Customer Reviews

Divergence

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Until a few years ago, British and American SF novels were very different animals, each informed by a different culture, and each appealing to different tastes. Then, for whatever reason, around the turn of the century the British Invasion of fantastic SF took America by storm, breaking through the previous reluctance of Americans to embrace SF writers from the UK. Authors like Alastair Reynolds, Charles Stross and Tony Ballantyne burst onto the scene with fresh new ideas and perspectives. The first two novels of Ballantyne's trilogy were among those great British Invasion novels, interesting and fun, and leaving the reader wanting more.

However, this is not the novel one would have hoped for to finish the trilogy. Not much actually happens in it; it's more a novel of characters. But the characters are, by and large, ciphers; for all the time we spend with them, only a couple take on any real personality. The first two-thirds of this novel drags. Some interesting ideas are brought up, but not fleshed out. By the time we reach the climax, one of the characters expresses exactly what I thought: it's anticlimatic. Note to authors: when you write a character saying that the end of the story is anticlimatic, write a better climax.

If you have read the previous two books in this trilogy, you will read this, and you won't hate it, but you will be left with the feeling that it could have been much better.

Tony Ballantyne is a musician and I can't help but think of his novels as literary symphonies complete with movements, fugues, themes and flowing connecting lines. I admit right off the bat that I gave the preceding duo five stars due to the literary, structural and plotline originality. I especially liked CAPACITY, to me, the most successful of the trio. To say I had high hopes for this one would be an understatement - I couldn't wait to get home and get started. As usual, an engimatic beginning leads to a story that draws the reader inside.

We arrive in a Free Exchange (FE) universe. An entity (human, robot, AI, etc) approaches another and asks for a trade and FE software arranges a "fair exchange" though the reasons are murky and many times not known until later. This implies an almost supernatural prescience. The ship, with an interesting crew, takes on Judy (the atomic Judy of CAPACITY fame) who knows that for some reason she is being led to Earth which has become a dangerous place due to the existence of Dark Seeds. These dangerous entities grow in the presence of intelligence, thus, they are attracted to the Watcher who is ruling over a 1984sh Earth, peaceful, non-violent and brainwashed.

The story begins to go awry when Eva is introduced (the ship is the Eva Rye, yet another sign). Judy keeps imagining she is Eva and somehow - please don't ask - the reader is hurriedly given an explanation of the Watcher and his origins, FE and its origins, Judy and her origins, the VNMs and just about everything's origin except the Universe. It seems quite forced and as such, reeks of phoniness. The action gets wilder and wilder and more illogical until...WHOOOSH - the Watcher suddenly leaves and Earth returns to its "old ways" of mud and grass.

Yes, it's another case of uneven scientific development, the bane of so many sci-fi stories. Why, with AI, nanotech, VNM, etc should the Earth resort to primitive status? More to the point, why do people still die at age 80 two hundred years from now? What will happen to the other realities, the personality constructs? So many unanswered questions but the Watcher (praise his name) is nowhere to be found. I guess we can mark the whole thing down to a dream of someone in a virtual world. Tony, I'd appreciate another book that made sense.

Note: This review will not make much sense to you unless you've read the previous two books in this trilogy, but you're welcome to read on all the same. I have tried my best to avoid including spoilers.

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In this conclusion to the trilogy that began with "Recursion" and continued with "Capacity," author Tony Ballantyne brings together the various threads that have woven through the previous two books.

While, as in the previous novels, there's a multiple POV format, this time only one story is told. An ill-assorted group of interstellar traders picks up former Social Care agent Judy, who was featured in "Capacity," as part of a deal that involves the use of something called "FE," for Fair Exchange software.

Judy's now a basket case, and when she learns that she's actually the property of the DIANA corporation, which we learned about in "Capacity," she essentially decides there's nothing that she can do to fight the AI-controlled universe she's in, and lets the traders fulfill her destiny by taking her back to Earth, where the Dark Plants encountered in "Capacity" are now terrorizing what's left of the population, while "The Watcher" and the rogue-bot Glen fight for control.

The book is thoughtful and exciting, though it's not as fast-paced as the first two novels (but as part of the fair exchange it gives you more to think about), and maybe when Eva Rye turns up again, you'll wish she hadn't. The scenes with her, now living in the mostly Watcher-free Russian Free State, go on a bit too long; and the author force-feeds us PC material about disabled people that the novel could have done without.

But that's a minor complaint. The book is compelling.

This book explores whether mankind is happier being 'managed for happiness' by an all encompassing Artificial Intelligence or by being left to freely determine an independent future. Also explored are how people that are 'differently abled' are able to provide worthwhile contributions to humanity if only they are given the chance - with all this cleverly orchestrated by Fair Exchange software. There is frustratingly partial development of a diverse range of characters as they travel towards what promises to be a climactic confrontation on Earth. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the book more if I had read the prequels, but I was disappointed to find that the many good starts exploring the above and other matters just faded away, with the end of the book being particularly anticlimactic.

I looked forward to reading the conclusion of the trilogy. However, there were problems with this book. There were inconsistencies between the facts revealed in the previous volumes and this one, there were foreshadowings that led nowhere and the character development dwindled off to nothing. Additionally, the author describes this absolutely perfect wonderful Utopian world that is Earth and then quibbles with the perfection. Ultimately, it read like the author had written 3/4 of the book, left it for a couple of years and then just tacked on an ending in order to get it over with.

This is the third book in a trilogy.

On the whole the trilogy is 2nd tier science fiction. Overall the trilogy is not at the Vinge or Egan level, but it's good 2nd tier space opera work, comparable to Dan Simmons. Ballantyne adroitly recycles a good range of science fiction, tossing in a one or two new ideas that I'd had on my private list of science fiction novelty. (So they're not original to me after all, Ballantyne thought of them too.)

So, a good read but nothing remarkable -- except for the last book.

In Divergence Ballantyne, who volunteers with special needs adults, is the very first science fiction writer to make "handicapped" adults first class characters. Indeed disability and fairness are revealed in the last book as core themes of the entire series (though I wonder if he knew how it would end).

He also brings us a clever variant of the "Berserker" meme, but I'll pass on that as it would give away too much of the story.

I've read some criticisms of the last book in the series, and I can understand why fans of the first two would be disappointed. It is a different book and he left quite a few threads undone. Personally, I'd say it's a much better book than the first two however -- almost a first tier book.

Two centuries of rule by the seemingly all seeing Watcher has kept earth somewhat peaceful; however by 2242 one of the AI creators of the Watcher Chris decides that the AI is going too far with its plan to selectively alter the species into what it believes humanity's image must be as the alteration to evolution would make mankind no longer human. Chris anticipated losing the battles, but has an ace in the hole, Dark Seeds nurtured at the edge of the galaxy.

A decade later, Judy is a passenger on a space trading ship when a catastrophe occurs. However, miraculously machines from DIANA Corporation rescue the humans and transport them to safety. Everyone that is except Judy, whose DNA is shockingly non-human. The DIANA "agents" insist the company owns this "Dark Seed" and must take her back to their headquarters on earth as her purpose for living is killing the Watcher though she remains unaware that she is the chosen one.

Like REPERCUSSION and CAPACITY, DIVERGENCE occurs in the same dark and bleak future galaxy in which AIs control human destiny and the god-like Watcher controls the AIs. The story line is a fast-paced mystery science fiction with Judy, who believed she was human is now learning who she is and why she was created. Though to better understand motives especially with how earth got to this forlorn mid twenty-third century, it pays to read the previous two thrillers although DIVERGENCE can stand alone.

Harriet Klausner