This is a difficult review to write, because the author has made a bold attempt at a complex writing style, and hasn’t been completely successful. To put it simply, he has tried to replicate the nuances of a socially and politically advanced culture, where the art of diplomatic conversation is paramount. This results in long sections of conversation with a large number of people we have never met before, all talking about events we don’t know about, and everything is laden with double or triple entendre.
“Hindsight shows so many undercurrents in that conversation. But I bobbed above them all like a piece of jetsam.”
Parenthetical explanations of hindsight only serve to confuse us further. If the dialogue doesn’t communicate the information, no amount of narrator explanation will fix it. We bob along in more profound ignorance, and a joke explained is no longer so funny.
Complicating the read further is the multi-level narration style, including regular chapters, many of which start with a preface where the main character talks directly to a person called “Sam,” before the present-day action resumes. About every five chapters there is an “apologue,” a separate scene with a slightly different cast, usually occurring several years in the past. There are also dream sequences at various levels. Readers have a lot of trouble knowing where and when the story has taken us.
Another interesting factor in the writing: in this society pilots, from the nature of their lives, have a very casual attitude towards sex. This is carried to extremes, to the point where liaisons become a bargaining chip in the social conflict, and there is no sexual tension at all. In fact, the discussion becomes more like a character going on about brushing their teeth.
On the positive side, the main character is a complex, sympathetic everywoman who attracts our empathy as she tries, as all of us do, to make sense of a senseless universe. The writing is clean and well-edited, and the dialogue is natural.
There are many clever ideas in this novel and a lot of good writing, but unfortunately the average reader will have trouble following it.
Three stars.
