In
Lytchcov Zammana's debut novel, the future's cold, the future's blue. Vic
Jones wakes up in another man's body in 2084, and finds that the world has
moved on in radical ways. The elite live and die in the terramyd, a
living structure on the banks of the Colorado. The dregs of society roam
the wastes outside, drip fed on the mac, genetically engineered food grown and
processed by the terramyd (Zammana declines to mention where this food chain may
have originated). As the year 2084 suggests, this novel presents
Zammana's dystopia of this century in the style of George Orwell. Instead
of a Smith, we have a couple of Jones's, but Big Brother's still here, up to
his sneaky tricks as usual, and unwilling to let any of the terramyd housemates
go.
The Otherhood projects current trends into the future and throws them up in a
murky light. The fear that someone may misuse one of those old Soviet
Union missiles is realised, and given the time that Zammana was writing this
novel, seems eerily preminiscient of certain events. This is a novel
that portrays Globalisation at its most extreme and vicious: Robert Jones
is seen as the unethical head of corporate America by his brother,
Victor, who vows that he will do anything to stop him. Genetic technology
forms a great part of the novel, and is indeed instrumental in the construction
of the terramyd. Zammana dares to ask if we really would like a world
full of fed, but unhappy people. The terramyd certainly has more than its
fair share of enemies: those outside the Ark either will do anything to
get in it, or will do anything to destroy it. Once the terramyd is
constructed, the local inhabitants of LA despise the institution for
making them so dependent and helpless. Although the living skin of
the terramyd naturally repels and destroys any organic intrusion, its
inhabitants are still vulnerable to coalitions formed by the few remaining
global power bases. However, the terramyd is also the only sustainable source
of vblu, the so-called "fifth state" of matter that promises to
provide the next stage in human evolution, if only Bob Jones' Trycor can
work out how to make more.
This organic artificial intelligence, the myd, provides the inspiration, the
means, and the economic bubble necessary for the development of a whole range
of technological advances. Zammana may have been influenced by the
internet and telecommunications bubble here - the title of the novel does
recall to mind the phrase "the digital divide". Instrumental to
the novel is Dr. Isaac's creation of Virtual Genetic Regression (VGR).
This is the means by which Victor Jones is transported forward to 2084, and as
these devices go, it's far more logical than whirlwinds kidnapping young girls
from Kansas. Victor is the victim here of a mad scientist's vision
(although his own name may well be derived from Mary Shelley's novel), but it
seems that he has been unwittingly provided with a great source of power in
this depraved new world. The genetic regression has only been made
possible by Dr. Isaac's development of a sophisticated interface with the
myd. This interface is in the form of a ring, and Victor does seem to
have a few Tolkien reactions to wearing it. Although he does not literally
go invisible when wearing it, he does virtually do so, and in this world
of artificial intelligence, that could almost be the same thing. There's
no Gandalf to guide Victor on his hero's journey (the closest character to
Gandalf is probably Joe, but Victor never really listens to his advice),
instead, Victor seems guided by his own genetic inheritance and dreams
of "a fiery machine" that have haunted his line and that of
another over two centuries. However, like Frodo's jewellry, Victor's ring
does seem to possess a will of its own, despite the general impression that the
myd is inert and guided solely by man.
The machiavellian heads of Trycor always seem to provoke resistance, and
the same is true for Chairman Bob Jones' son, Viceroy. In his
attempt to pull off a complex and sophisticated coup, it's Viceroy who turns to
Dr. Isaac and VGR. However, he finds that instead of being genetically
regressed to the body of Robert Jones in the three minutes that he's alone with
Trycor's charter, Viceroy discovers that he possesses the body of Victor Jones
instead, a predecessor of whom he knows nothing. Viceroy finds
himself in the middle of a vast civil disturbance, unrest that
seems provoked by the building of the terramyd. Allied with Terrell,
a man with a destiny, and some rather unwholesome friends, Viceroy unwittingly
finds himself at the very roots of the terramyd's development. Along the way,
he discovers much that Robert Jones has later deleted from history...
Viceroy and Victor fight their battles for liberty in parallel. Yet
how can they fight against manifest destiny?
By
producing a novel with such a vast scope, with events running over two
centuries, Lytchcov Zammana, like Robert Jones, could be accused of being over
ambitious. This novel is so complex that it does take several readings to
really attempt to grip what it is all about, and so Zammana could be
asking too much from most readers. Although Zammana has many fantastic
visions of the future here, they are all so bright and numerous that they tend
to damage the retina and crowd each other out. Interstellar travel and
cloning are two more themes of the novel that I have not really been able
to touch upon here, and Virtual Genetic Regression could sustain a novel on its
own. Then again, I guess we have already seen that genetic technology can
be the source of all kinds of unexpected patents. In such a crowded world
though, characterisation can very much suffer. Julie and Jewel play
a crucial role in the plot, but a longer book would have exploited them
better - we are told that Victor really loves Julie, but we never really get to
see it. Better editing may well have removed some of the typos towards
the end of The Otherhood, and although Zammana reveals an extraordinary depth
of imagination, some of the names of his characters and concepts seem too
homegrown and could have been sexier (only an American would call their son
"Viceroy" I guess). With such a complex plot, it would seem
inevitable that Zammana would have trouble keeping up with it all, and there is
one scene where Viceroy manages to run a considerable distance out of a cave
complex whilst still apparently tied to a chair (p. 306-307). However,
Zammana does display an extraordinary imagination, and is much better at representing
a Philip K. Dick dystopia than, say, Stephen Spielberg. I did begin to
appreciate the novel far more at the second reading, and more of the jigsaw
pieces do fall into place if you read this novel with the patience and
attention it deserves. If, like me, you enjoy fiction that challenges you
and makes you work hard, then you will appreciate The Otherhood. Lytchcov
Zammana's fertile imagination is certainly one to be watched, and there is much
within The Otherhood to be explored further.
Kevin
Patrick Mahoney
Authortrek Rating:
7/10
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