The first book that I selected for this year's run
is The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (paperback & kindle). Frankly, the title intrigued me.
Claire North is the second nom de plume of
28 year old British author Catherine Webb. Two of her earlier YA novels were
nominated for the Carnegie Medal for British Children's and Young Adult
Stories.
Perhaps coincidentally, The First Fifteen
Lives of Harry August is her 15th published novel and her first
Science-Fiction. It has been nominated for two awards, the Arthur C. Clarke
Award, and the British Science Fiction Association Award (which was awarded to
Ann Leckie's Ancillary Sword.)
I try not to read the story blurbs before starting
a book. Often, they are written by publishers, and sometimes by authors, to try
to entice you to read the book by giving you a little taste. It has been my
experience that these blurbs are either deliberately misleading, or they give
away too much.
In this case, the title alone gave me enough
information to pique my interest. Fifteen lives? Multiple universes? Clones?
Reincarnation? Simulations? A quick look at the ratings showed between three
and four stars, and since it was on my list, a reading was required.
***SPOILERS (You've been warned)***
Act I -
Chapters 1 - 23 - Life is a Terminal Disease
The Hook
“The world is ending,” she said. “The message has come down from child
to adult, child to adult, passed back down the generations from a thousand
years forward in time. The world is ending and we cannot prevent it. So now
it’s up to you... The world is ending, as it always must. But the end of the
world is getting faster.”
Not quite the first line, but in the first chapter,
soon enough that I didn't lose patience over the sentence fragments, flowery vocabulary
and immediate introspection of a character I didn't even know or care about
yet. But that line, that hooked me. Here was a sentence worth untangling.
The story is told from a first person perspective,
past tense. Harry, our main character (MC) is recounting his story to someone
(often using 'you' and 'as you know'), though we don't find out who until the
end of the book.
The first thing I liked about this book was the
initial conceit. It was, in my experience, a rarely explored take on reincarnation.
A select group of individuals, known as Kalachakra or ouroborons, born at a
rate of about one in every half million of the population, upon their death,
are reborn into the exact same body, under virtually the same conditions, at
the same time, only to relive their original lives again. The difference is
that most have some of their former incarnation's memories intact. Some, such
as our hero Harry August, are mnemonics, who remember everything from all of
their former lives.
The question as to how this is done is never really
explained. Is it the transmigration of souls? Energy patterns that refuse to
dissipate? A tiny Einstein Rosen bridge in the brain? Normally I am willing to
accept the 'it just is' in a good yarn and suspend disbelief (it is Sci-Fi,
after all), but by failing to support it, North fails to provide plausible
foundations for actions taken later in the book. Even a make believe world must
operate by the rules, even if they are unique to that world.
This incessant and uncontrollable rebirth presents
an interesting psychological challenge, and the Harry reacts predictably, first
thinking he is insane (and committing suicide at the age of 7/98), then
beginning to see the advantages of the experience of age coupled with the
vigour of youth.
This was a very 'Groundhog Day' approach to
reincarnation, but with the advantages and disadvantages of an entire life's
worth of experience to carry with them. One could become a doctor in one life,
a musician in the next, a world-travel in the next, etc., experiencing all of
the facets of the human experience possible in one's lifetime, in a particular
slice of history. We are exposed to Harry's experience in a somewhat random
order though, as he brings in lessons learned or experiences from various lives
in snippets as they seem to occur to him within the somewhat linear narrative.
I really liked this idea, and I was looking forward
to the inevitable wall. If one can only relive their lives in the exact same
time period, there are only so many variations before things become
repetitions. Add to that the fact that each different choice has a ripple
effect on the world around you, so history will never be exactly the same.
North (Webb) plays a little with this idea, but I
feel she could have done more with it. Early on the Harry asserts that the
choices one makes in their life have little actual effect on the 'grand scheme
of things' so you can pretty much expect the World Wars and the assassination
of Kennedy and other grand events to go ahead, regardless of what minor changes
you make in your life. She contradicts this at the beginning of Act II, but
more about that later.
The existence of these 'eternals,' though they are
very mortal, is suspected by the normal population, the 'linears.' The
attraction is obvious, of course. Even if there is only one lifetime of
experiences to tell, knowing the events that would occur 10-40 years in advance
can help one to take advantage of the winds of change. The majority of Act one
is Harry's experience of just such a case, where he is kidnapped and tortured
into revealing the secrets of the future. His captor, unimaginatively named 'Fearson'
'Phearson', occupies the bulk of Act I, and is the primary protagonist of the
section.
