The Swells by Will Aitken

Published by House of Anansi Press on January 4, 2022

People of wealth and privilege are an easy target. They may be a deserving target, but it may also be difficult for a writer to poke fun at them without coming across as a bit envious. In an apparent attempt to be even-handed, The Swells takes a satirical look at class distinctions that satirizes everyone. The working class and the upper class are equally deserving of mockery. At least, that’s the message I took from The Swells.

Briony is a luxury journalist who writes for the rapidly downsizing magazine Euphoria. The magazine is going online and, in its new incarnation, Briony will be its managing editor and only writer, all as an independent contractor earning a pittance for her trouble. She will soon have no possibility of paying rent, but travel writing allows her to stay for free at luxury accommodations. There might have been a promising story in that concept, but Will Aitken doesn’t pursue it.

Briony takes a cruise on the Emerald Tranquility, a luxury liner that caters to the elite. The Swells starts as a sendup of the wealthy, going through a checklist of things to mock. Heteronormativity, check. Conspicuous consumption, check. Children who purport to reject the parents whose wealth they are spending, check. Tea ceremony, tango lessons, and other classes that wealthy people take until their ephemeral interests move elsewhere, check.

Eventually the ship is boarded by pirates and later experiences a mutiny that is incited by an older passenger named Mrs. Moore, a woman to whom Briony is inexplicably attracted. But Briony is also attracted to Teenah Tri (formerly Terrance Tri), an Asian born into wealth who professes to be rejecting the concept of inheritance. Teenah has a bigger thing for Kurd Fenstermacher, a famous starchitect who, as Teenah explains, “takes a bit of getting used to.” Other passengers who might take some getting used to include a Parisian named Gigot and a fellow named Praun Thalat whose followers call him Little Buddha.

Perhaps The Swells is meant to be a subversive commentary on class privilege or an acidic criticism of social movements. Perhaps it is merely meant to be funny. To a limited extent, it is all those things, although it tries so hard to blend pointed commentary with humor that it shoots over the top of each goal it targets.

Mrs. Moore delivers tiresome lectures about the oppression of the poor by the wealthy and the social forces that cause lower classes to believe themselves less worthy than the rich. Her lectures have some merit but they feel out of place in a comic novel.

Inhabitants of the Asian ports of call are depicted only as stereotypes, as are repressive government policies (“one son, limitless daughters”). Exploited Asian factory workers are the object of comedy (children use squirt guns to cool the backs of garment workers) that makes exploitation seem rather fun. When the wealthy travelers encounter something unpleasant (the suffering mother of a kidnapped child, a collapsing building that crushes workers), they spend a few moments wondering if there is something they should do before they return to the ship, “eager to be unreflective once more.” This strikes me as more tragically truthful than satirical. In any event, Will Aitken seems to be indirectly mocking the problems of poor countries so he can mock the indifference of wealthy Americans.

Aitken crafts funny moments, although not often enough to make the story truly enjoyable. By taking a shotgun approach to mockery, targeting the upper class and the working class with equal vigor, the story never quite finds an identity. The piracy and mutiny are silly, but silliness was probably Aitken’s goal. The novel’s flaws and charms are roughly in equipoise, making it impossible to condemn or to recommend with enthusiasm.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Cutthroat Dogs by Loren D. Estleman

Published by Forge Books on January 4, 2022

I came late to Loren D. Estleman. If my application for a second life comes through, I’ll go back and read his Amos Walker series from the beginning. Estleman pushes all the buttons I look for in private detective fiction. Walker isn’t a brainless action hero. The novels move at a brisk pace, but Estleman doesn’t depend on shootouts and fistfights to carry the story. Walker spends most of his time solving puzzles by piecing together clues and getting a handle on ambiguous personalities.

Not that the novels are free of violence. Walker begins Cutthroat Dogs by shooting a bank robber in the leg. He’s arrested for his trouble. John Alderdyce, back from retirement in a new role as a consultant for the Detroit Police, gives Walker a pass for carrying a firearm into a bank. The gunplay gets Amos some good press that attracts a bunch of kooks and one paying client. Chrys Corbel wants Amos to look into her brother’s murder case. Dan Corbel has been in prison for almost twenty years.

Corbel was convicted of murdering April Goss, a woman he dated in college. April’s father, Chester Goss, used her death as the foundation for one of those horrid “true crime” television shows. Viewers phone in tips and Goss brags about how the show helps put away bad guys. Since ratings depend on a high capture rate, the show cherry-picks crimes that will probably be solvable with massive publicity.

I’ve never been a fan of shows that exploit a family member’s victimization to create wealth for the host. Estleman is savage in his depiction of Chester Gross as a greedy, self-aggrandizing, unfeeling hypocrite. Since most television hosts who style themselves as champions for crime victims fall into that category, I was pleased that Estleman took a well-deserved shot at them. Cutthroat Dogs scored points with me by suggesting that television hosts who position themselves as vigilante crime fighters might have more interest in their bank accounts than in justice for victims.

