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Feb. 22nd, 2008
Liz Williams, "Empire of Bones"
Feb. 22nd, 2008 09:39 pmMost alien races in science fiction are rather like brits or yanks; either that or they live in completely centralised hive-minds, in a parody of communism. In Empire of Bones, they're more like Indians. At least, they live in a highly complex society based on castes, with people performing intricate manouvres to improve their status within their castes. So when the aliens re-contact Earth, having previously stimulated the human race, it is an Indian with whom they first make contact. Unfortunately for their own sense of caste, the contact turns out to be a rebel who has fought the government, calling for equal rights for untouchables.
These aliens are different in another way, too. They use a wide range of senses for communication, including pheromones, smell, taste and telepathy as well as speech. They can control their own chemical and biological processes. They grow their houses and their spaceships from seeds (which reminded me Geoff Ryman's classic, The Unconquered Country). To them, human communications are not just primitive, they are an embarrassing mistake; they altered the human genome long ago in order to raise our communication abilities and prepare us to join the galactic civilisation. What we experience as diseases are in fact failures of their genetic modifications.
It doesn't pay to look at this background too closely. If the alien caste structure is the norm, why is it that only India developed it so strongly? Why is their contact an Indian and not from another country. And why should we believe that the evolution of viruses requires an alien intervention?
That is missing the point, of course. The background is not there to examine these hypotheses seriously; it's to create an alien society that is based on something other than western hopes and fears of the cold war. In this, Williams succeeds admirably. If you can suspend your disbelief, then this novel is a cracking good read. The aliens emissaries conduct their own struggle of intrigue, while they and the humans misunderstand and distrust each other. The multi-sensory communication is well portrayed, as is the degree of bio-manipulation. Perhaps the main fault is the characterisation of a Japanese businessman, who is stereotypically cold, calculating and racist.
I was pleased to find an SF book with such an unusual set of characters and interactions. I don't think it will have crossover appeal to mainstream readers, because Williams uses various SF motifs without explaining them, but for SF readers this is definitely worth reading.
These aliens are different in another way, too. They use a wide range of senses for communication, including pheromones, smell, taste and telepathy as well as speech. They can control their own chemical and biological processes. They grow their houses and their spaceships from seeds (which reminded me Geoff Ryman's classic, The Unconquered Country). To them, human communications are not just primitive, they are an embarrassing mistake; they altered the human genome long ago in order to raise our communication abilities and prepare us to join the galactic civilisation. What we experience as diseases are in fact failures of their genetic modifications.
It doesn't pay to look at this background too closely. If the alien caste structure is the norm, why is it that only India developed it so strongly? Why is their contact an Indian and not from another country. And why should we believe that the evolution of viruses requires an alien intervention?
That is missing the point, of course. The background is not there to examine these hypotheses seriously; it's to create an alien society that is based on something other than western hopes and fears of the cold war. In this, Williams succeeds admirably. If you can suspend your disbelief, then this novel is a cracking good read. The aliens emissaries conduct their own struggle of intrigue, while they and the humans misunderstand and distrust each other. The multi-sensory communication is well portrayed, as is the degree of bio-manipulation. Perhaps the main fault is the characterisation of a Japanese businessman, who is stereotypically cold, calculating and racist.
I was pleased to find an SF book with such an unusual set of characters and interactions. I don't think it will have crossover appeal to mainstream readers, because Williams uses various SF motifs without explaining them, but for SF readers this is definitely worth reading.