One man's dream.
Review: Though few people suspect it, the forsaken colony world of Maya - "Illusion" - is aptly named. This frigid, volcanic world is dominated by a twin human settlement: the Mountain - a domed city of the genetically-altered Changed, worshipful of their deranged AI god - the Exchange; and Babelion - the slum city of the would-be wardens to the Changed - the petty, idling humans. What no one on Maya knows, however, is that they are not the only remaining colony - indeed, a whole interstellar Empire has sprung up and fractured while the denizens of Maya shared their delusion. Now the Empire is all but dead, usurped by the Pretender Emperor - and it is up to a hapless scientist to save the last Cloned Empress embryos to perpetuate the rightful bloodline. In clandestinely giving one of the cloned embryos life among the elitist Changed, Suu-Suu has made a fateful miscalculation - for though Della went power-mad without her training as Empress, her mixed-blood son - Anselm - was destined to uncover the true extent of Maya's illusion - even at the cost of chaos.

This sophisticatedly twisted melange of "Ender's Game" and "Fahrenheit 451" is passionately, exhaustively well-written. Shariann Lewitt has adopted an interesting internal structure - the book is told in two halves from two characters' perspectives. Della's story is presented first, in the form of a memoir. It begins at the finale - the revolution - and goes on essentially backwards through Della's time with the Tinkers (Suu-Suu's mysterious band of banished off-worlders) and her brief tryst with Arsen - the young revolutionary from Babelion - Anselm's father. Anselm's story is told in a more conventional fashion - it begins with his forced flight from the treacherous Mountain (the secret of his mixed-blood parentage is anathema to the Changed) and continues on through his time with Babelion's meandering, petty revolutionaries, his tutelage under the Hindu priests, and his final confrontation with his fate. Indeed, Anselm's story is a search for meaning and self-discovery, a quest for identity, a struggle against his own dehumanization and needless symbolism, his battle against those who would have (knowingly or not) made him a mundane pawn of the old . Ultimately, his is a search for truth.

The novel deftly interconnects its parts by having all stories told by knowing first-person narrators in the past tense - there are numerous internal redundancies, parallels, cases of deja vu, and so on. Lewitt interestingly infuses her tale with Hindu mythology and philosophy - and makes it perfectly accessible to the reader. Her voice as a writer has a tasteful twang of femininity - similar to LeGuin's but less labyrinthine. At times, "Rebel Sutra" had me literally spellbound in its clutches.

It does have several flaws, most obvious of them being the numerous allusions to Anselm's apparent homosexuality - which is fine in itself but doesn't quite fit with the story (did she retain this tendency from her participation in "Bending the Landscape", or vice versa?). Several characters are made deliberately flat only so they can add artificial depth to Anselm's dramatic struggle. The author enjoys making allusions to revelations given further on in the book - whcih frequently makes sense within the context of the story, though I hate being baited by lines such as "...but the actual reason for it being the way it is we didn't learn until much later."

Nonetheless, this is a powerful, excellently written work of fiction. Sorry to say it - but this is a "must-read."