Amos is repeatedly targeted for murder as he investigates Dan Corbel’s conviction. The investigation also has unfortunate ramifications for Corbel, a fact that causes Amos to wonder whether he is doing more harm than good. Amos is, in fact, pursuing justice in his own way, not as a vigilante but as a man with a passion for the truth.

Amos gets unexpected help from Stan Kopernick, a cop who has alienated his boss by gambling on duty. Kopernick claims that earning favorable publicity by helping Amos (whether he proves or disproves Corbel’s guilt) will balance the most recent black mark on his record. Kopernick is such a loser that he’s almost likable.

Estleman is a master at telling a tight story. He doesn’t waste a word. His prose is smart and snappy. When Amos is surprised that a woman wants to drink her scotch neat, he thinks “It didn’t go with your outfit. She should have asked for something tall and green with a garden in it.”

Amos solves the case with legwork and close observation and a keen understanding of human nature — particularly the nature of sociopaths who have no human nature. The ending is remarkable. Estelman sets up a standard crime plot and turns it upside down. I don’t know if Estleman gets the same notice as best-selling crime fiction authors who have mastered the art of self-promotion, but he’s a writer who fans of the genre shouldn’t miss.

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The Contract by Gerald Seymour

First published in 1980

Gerald Seymour is one of the spy thriller genre’s best practitioners. The Contract is among his best efforts. The setup is crafted in meticulous detail. The action that follows builds relentless tension. The ending might be shocking to readers who are unfamiliar with Seymour’s tendency to avoid the sentimental or predictable.

A young man named Willi Guttman becomes sexually involved with a young English woman. The woman is in Geneva, working for the WHO. Willi lives in Moscow, but he meets the woman while working as an interpreter for the Soviet delegation to the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament. When the woman tells Willi that she is pregnant and needs his support, he agrees to defect so he can be with her.

After Willi fakes his death, the British SIS smuggles him out of Geneva and takes him to a safe house in England. They promise to reunite him with his girlfriend after he divulges all the secrets he knows. Unfortunately, he knows very little of value. His father, however, is Otto Gutttman, a prominent scientist who the Russians appropriated from Germany after the war. Otto now develops classified anti-tank technology for the Soviet Union. The British would love to get their hands on Otto. They see Willi as the means of inducing Otto’s defection.

The SIS learns from Willi that Otto takes an annual summer vacation in Magdeburg, his home town in East Germany. Henry Carter and his boss, Charles Mawby, devise a scheme to contact Otto in Magdeburg, alert him to Willi’s status as a defector, and convince him to join Willi in the west. To accomplish those goals, they hire a contractor. Johnny Donoghue is a former military intelligence officer who was separated from his employment in disgrace after mistaking a young girl in Northern Ireland for a terrorist and killing her. Johnny is fluent in German and, given his intelligence background, is seen as an ideal off-the-books operative.

The plan is to bring Otto and Willi’s sister to Berlin, where they will use forged identity papers and travel permits to enter West Germany, posing as West German citizens. In Seymour novels, plans hatched by SIS bureaucrats never go as planned. Johnny is eventually left with nothing but his wits and courage as he tries to bring Otto and Otto’s daughter out of East Germany. Fear of a bad outcome is palpable, heightened by the concern that Seymour nurtures for the welfare of the elderly Otto and his devoted daughter.

Excitement and dread build in equal measures as Seymour makes rapid shifts from scene to scene. He puts the reader into the heads of Johnny, Willi, bureaucrats on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and even the British Prime Minister, a man who isn’t happy to learn that the SIS, not for the first time, is keeping him in the dark about operations that could have a catastrophic impact on diplomacy if they go sideways.

Seymour’s attention to characterization and his intricate plotting place him on the top shelf of spy novelists. He doesn’t have the style of John Le Carré — few writers do — but his prose is crisp. The Contract is one of the best novels to explore the balance between the desire for freedom on the repressive side of the Iron Curtain and the desire to collect intelligence at any cost on the western side.

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Brightness Falls from the Air by James Tiptree, Jr.

First published in 1985

Writing as James Tiptree Jr., Alice Sheldon composed some of the most creative stories in science fiction. Any collection of Tiptree stories is worth a reader’s time; Tales of the Quintana Roo is a good place to start.

Brightness Falls from the Air was Tiptree’s last (and only her second) novel. It tells an interesting story, but Tiptree’s short fiction is what made her special.

Brightness Falls from the Air takes place on the planet Damiem. It is a beautiful planet, although the novel’s end explains why the perception of beauty, like life, might be fleeting. The native population are winged creatures, also of extraordinary beauty. The Dameii are timid and afraid of humans. Their fear is grounded in abuse inflicted by humans who discovered that, when the Dameii are tortured, they produce secretions that have a powerful analgesic effect. Torturing Dameii to create an in-demand drug was profitable until the Federation banned the practice, set up Guardians on the planet to protect the Dameii from further exploitation, and negotiated reparations.

The current guardians are Cory Estreel-Korso, Kip Korso-Estreel, and Bram Baramji. Bram is a xenophysician who tends to the Dameii’s medical needs. On the Federation’s behalf, Cory and Kip permit a certain degree of tourism while assuring that the tourists do not disturb the Dameii. The current tourist group has come to see the light show that will be produced when the second wave of an exploding star passes by Damiem. The explosion killed an entire race of aliens, apart from the few who were off planet when their sun was destroyed. The reason for that star’s explosion becomes a central plot driver.