There are others like Harry, so a particular Kalachakra
can find and become close to others of his/her kind. They have formed a
society, the Cronus Club, which spans the globe and history, back to 3000 BCE
and forward to an undetermined date. Their lives overlap, so that the memories
of an old man can be shared again when he is a boy, and thus even the distant
future or the distant past are not locked away. North peppers all of Act I with
allusions to the club, and Harry's official introduction and induction signal
the end of the act at roughly the 25% mark.
I felt that Act I was a little rushed, and North
could have spent most of the act dealing with the way a Kalachakra would
experience life, make adjustments and the take on loves won and lost. A sense
of the development of relationships, the futility of an eternal life that never
experiences significant change, the struggles and uncertainties of a linear
life swept away and leaving what in its wake? A deeper exploration of the
character's development, with a few ominous "how did you know that?"
hints dropped here and there would have set us up well for a solid Act II. Instead
we get the following...
Act II part 1 -
Chapter 24 - 46 - The People Hating Club
This is where I feel that North made her biggest
error. She begins the chapter with the education of our Young/Old Harry,
through the use of the tale of one Victor Hoeness, and 16th century Kalachakra,
who using the Cronus Club intentionally seeks to make major changes to the
course of history. Using the Club's ability to 'whisper back from the future',
Hoeness is able to influence the development of society and technology hundreds
of years ahead of the 'normal' course of events, bringing about a world ending
cataclysm by 1950.
Harry is then told that the only way to truly kill
a Kalachakra is to murder them before they are born. Wait, what? Birth is the
trigger of the new life? Not knowing why they are reborn, how can the actual
birth act as a trigger? I would accept conception, perhaps. Even the forming of
a critical mass of brain cells during gestation. But birth? This presupposes
that prior to birth, babies have no consciousness? No soul (if that is the
cause)? This felt weak to me when I read it here, and my opinion did not
improve.
If the parents were killed, of the impregnation
prevented, the Kalachakra would be permanently dead, never to be reborn. The
fact that in the next go around (from another Kalachakra’s perspective) the
same child would be born to the same parents did not count as a reboot of that
mind. More confusion.
With these given, Hoeness' true crime in the eyes
of Cronus Club is not the death of billions of humans and the destruction of
the world, but rather the permanent death of thousands, or perhaps merely
hundreds, of future Kalachakras who would not be born in that future, and thus
would never be born at all.
There is also the 'Forgetting', where a person
volunteers or is forced into brain death prior to physical death. This further
muddies the waters, implying that the body is somehow connected to the rebirth
process, even if the brain isn't.
The worst part of all of these facts and theories
is that they occur in a mere two chapters (25 & 26) at the beginning of Act
II. That's it, the entire story has been told, the cards have all be shown,
nothing to see here folks, move along.
The rest of the first part of act two becomes a
rush of getting to know the Cronus Club, and the introduction of the true
villain of the piece, Harry's frenemy Vincent. This is a relationship between
two Kalachakras, friends who could be friends forever. There is a hint of the
possibility of a homosexual relationship, though it is not explored. This, I
have read, was a deliberate choice by the author. Physical relationship aside,
these two men are alternately friends and ultimately enemies.
Vincent is secretive, reserved, and most definitely
up to something. He was to change things. He wants being a Kalachakra to mean
something. Vincent wants to use this gift of rebirth for something, to
benefit all Kalachakra (it is unclear if he gives a damn about humanity at
large). Harry seems to be content to just roll through his lives, lightly
exploring the limits of his experiences. He feels a little guilt about it, and
is disgusted by the how the majority of the Cronus Club seem bent on just
maintain anonymous comfort, while engaging in acts of thoughtless brutality against
the 'linears'.
The morality of this section is rife with the
possibilities of rich exploration. What DOES make life worth living? Does every
life matter? Are some simply born to be the master of all? Can one be truly
guilty of crimes that are erased the next time one is born?
On the latter point, Harry takes it upon himself to
brutally murder a serial killer before he is able to begin his spree. Harry
does not do this only once, but in every life he lives. He considers it an
appointment. No effort is made to discover WHY this person does what he does,
none to reform him, or cure him. Harry has an eternity to work this out, but
choose to put two bullets into the innocent poor sod's brain for crimes he has
not yet committed, time and time and time again. Then Harry just walks out.
This could have been a beautiful opportunity to dig
into the question of 'if you could kill Hitler as a child, would you?' But it
is left ignored, and worse, in my opinion, merely accepted.
This callousness towards linears, individually as
Harry does, or as a race as the Cronus Club does, could have been a theme to
develop through the rest of the book, but sadly, it is left alone, the
potential of a truly gripping moral quandary left to die before it matures.
Vincent leads Harry on a merry chase across the
wastes of Siberia where they meet again, on secret scientific base. Here
Vincent introduces Harry to his ultimate project, the (drumroll please)
'Quantum Mirror!'
