12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Surprising Dystopian Read, April 23, 2006
I never expected to see a serious dystopian novel from Lawrence Watt-Evans. I knew he had a dark streak, as demonstrated in his extremely troubling Brown Magician series, but he's best known for intelligent, light fantasy not for works of political vision - at least not until he teamed up with Carl Parlagreco to write The Spartacus File.
The Spartacus File is more than just a dystopian novel, it's a polemic very specifically aimed at negative trends in current American society. There's no question that the storytelling and characterization suffer because of this, but the result is a novel which has the minimalist feel of classic dystopian works like Slan, The Day After Tomorrow and The Brave Free Men, where the story to a large extent takes a second seat to the message.
The novel is sent in a near future where the United States has evolved into a single-party corporate dominated state with a strong police aparatus where people are at the mercy of their employers, under the thumb of politcial oligarchs and at the mercy of covert police units which can make dissenters and troublemakers disappear. The Constitution is still theoretically in force, but after a major economic crisis it's been suspended and superseded by the needs of the all-powerful state.
Casper Beech is a cog in this machine-like society, overworked and undervalued and totally cowed and submissive - essentially a slave to the system. Then he's called into his boss's office and told that they're upgrading the software he uses, and to keep him up to speed he's going to be sent for neural programming to learn the new software instantly. Like a good sheep he takes the treatment, something goes wrong, and he's imprinted with a much more complex skill set accidentally downloaded from a covert government project.
What follows is a fast-paced, bare-bones narrative of Casper's efforts to stay alive while the government tries to eliminate him, and his coming to terms with the programming he was given - the 'Spartacus File' of the title - and acting on its compulsion to attempt to overthrow the government of the United States. Or as he interprets the purpose of the program, to return the nation to its Constitutional roots.
The most interesting element of the novel is the distinct perspectives which different characters have on the state in which they live. The mysterious government agent Mr. Smith can't understand how an American could accept the imprinting of the file which is supposed to only work on someone who's suffered a lifetime of slavery and persecution. From his perspective America is still a free society founded on individual rights, but the reality as revealed to Casper by the Spartacus File is quite different. The weak point of the novel is the extremely abrupt conclusion. After establishing the basic situation the novel abruptly leaps forward 16 years to a very unsatisfying conclusion.
Where the novel succeeds the most is in recreating the spare style of dystopian science fiction of the previous century. It reminds me of early Heinlein and Van Vogt. The extrapolation of a troubling near future is all too believable, and the somewhat one-dimensional characters fit with the style as symbols more than unique individuals. The ending is negative and somewhat contrived, but I could live with that if it didn't end so suddenly and unsatisfyingly. I'm not going to go into details of the plot, but I started off reading avidly, unable to put the book down, at least briefly convinced that it might be a dystopian classic. But the ending left me annoyed and unfulfilled. I don't expect this kind of novel to end in glorious triumph or heroic martyrdom, but in this case the conclusion was too abrupt and contrived to be convincing or satisfying.
Nonetheless I think The Spartacus File is worth reading if only for the critique of trends in contemporary society, but there are other dystopian novels of the past generation which I would recommend more highly, particularly An Enemy of the State by F. Paul Wilson, which has just as strong a message, but is a much more enjoyable read.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Young Adult Fiction, October 11, 2006
I guess this was OK for what it was. I just didn't know it was written for young teenagers, so I was disappointed. If you want to teach your children about the evils of big government, then this may be the book for you. If you are a fan of Lawrence Watt-Evans' other books, then you are probably too old for this one.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
3.0 out of 5 stars
Such potential..., January 10, 2010
Well, I just purchased this book through Amazon, and after it arrived, I devoured it in one evening and the following morning (a total of about 3-4 hours). I really enjoyed how the book was going right up till the last 3 pages when, as an earlier reviewer put it, "the book jumped sixteen years to an unsatisfying end". Now, the authors did put in the ending the possibility of a sequel which, if done right, could then salvage this book, but until then, I have to give this book 3 stars, of which 1 and 1/2 of them are only because the the first 166 pages of the 169 page book were SO good.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
