Pennterra by Judith Moffett

Published by Congdon & Weed in October 1987

Isaac Asimov and Brian Aldiss are among the science fiction writers who have incorporated the Gaia theory into their writing. In Pennterra, Judith Moffett exports the concept to an alien world where everything, living and inanimate, is interrelated and in constant communication. The world of Pennterra is in perfect balance until its disruption is threatened by the technology, agriculture, and lifestyles of settlers seeking refuge from the devastated Earth they've fled.

Quakers are the first to colonize Pennterra. Before they can build their civilization, they encounter the hrossa, an intelligent species that communicates by empathy. They make peace with the hrossa, just as the Quakers who colonized Pennsylvania made peace with the Delaware Indians. To co-exist with the hrossa, the Quakers must agree to use no machinery, to limit their population growth, and to live only in a designated valley. But just as later settlers in Pennsylvania were willing to displace the Delaware, the Earth colonists who follow the Quakers are unwilling to abide by hrossa-imposed restrictions. The first part of the novel sets the stage for that conflict. The second part is written in the form of field notes as the Quakers engage in a scientific and anthropological investigation of a hrossa village. Living closely with the empathic hrossa during breeding season proves problematic, as the Quakers feel and share the intense and urgent sexual desires of the hrossa. The novel's third and final part resolves the conflict between the non-Quaker colonists and the hrossa (or more specifically, the spirit of the planet, for lack of a better brief explanation). There's also a bit of wilderness adventure toward the end.

Pennterra is the first novel written by Judith Moffett, whose background as a poet is reflected in her careful use of language. Although she makes Pennterra and the hrossa come alive, she does so without sacrificing development of the novel's human characters. This is, above all, a character driven story, and the main characters each have a unique, fully developed personality. The reader comes to know them well, and to appreciate their struggles.

Although I greatly admired Pennterra, it is not a novel that all readers will enjoy. The story unfolds slowly and is all the more enriching because of its languorous pace, but readers who want fast action in their sf won't find it here. Fans of hard sf might not like this novel; there's a bit of hard (biological) science, but the story depends on people, not science. Finally, there is a fair amount of sexual activity, some involving minors, that violates nearly every imaginable sexual taboo. If this were not a work of science fiction, there would probably be calls to ban and burn it. Science fiction is a literature of ideas, however, so I would expect most sf fans to understand and appreciate Moffett's rather daring concept: what is taboo on Earth may be accepted as normal behavior in an alien environment. Readers who would be put off by frank discussions of that nature should avoid Pennterra.

In an age when so much sf is the same old same old, Pennterra offers something completely different. It is a beautifully written, moving and thought-provoking novel.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Absolute Risk by Steven Gore

 

Published by Harper on October 26, 2010

FBI Agent Michael Hennessey enhanced his career by participating in the arrest of financial mathematician Hani Ibrahim for funneling money to foreign terrorist groups. After leaving the FBI, Hennessey pursued his suspicions that Ibrahim was framed. As the novel begins, Hennessey has arranged a meeting with Fed chair Milton Abrams to discuss Ibrahim but Hennessey apparently commits suicide just before the meeting is to occur. Ronald Minsky, CEO of Relative Growth Funds, is supposedly using Ibrahim's theories about fractal analysis to operate the world's most successful hedge fund. Abrams believes Minsky is making money illegally, a fact Hennessey may have stumbled onto. Abrams wants Graham Gage to uncover the truth. Gage's search leads him to a scheme that could cripple the world's economy.

In a related subplot, Gage's wife Faith finds herself in the midst of a worker's rebellion in China following an earthquake. Workers are unhappy about unsafe buildings that were constructed with the help of foreign corporate bribes. Yet another subplot involves the vice president, who has been suckered into endorsing a National Pledge Day that expressly excludes all Americans who do not adhere to the Christian faith.

I liked Absolute Risk more than the previous Gage novel, Final Target. The insufferable smugness that characterized Gage in the first novel is gone and the plot is more straight-forward. On the other hand, I didn't think Absolute Risk maintained quite the degree of suspense that makes a thriller memorable. The subplot involving Gage's wife in China creates more dramatic tension than Gage's investigation into Relative Growth, yet it's a less significant part of the story. Having said that, I disagree with the reviewers who felt bored by the discussions of economics that occur throughout the novel. I thought they were interesting and integral to the plot; I never got the sense that Steven Gore was lecturing me about economics, nor did I feel that the characters' perceptive opinions about economic theory hindered the story. While I don't have the kind of economics background that would permit an informed opinion about the credibility of the scheme that Gage eventually uncovers, I can say that if it could happen (and Gore makes it seem plausible), we should all be very afraid.

There is a political component to the story that will turn off some readers. It didn't bother me, but some readers might think Gore is unduly critical of politicians who fail to keep church and state separate. It's a timely social issue that has been handled well in other novels, but it was a bit out of place in this one. That component of the novel seemed unnecessary and even distracting, although all three of the novel's storylines do tie together nicely in the end. Still, it isn't a large part of the story and it contributes amusement value, if nothing else. Be warned, though, that if you don't want to read about religion and politics in a thriller, you should find a different book.

Gore's prose is polished and free of clichés. His sentences are never awkward.  I look forward to reading the next Gage novel; something I wouldn't have predicted after reading the first one.

RECOMMENDED

Iceworld by Hal Clement

First published in 1953

Iceworld is a clever story, constructed in a clever fashion. The first chapter leaves the impression that the reader is reading about human explorers in an alien solar system until Clement reveals that the explorers are in fact aliens who are observing Earth. Although that revelation comes so soon that discussing it here won't ruin your enjoyment of the story, I'll refrain from revealing anything else about the plot except to explain that the aliens are on a trade mission, supplying precious metals to a happy human in exchange for a surprising product. Suffice it to say that this is an offbeat and intelligent story, one that depends on thought rather than mindless action -- although there is some pulse-pounding (but nonviolent) action toward the novel's end. Given the glut of novels about interstellar war, it's nice to look back on a novel that imagined alien and human interaction where the species weren't trying to kill each other.

