Thousandth Night / Minla's Flowers | ||||||||
Alastair Reynolds | ||||||||
Subterranean Press, 186 pages | ||||||||
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A review by Derek Johnson
They have good pedigree. Both novellas are reprints: "Thousandth Night" first appeared in Gardner Dozois's
anthology One Million A.D., while "Minla's Flowers" saw its initial publication
in The New Space Opera, edited by Dozois and Jonathan Strahan. Both stories, further, showcase some of
Reynolds's best features: the ease with which he creates interesting characters in strange settings; his ability
to blend space opera with other generic forms (mystery in "Thousandth Night," bildungsroman in "Minla's Flowers");
his knowledge of current physics and technologies that, while consistent with what might be possible, never read
as flat or arid, as happens far too often with hard sf. And yet the same problem hampers both stories: despite
tackling diverse subjects and generic approaches, both stories feel distant and aloof, never fully engaging the reader.
"Thousandth Night" takes place in the same universe as House of Suns. Humanity has spread across the galaxy,
though most large civilizations fall after a few thousand years. (Faster-than-light travel does not exist in this
setting, a liability for the sustainability of interstellar empires.) Members of the Genitan Line (nine hundred
and ninety-three male and female clones of one Abigail Gentian) traverse the galaxy collecting knowledge and
experience, meeting for one thousand days every 200,000 years in a reunion ceremony. During this ceremony Campion,
an ecological artist (shades of John Varley's "The Phantom of Kansas") finds himself embroiled in a
mystery: Burdock, a member of his clone line, has memories that contradict Campion's, indicating that he, Burdock,
has created an alibi, and Campion embarks with Purslane, another member of the Gentian Line, on an investigation
to discover what might have happened, and what it might mean for the Line's mysterious Great Work. Reynolds
structures the novella like a British cozy mystery, specifically Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None,
by having his rich dilettantes confined to the planet and its orbit. The mystery itself reaches back through
galactic history, which for spoiler reasons will not be divulged, and its ultimate reveal ends with a space battle
outside the planet's orbit. The mystery itself is intriguing (and who doesn't love a good space battle?), but
Reynolds makes Campion too detached to allow the reader to stake much interest.
No mystery needs to be solved in "Minla's Flowers," except for those of the human heart. While searching for a
weapon that will defeat the Huskers in their war with humanity (known as the Cohort), the space pilot Merlin must
land his damaged ship Tyrant on Lecythus, a planet beset by civil war. As he begins to make repairs and befriend
on one side, he learns that a portion of the Waynet (a portion of space that allows spacecraft to travel rapidly
between the stars) has become unstable and will destroy Lecythus's sun (and of course their planet) within a
hundred years. Merlin urges the factions to work together to leave the planet, providing them information on
how they ultimately can build starships. He places himself in a cryogenic chamber and wakens every twenty years
to check on their progress. Minla, a little girl he meets shortly after landing is the lynchpin of the story,
for Merlin interacts with her each time he awakens, watching as she, and her civilization, become more grim
and cynical. This novella is a bildungsroman, following Minla and Merlin as she transforms into a monster and
he becomes more disillusioned. The ideas behind it, specifically the mistakes of history, are intriguing, yet
again, its principal characters feel too broad to fully engage the reader, leaving Reynolds to rely more on
sentiment than genuine insight.
In the end, "Thousandth Night" and "Minla's Flowers," despite their good ideas and the presentation by Subterranean
Press, don't quite succeed the way that Subterranean Press's previous double novella by Lucius Shepard ("Ariel"
and "Vacancy") did. Both novellas have their points, but both needed stronger characters to be truly
engaging. It may have been too good to be true -- old-fashioned Ace Double space adventure for modern
sensibility -- but one should give Reynolds and Subterranean Press props for effort.
Derek Johnson lives, works and writes in Central Texas. He believes that, one day, he'll make a dent in his ever-growing "to-read" pile. That hasn't happened thus far. |
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