A Long-Awaited Review

Well, long-awaited by me, if not by anyone else. This is, after all, the book I named my journal after.

Coalescent is unmistakeably a Stephen Baxter novel, but it's not the sort of novel you expect Stephen Baxter to write. The material is as big and bold as ever - this is a novel concerned with civilisation and society, order and chaos, as viewed through the lens of evolutionary biology - but the focus is more intense than usual. This is a novel about the role of the group and the role of the individual. This is a novel about family. Specifically, the Poole family.

Present-day Britain: Returning to Manchester after his father's death, our gentleman-narrator George Poole stumbles across evidence of a sister he never knew he had, and starts searching for her.

Ancient Britain: As the Roman Empire fails, Regina - George's distant ancestor - grows up. Travelling across the land she lives through a slow apocalypse, a total collapse of civilisation. She begins searching for a way to protect her family, forever.

Between these two tales lies the story of Coalescent. Unfortunately, at least to begin with, the two strands are not equally effective. Baxter's gift for capturing our modern world, on the cusp of the future, is considerable, but he seems unsure of himself when detailing Roman Britain. The style wobbles between a presentation of Roman life as though it were contemporary, and a description of that life as a historical context. Combined with a misjuged foray into the presentation of 'the truth behind the myth' (and no prizes for guessing which myth), the result is that the first half of this strand is often dull and uninspiring. We're told the Empire is falling, but we never feel it.

Thankfully, when the historical strand moves to Rome things improve dramatically. George Poole also relocates to the Italian capital, and the juxtaposition of the two viewpoints - together with the introduction of a third, native voice - provides a compelling portrait of the city. Not so much a portrait of Rome as a place, but of Rome as a society, Rome as a concept. Rome as a dream - and that's the sort of material with which Baxter is much more comfortable.

It doesn't have nearly the same scope (little could), but thematically it's clear that Coalescent is a natural successor to his last novel, Evolution. It's an outlandish variation on the same ideas. It's also a hard-SF updating of an old pulp standby: The hive mind. What do genetics and sociobiology tell us a hive would really be like? How and why would it happen? The answers are brutally logical, yet not what most people would expect[*], and provide a powerful contrast to the portrait of contemporary civilisation.

For all that it delivers the requisite imaginative kick, however, it is a flawed novel. The early parts of the Roman story are mainly responsible. Coalescent is, as I said, by necessity a human story; much that happens later turns on our empathy with Regina, and Baxter's powers of characterisation are not quite up to the task. If, like me, you already appreciate Baxter then this probably won't bother you overmuch, but it's not a book I can recommend to everyone.

[*] Yes, Tom, anyone with a decent knowledge of genetics and biology could make a decent stab at it. That, sadly, is not 'most people'...

Gifts

I wasn't really away long enough to send postcards, or buy people gifts, but I did have a few Royal Mail moments. So - I saw these, and thought of:

tomburnell: I came across the first (and only) anthology of The Boondocks whilst browsing the sort of bookshop we just don't have over here: friendly wooden floors and jumbled, crammed shelves, but airy and modern, and located in a trendy downtown mall. There was even a coffee area crammed into a few square meters in the corner. Anyway, I don't know if you've ever read it, and I don't know what you'd make of the current incarnation (The Boondocks is a strip that's changed dramatically in the four or so years since its birth, becoming increasingly focused on American politics), but I think you'd get a kick out of the early strips. I'll bring the anthology with me on Saturday. In the meantime, here's a recent favourite:



cleanskies: You know those long walkways you get in airports? The ones in Miami look like this:



The nifty thing is, it comes with sound effects. It's apparently an 'urban musical instrument' designed by one Christopher Janney, and there are sensors and speakers at various intervals down the corridor. As you pass each one, it chimes. With a bunch of people all going in different directions, you get interestingly (if quietly) chaotic ambient noise..

xsabx: This one's more about sharing the pain. It was in the Miami Herald on Sunday:

If California's recent gubernatorial recall election struck you as alarmingly like an episode of American Idol, brace yourself: A Hollywood producer is pitching a show called American Candidate on which 100 contestants vie to become a ''people's candidate'' for president next year.

American Candidate? Ouch.

The article is also an overview of political TV in America more generally. It rather wonderfully describes The West Wing as a 'policy opera', then suggests this:

''Even taken in the most modest doses, you're likely to get diabetes from The West Wing,'' says Ben Stein, an actor and screenwriter who was also a speechwriter for Presidents Nixon and Ford. ``It's the fluff candy of drama ...I love [West Wing star] Martin Sheen -- he's my neighbor in Malibu, a fine guy -- but you need massive doses of insulin to watch his show.''
[...]
History tells us that people are interested in big powerful forces in their lives: police, law, medicine. At first, the shows are reverential: Dr. Kildare. Then you get St. Elsewhere. Or Perry Mason and, later, L.A. Law ...Eventually, people get ready to see how things are instead of how they'd like things to be.''

I've always seen the idealism in The West Wing as one of its main attractions, personally. I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch: I have a warm flat again. Woohoo!

And whilst I'm here: I apologise to not responding to other folks' versions of the me-meme. As brassyn has pointed out, this one takes time...