Among the tourists are four performers and the director/cameraman of a touring group of theatrical/film performers, although their work is more soft porn than theater. A preteen prince, heir to the royal throne of Pavo, has come to enjoy the lights, as have a retired professor of cybernetics, a light sculptor, twin sisters (one of them paralyzed) of noble birth, two students of water worlds (one of whom has been adapted to breathe through gills), and the logistics officer on the ship that brought them.

The novel’s first half establishes the characters and sets up the dawning realization that one or more characters intend to cause harm. Whether the targets are the guardians or the Dameii or both remains a mystery until the second half. Even then, the reader must spend some time pondering which of the characters are bad guys and which are not. To an extent, Brightness Falls from the Air reads like a crime novel set on an alien world with otherworldly motivations for the various crimes that characters commit.

Tiptree builds a fair amount of action into the story without turning it into a comic book plot. At the same time, this is also a novel of philosophy and choice. One of the guardians must make a hard choice between duty (protecting the Demeii) or protecting a person he loves. Another guardian must learn to accept fate because denying reality won’t make life better for anyone. A character who seeks retribution eventually wonders whether vengeance is any more just than the crime that is avenged. Toss in a story of blossoming love and another of enduring love and Brightness Falls from the Air becomes a story in full.

While the story moves quickly, it gets its flesh from Tiptree’s evocative descriptions of Damiem and the Demeii. Her careful attention to detail, both in the setting and in her development of human and alien characters, is the novel’s strength. Characters have colorful personalities. A young teen porn star is grounded and centered because none of her choices have been forced. The twin sister who isn’t paralyzed is a bit batty; her cybernet connection to the paralyzed twin makes the other characters wonder whether the paralyzed twin would like to get her sister out of her head. Original touches like those are evidence that the reader is immersed in a Tiptree story.

The novel’s ending is both happy and sad. Some characters take advantage of traumatic circumstances to make changes in their lives. Other characters suffer because suffering is a part of life. While Tiptree’s prose and inventiveness does not reach the heights of her bast short stories, the novel is one that science fiction fans shouldn’t overlook.

RECOMMENDED

Running Dog by Don DeLillo

First published in 1978

Running Dog is Don DeLillo’s sixth novel. He wrote it several years before he achieved fame for White Noise, the first in a string of award-winning books that showcase DeLillo’s quirky humor and unique perspective on the human condition. Running Dog has some thriller elements, but they give way to DeLillo’s “big picture” assessment of the quest to acquire, a quest that is often more satisfying than making the actual acquisition.

Lightborne deals in upscale erotica from his New York gallery. He acquires antiquities and minor works of art that depict erections and coitus. One collector of such products is a senator who deals with Lightborne through an intermediary. The senator keeps his collection locked away in a windowless house that adjoins his own through a fake fireplace.

Lightborne thinks he has a source who can deliver a film of an orgy that occurred in Hitler’s bunker at about the time of Hitler’s death. The agent fronting for the senator would like to acquire the film, but competing buyers are making life difficult for Lightborne. Organized crime takes an interest, as does a young but successful smut dealer in Dallas. Their competition for the unseen product puts Lightborne at risk; hence DeLillo’s flirtation with the thriller genre.

While Lightborne shares the spotlight, the true protagonist is Moll Robbins. Moll writes for Running Dog, a publication that once positioned itself as radical. The publication takes its name from the Vietnam-era phrase “capitalist lackeys and running dogs” used to describe the western obsession with consumerism and class distinctions. After the marketplace for radical publications dwindled, Running Dog began to focus on sensational stories. Moll writes about sex because sex sells but she misses the “sense of evil design” that comes with investigating government conspiracies. She’s trying to get back in the political game by investigating rumors that a wealthy senator has a hidden collection of erotic art.

During a drunken and seductive interview with the aging senator, Moll learns that a Senate committee is investigating a secret organization called Radical Matrix. Once a procurement arm of the CIA, Radical Matrix has spun off into a self-funded shop of dirty deeds operated by Earl Mudger, who flew clandestine operations in Laos under contract with the CIA before he was hired to run Radical Matrix. Moll becomes involved with Radical Matrix agent Glen Selvy, an irreducible spy who has no identity beyond his paranoid existence as a spook. Radical Matrix comes to view Selvy as a threat for paranoid reasons of its own.

All of this adds up to a dark and amusing story about people who muddle through with evil or unsavory plans to get what they want because that’s all that life seems to offer. The porn acquisition story is particularly funny because none of the people fighting over the film have a clue whether the rumors of a sex romp in Hitler’s bunker are true. The collateral story about Radical Matrix seems to be poking fun at conspiracy theories and the paranoia that afflicts the intelligence community, as well as the continuing and unsuccessful political effort to keep track of CIA mischief. While the two halves of the story never cohere, each half has some merit. Running Dog allows a glimpse of the talent that would eventually burst forth from DeLillo and, to his fans at least, might be worth reading for that reason alone.

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