Act II, Part 2
- Chapters 47 - 66 - Enter the McGuffin
What the hell is a 'Quantum Mirror' you may ask. I
certainly did. To quote:
“A quantum mirror,” [Vincent] tried again, “being a theoretical device
for the extrapolation of matter.”
Thanks for nothing. At the turn of Act II, the
'Midpoint Reversal', occurring as it should at around the 50% mark of the
story, Vincent confronts Harry with this tool that will peer into the secrets
of the universe with the 'eyes of the creator.' I have to admit, the phrase did
irk me a bit, but I let it pass, hoping for a better explanation. It never
came.
When North introduced this McGuffin through
Vincent, I thought to myself two things:
1.
This is the device that causes the destruction of
the world hinted at in the first chapter and Vincent is responsible.
2.
Vincent will be eventually hunted down and
permanently killed like Victor was.\
I also hoped that maybe Vincent was ACTUALLY Victor
back from the dead, here to seek his vengeance on all Kalachakra by ending
their selfish reign forever and letting humanity get on with its linear self.
If wishes were fishes...
The slide towards the disaster is a tale of Harry
and Vincent, brilliant scientists (?) and best friends who collaborate for 10
years on a project that will present the world with a unified field theory.
With this mirror, we will finally understand how the world works, and
extrapolate the past and future of the whole universe from a single particle.
Never mind that there are so many holes in that
concept that it would work well as a sieve for your next spaghetti dinner.
Let's just accept all the underlying assumption: The universe is purely
mechanistic, linked through solid cause effect chains through eternity;
Anything that is real is observable; Anything that is observable is
understandable; That understanding true nature of a mechanistic universe could
then somehow change that mechanistic universe. This is fantasy/sci-fi. What the
hell, just let it go.
Forgetting all of that, the real kicker to this
chapter, that which really disappointed me, was the fact that midway through
the process, when it looks like they will finally achieve their dream of a
Quantum Mirror, Harry has an inexplicable change of heart and suddenly
Vincent's enemy. Sigh. It was bound to happen. This is why we can't have nice
things.
Harry eventually escapes (by dying at the hand of a
sympathetic poisoner). He awakes to a world where the Kalachakra have been
systematically wiped out by Vincent and an accomplice. There are a mere handful
of the thousands left. This begins the finale, Act III.
Act III -
Chapters 67 - 82 - We Once Were Kings
Harry takes up the hunt for Vincent in his next
lives, eventually finding him, and through several betrayals and false
'Forgettings', finally getting Vincent to trust him enough tell him where he
was born, allowing Harry to escape with that knowledge and kill Vincent's
parents. End. Of. Story.
This was telegraphed, loudly, since the beginning
of Act II. Vincent is Victor, if only metaphorically, and thus would suffer
Victor's fate.
There is some, though not much, exploration of the
redemption of a friendship. And old flame is brought into the picture, but
raises only a few pages worth of comment. This was the chance for North (Webb)
to make it all matter. In the end, however, it doesn't. It turns out that Harry
was not fighting for redemption, or to save to the world, or to teach Kalachakra
to be better to the rest of us poor linears. The ultimate goal of the whole
story is... the status quo. Nothing has really changed.
Perhaps this is a kinder/gentler Club, but it isn't
the point.
P.S. The mysterious 'you' Harry is talking to
throughout the whole book is Vincent... on his deathbed... written by hand...
the whole novel... oh, well.
How it should
have ended - North by North-Webb
So my ratings:
Original Concept: ****
Structure: ***
Execution: **
Overall Rating: ***
Recommendation: Read it, but not if you have
something better on the shelf.
What I would have done (if you care - armchair
quarter-backing is fun!)
1.
Drop the Victor Hoeness story - Make Act II all
about the terrible discovery about how to permanently kill Kalachakra, possibly
by holding the reveal to end of act II with Vincent's destruction of the Cronus
Club.
2.
Drop the McGuffin/Quantum Mirror - Use Vincent's
desire to improve the fate of humanity by forcing them into their future,
eventually realizing the best thing for humanity is the end of the Kalachakra.
Plot this against Harry's desire to protect humanity and guide them safely
forward.
3.
Impact the Kalachakra:
1.
Have Vincent's plan be successful and sacrificing
all of the Kalachakra and letting humanity continue without them.
2.
Have Harry's plan be successful and the Kalachakra
graduate to become the angel's that guide humanity carefully into its future.
So what is different this year? Fewer Awards. Hugo, Nebula and Aurora (I am Canadian after all.) IF I have time at the end of the year, I might include the British Science Fiction Awards as well. For now, that is it.
