The Word of God, by Thomas M. Disch, $14.95. Somewhat late in life, Thomas Disch has come to the realization that he is divine. I don’t know how completely he carries his incarnation beyond the pages of his new novel. In print, at least, the revelation is sharp satire, if not holy writ.
At first the holy insights are used to connect some short stories and poems with thoughts on the lingering death of Disch’s longtime companion and his self-conscious writing of this book. He connects to traditional religion with a story of Jesus going to Kansas City to see Mel Gibson’s movie of his life.
God and Disch get more mixed up as Disch reinvents himself as the son of a Nobel Prize-winning author. This has to be stopped. A dead Philip K. Dick is recruited to go back in time and stop this version of Disch from being conceived.
A little biographical knowledge is a dangerous thing. In 1972, the real Philip K. Dick wrote to the FBI to warn about coded messages in Thomas Disch’s novel “Camp Concentration.” I don’t know all the borders between the real and the imaginary when Disch reimagines their relationship. I decided to have faith in the author and not worry about that. My faith was rewarded with a soul-satisfying reading experience.
Cosmos Incorporated, by Maurice Dantec, translated by Tina A. Kover, $15. The spirit of Philip K. Dick also animates the heady metaphysical world of French author Maurice Dantec. Reality breakups and a cosmic religious vision are the results of one man’s questions about himself.
Sergei Diego Plotkin is a professional assassin. His memories have been submerged so he can pass through security of the United Human Universe and reach Grand Junction, a spaceport city in Canada near the border of what once was the United States.
Within him is a computer program that brings back his experience as he prepares to assassinate the mayor of Grand Junction. He establishes himself at the Hotel Laika, a capsule hotel with a seedy manager and a cyberdog providing security.
Plotkin defies his programming in small ways as he checks out other hotel guests. He meets Vega 2501, using the fake name Vega 1024, and Sydia Sexydoll Nova 280, a couple of androids returned from space. Vivian and Jordan McNallis are siblings with something unusual in their DNA. They are waiting for a slot on one of the departing spaceships. Vivian has a destiny in outer space and can create the world she needs to make that happen.
The first part of “Cosmos Incorporated” is a cyberpunk novel that hits the usual notes of a disaffected criminal in a gritty future. Everything takes a wild turn to the metaphysical when Plotkin meets Vivian McNallis. Then Dantec brings in everything from the latest French theorists on our machine future to the discontinuous time Thomas Aquinas used to explain angels.
Dantec makes a dazzling first impression. Events rush along, throwing off ideas that sound brilliant while the story is too interesting to stop and wonder if they make any sense. Tina Kovec of Denver has done an incredible job translating the torrent of ideas.
The Prefect, by Alastair Reynolds, $25.95. This stand-alone prequel to Reynolds’ “Revelation Space” novels is a suspenseful, far-future police procedural.
The Prefects have two jobs in the Glitter Worlds: ensure that the voting mechanism is honest and that the information network stays open. The constant democracy doesn’t mean wise choices: the worlds include Voluntary Dictatorships and Vegetative States.
This mandate can be extended to crimes, such as slicing a habitat in half. Investigating this crime, Tom Dreyfuss finds a threat to the entire system of 10,000 worlds.
One of his assistants is installing a software upgrade that turns from routine to pulling a world apart. His other assistant is a hyperpig who helps Dreyfuss survive an isolated asteroid that proves a trap and a prison. Tom’s superior hasn’t been able to sleep for 10 years because of a fiendish device attached to her neck.
Dreyfuss has to uphold the value of humanity in a universe of enhanced ultras and artificial intelligences that continue the worst traits of their human models beyond death. His investigation ultimately takes him to secrets of his own past.
This kind of mystery is all about process, details and character. Reynolds make it work in a world where the miraculous is everyday technology.
Fred Cleaver writes regularly on new science-fiction releases.