Iceworld was published in 1953, when science fiction was still associated with a sense of wonder. In some ways, the story is surprisingly sophisticated; in others, it is a bit naïve. The naiveté shows in Hal Clement's depiction of alien personalities. His aliens, in thought and behavior, are virtually indistinguishable from humans. This is a forgivable sin, however, because the story's charm derives from that very fact: the conflict between a greedy alien trader and a noble alien scientist is recognizable to its human audience precisely because greed and nobility are human traits. Maybe Clement imagined those to be universal traits, likely to be present in any intelligent species, and maybe they are. In any event, Iceworld is a fun, smart story about aliens who have some of the same problems as humans, despite their vastly different biochemistry.

RECOMMENDED

Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett

First published in 2007

In Bangkok Haunts, we learn that before Sonchai Jitpleecheep married Chanya (a central character in Bangkok Tattoo), he was in love with another of the sex workers employed in his mother's bar, an alluring woman named Damrong. After leaving Jitpleecheep, Damrong ended up starring in a snuff film, her first and last role. Jitpleecheep's investigation of her death leads him to powerful bankers, impoverished villagers, and a Buddhist monk. The investigation is complicated by Damrong's sexually adventurous ghost. (If you haven't read one of these books, this probably sounds like a reason not to, but trust me, it all makes sense in the context of the story.) As Jitpleecheep learns more about Damrong, he realizes that karma will exact a price for the ecstatic days he spent with her, oblivious to her painful past. Eventually he learns more about Damrong, and about himself, than he really wants to know.

Of John Burdett's first three Bangkok novels, Bangkok 8 remains my favorite, but this one is a close second. The plot is less twisty than the first two stories. I appreciate the simplicity because in Bangkok Haunts the story never gets in the way of the characters. And the character of Jitpleecheep is amazing: a complex, burdened man, always conflicted, always battling personal and cultural ghosts, always striving for growth, yet always funny, gracious, endearing, and very human. Some reviewers at this site criticize Burdett's depiction of Buddhism or of the Thai people in these books, but to me the novels are all about Jitpleecheep -- and whether he resembles other half-Thai, half farang Buddhists matters not; he is who he is. Reading about his life and struggles and adventures and fears is inevitably enlightening, amusing, and richly entertaining.

A word of caution: in addition to the usual sex scenes that populate Burdett's Bangkok novels, Bangkok Haunts deals with a certain sexual taboo in a nonjudgmental, even accepting manner. While that approach is true to the novel's theme and to Jitpleecheep's character, it might bother those readers who perceive the failure to condemn such behavior as a sign of moral weakness. Fans of the series, however, are likely to understand the point Jitpleecheep is making about the influence of poverty and horrific parenting upon sexual behavior, and will thus understand the absence of harsh judgment.

Bangkok Haunts blends humor and tragedy into a powerful, compassionate, haunting story. The ending is wild.

RECOMMENDED

The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark

 

First published in 1940

Some readers dislike The Ox-Bow Incident because they expect to find the elements of a traditional western -- morally pure heroes defeating evil outlaws in gunfights -- and are disappointed by their absence. The Ox-Bow Incident does not follow that formula. It is a novel about good (and not so good) men who do an evil thing, men who succumb to a mob mentality, who (in today's language) fear being seen as "soft on crime" and take the law into their collective hands to assure "justice." The novel is in large part a condemnation of vigilantism that, while set in the past, remains relevant to the modern world.

One of the characters in The Ox-Bow Incident complains that "law, as the books have it, is slow and full of holes." The current version of that complaint holds that "criminals have all the rights." People who utter those words forget that those rights protect the innocent from undeserved punishment. The Ox-Bow Incident reminds us that the rights conferred by law do not hinder justice; they are an indispensible component of justice. The men (and one woman) in The Ox-Bow Incident who arrogantly or blindly decide to dispense with the law because "it is slow and full of holes" learn that the law, while imperfect, is more capable of achieving justice than men handing out punishments on their own authority.

Yet The Ox-Bow Incident is more than a condemnation of vigilantism. It's also a psychological study. A reviewer here complained that the plot was too obvious, but this isn't a whodunit or a mystery. The novel isn't so much about what the men do as why they do it. Clark reveals the minds of characters who are afraid to show emotion, who connect with others only in very superficial ways. Most of the characters are constantly worrying about how they look to their peers, always ready to start a fight to defend their honor against the slightest affront to their manhood. They live in dread of their own feelings and are afraid to speak out against injustice if doing so might make them seem weak. 

While some readers find them boring, the novel's philosophical discussions are its strength. Clark didn't settle for a simplistic view of the Wild West that pits good men against evil-doers. The characters are a mixture of good and bad; even when they are basically good, they commit "sins of omission" by failing to stand up for their beliefs. One of the characters likens the posse to a wolf pack, none of its members willing to think independently for fear of being perceived as a lesser man than the rest. Other characters debate the nature of justice. One talks about how much easier it is to have physical courage than moral courage. The narrator (Croft) and another character (Sparks) wonder whether vengeance is God's work or man's.

The Ox-Bow Incident asks compelling and fundamental questions about the individual's role in society. On top of that, it's a well written story. Look elsewhere if you want to read a traditional western, but pick up The Ox-Bow Incident if you want to read an entertaining and thought-provoking novel that has something important to say about human nature.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED