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A review by tachyondecay
Emergent Mars by Russell Klyford
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
My ride or die and I finally caught up on For All Mankind, the latest season of which sees an incipient society on Mars against the wishes of the suits back home. So it felt like a good time to pick up Emergent Mars—I received a copy of this book far too long ago in exchange for a review—and see Russell Klyford’s take on a similar idea. Unfortunately, while Klyford’s storytelling is competent, the characterization is uneven (and the manuscript could have used a more thorough copyedit), and ultimately the story doesn’t do anything particularly new or exciting with its tropes.
Ailia Bax is a former war correspondent, now on a tech journalist beat as a result of her PTSD. With much cajoling from her therapist, she accepts a contract to go to Mars and interview people there. When she arrives, however, life on Mars is like nothing she was led to expect. As she works her way down her interview list, Ailia learns more about the politics of this planet. But the machinations of an anonymous terrorist and the ulterior motives of her employers back on Earth have Ailia raising her hackles: she is no one’s pawn, and she is determined to uncover the truth at the beating heart of this newborn society.
The big sell of Emergent Mars lies in Klyford’s relatively hard approach to the science in this science fiction. Life on Mars is challenging and often dangerous, something Ailia experiences for herself more than once. There are few easy solutions to the challenges that face people here, and Mars is still quite dependent on Earth for some of its most basic and necessary supplies. Consequently, this lays the foundation for the political tension in the plot as Ailia learns about the competing visions for Mars’ future. Klyford uses her interviews with prominent administrators, researchers, and others to lay out a possible vision for “economic democracy” on Mars, a Martian nation that is united, cooperative, and resolute in seeking a productive yet independent relationship with Earth.
Now, much of this book is a series of talking heads conversations between Ailia and her respondents. Each person she interviews lectures the reader on the possible society they could achieve here on Mars. Ailia’s role for most of the novel is simply to be the proxy for the reader, at times incredulous or skeptical. I’m reminded a bit of For Us, the Living, one of Heinlein’s earliest works and similar in the ways its protagonist is expected to soak up the exposition about a possible world. Although Emergent Mars is not straightforwardly utopian, it picks up the threads of utopia in an attempt to create an atmosphere of hope.
With this in mind, much of one’s enjoyment of the novel will depend on how interested one is in thought experiments. I’m rather impatient with this approach to storytelling in science fiction these days: I wanted more than Emergent Mars is willing to deliver. Although Klyford sets up some interesting characters (including Ailia herself), they tend to come cross like NPCs in a video game instead of real people who coalesce into a community around her. Klyford attempts to infuse his cast with diversity, yet it feels uneven and stilted. At no point do we ever see the distinctive base cultures or cohesive Martian society that the characters insist is there.
Likewise, the parallel plot of the Slow Bomber is itself quite a slow burn. There is no urgency, except at the very end, to this mystery, even when one of Ailia’s closest friends is caught up in one of the bombings. Ailia’s involvement in solving the mystery feels unearned, her epiphany coming seemingly by chance after literally zero effort prior to this to investigate or learn more about the Slow Bomber.
I don’t want to damn Emergent Mars with faint praise. Klyford, to his credit, wants to present a coherent and compelling vision of Martian society as a tonic to the existential dread that seems to be overtaking us these days. In this sense, I wish him great success, for is that not one of the most significant roles science fiction can play? However, there’s a difference between poignant but flat thought experiments masquerading as a science-fiction thriller and character-driven political thrillers masquerading as planetary romance. Emergent Mars is too much the former for my taste, as much as it strives to be the latter.
Originally posted at Kara.Reviews.
Ailia Bax is a former war correspondent, now on a tech journalist beat as a result of her PTSD. With much cajoling from her therapist, she accepts a contract to go to Mars and interview people there. When she arrives, however, life on Mars is like nothing she was led to expect. As she works her way down her interview list, Ailia learns more about the politics of this planet. But the machinations of an anonymous terrorist and the ulterior motives of her employers back on Earth have Ailia raising her hackles: she is no one’s pawn, and she is determined to uncover the truth at the beating heart of this newborn society.
The big sell of Emergent Mars lies in Klyford’s relatively hard approach to the science in this science fiction. Life on Mars is challenging and often dangerous, something Ailia experiences for herself more than once. There are few easy solutions to the challenges that face people here, and Mars is still quite dependent on Earth for some of its most basic and necessary supplies. Consequently, this lays the foundation for the political tension in the plot as Ailia learns about the competing visions for Mars’ future. Klyford uses her interviews with prominent administrators, researchers, and others to lay out a possible vision for “economic democracy” on Mars, a Martian nation that is united, cooperative, and resolute in seeking a productive yet independent relationship with Earth.
Now, much of this book is a series of talking heads conversations between Ailia and her respondents. Each person she interviews lectures the reader on the possible society they could achieve here on Mars. Ailia’s role for most of the novel is simply to be the proxy for the reader, at times incredulous or skeptical. I’m reminded a bit of For Us, the Living, one of Heinlein’s earliest works and similar in the ways its protagonist is expected to soak up the exposition about a possible world. Although Emergent Mars is not straightforwardly utopian, it picks up the threads of utopia in an attempt to create an atmosphere of hope.
With this in mind, much of one’s enjoyment of the novel will depend on how interested one is in thought experiments. I’m rather impatient with this approach to storytelling in science fiction these days: I wanted more than Emergent Mars is willing to deliver. Although Klyford sets up some interesting characters (including Ailia herself), they tend to come cross like NPCs in a video game instead of real people who coalesce into a community around her. Klyford attempts to infuse his cast with diversity, yet it feels uneven and stilted. At no point do we ever see the distinctive base cultures or cohesive Martian society that the characters insist is there.
Likewise, the parallel plot of the Slow Bomber is itself quite a slow burn. There is no urgency, except at the very end, to this mystery, even when one of Ailia’s closest friends is caught up in one of the bombings. Ailia’s involvement in solving the mystery feels unearned, her epiphany coming seemingly by chance after literally zero effort prior to this to investigate or learn more about the Slow Bomber.
I don’t want to damn Emergent Mars with faint praise. Klyford, to his credit, wants to present a coherent and compelling vision of Martian society as a tonic to the existential dread that seems to be overtaking us these days. In this sense, I wish him great success, for is that not one of the most significant roles science fiction can play? However, there’s a difference between poignant but flat thought experiments masquerading as a science-fiction thriller and character-driven political thrillers masquerading as planetary romance. Emergent Mars is too much the former for my taste, as much as it strives to be the latter.
Originally posted at Kara.Reviews.