Sime~Gen Inc. Presents

Recommended Books

November 2003

"Mystique of Land, Genes, Heritage"

The old argument of Nature vs. Nurture, of how much our genes control us, is always worth a novel or two.

The issue is rooted in the question of Identity which we have discussed at some length in this column – dating back to the Dec. 1998 column.

Does your identity arise from your genes or from some part of you that is added on after genes are determined? How much of your identity is determined by your birth moment (your astrological natal chart)? And how much by the genes your parents gave you and the way those genes change throughout a long life?

Beyond genes and karma, we also have the binding associations that affect us emotionally. Parents, children, friends, spouses – we care about certain individuals and as a result of that caring, we are changed by those people.

So how do you answer the question, "Who are you?" What does "who" mean?

These are not just abstract questions for the protagonist of Wen Spencer’s trilogy, Alien Taste, Tainted Trail and Bitter Waters. They are the core of his existence.

Here is Ukiah Oregon, a strange individual, marked apart from everyone he knows and from the women who raised him. He has no memory of a childhood. He was found running naked and feral in the Oregon wilderness near Ukiah, apparently raised by wolves. Except for a few flashes of memory of terrain he has no awareness of identity and has been given the name of the town near where he was found.

Magically, he is thus tied to Earth, to the Land. By emotional ties to the women who found and raised him, taught him to be human, he identifies with humanity, while knowing he’s not at all like others. He ages too slowly.

He heals terribly fast, and he has super-sharp senses of smell, sight, and other harder to define awarenesses. He gets a first job working for a private detective agency, is trained as a tracker and begins a long quest to discover who he really is.

And the shocks (classic Tower Card experiences) come thick and fast as he stumbles on clues by accident, and seeks more information, all while pursuing the current cases he’s involved in. .For example, Ukiah has no memory of the years he ran feral in the woods, but pursuing certain case files he learns that those years may have added up to more than a normal lifetime.

He discovers that he is actually the first of an alien invasion force sent to attack and assimilate Earth’s genetic pool, and whole ecology.

Others of this advance wave are also among humanity. They have some awareness of who they are and what they’re doing here, and they’re not all friendly to Ukiah, nor approving of his attitudes.

Wen Spencer plays fast and loose with genetics, pushing to the edge of plausibility to make certain dramatic points. For example, when Ukiah and his relatives bleed, small animals form from the blood. Depending on how much blood there is – insects, mice, even a dog might form. That creature takes with it a portion of memory. When the formed creature again comes in contact with the person who bled, it assimilates and the memory is restored.

These three books are definitely science fiction, but these strange postulations about genetics delve deeply into the spiritual aspect of identity and the magical meaning of Land, ties to the land, ties to the rest of the ecology from which your genetics arose. How much of who you are comes from being inextricably embedded in Earth’s ecology?

Read these three books in rapid succession and ponder what it means to be human and of Earth – if anything.

Catherine Spangler has written a futuristic romance that has lasted in print longer than most and for good reason. It is part of her Shielder series, but I’ve only read the one book, Shamara.

I have to recommend Shamara very highly indeed not only for the good solid handling of issues of karma and free will but also for the integration of the characters Identities with their environment.

For the most part, writers of Futuristic Romance don’t bother with sf worldbuilding, dismissing with a hand-wave all the details of the world (i.e. magically "The Land") in which the characters are embedded.

This makes it seem as if the romance and the subsequent relationships formed were separate from Identity.

Wen Spencer has given us a character with loves, life, loyalties, and tormenting questions of Identity, all arising from defending Earth’s genetics and ecology from assimilation by alien genetics (and yes, a love story too). Catherine Spangler has given us two lovers whose Identities arise from the interstellar world they live in, from their heritage, their genetically determined psychic abilities, and the political problems they face as they fight to rescue their genetic heritage from extermination.

Spangler decorates her universe with interesting sf premises that deserve deeper treatment. There are "higher beings" called Shen who are hermaphrodites and tell women that sexuality inhibits spiritual growth. There is a reptilian-human crossbreed race that can’t regulate body temperature, but trades for human wives. As absurd as that sounds, it is so well written that you keep expecting an explanation for the absurdity. Perhaps the explanations are in the other books in the series.

And of course since this is a romance, there is the premise that physical attraction makes one helpless. Isn’t that a manifestation of the idea that genetics is Identity? If your parents made you because they couldn’t resist physical attraction, even though there was a good reason to resist, then your genes are your fate and you will pass that fate on, regardless of your own opinion in the matter.

If you’ve never read a Futuristic Romance, start with Shamara. It is solidly constructed, well written, dynamically paced, and the writing is clean and disciplined. It would make a great air plane read – just keep notes about the questions it raises in your mind.

Which brings us to Twilight Crossings, an obscure anthology from an e-book publisher who provides bound books as well. I got this as an e-book and printed it out to read. I really didn’t expect much from it. Writing short is much harder than writing a full novel, and this anthology is composed of 4 very different romance works by authors I hadn’t read before. It’s a long book, adding up to several evenings reading.

Isadora by Jeanne Allen starts with the hero, a woman who is a Healer, on trial for the horrid crime of Healing – but she Healed a prisoner who subsequently escaped.

Twin Star by Jeanine Berry seems to me a very nice reworking of the Purim Story, with a few neat twists.

Eidolon by Shannah Biondine is about a sister of Lucifer trapped in an unwinnable wager, all complicated by love.

Thief of Dreams by Sheri L. McGathy has lovers, a White Stag, Lords, Ladies, and a theme of freedom.

All these stories are very well written and the volume is neatly edited. It may well be worth the cost of the printed version, but I’d suggest getting the e-book from the publisher’s website. In fact, it would be a good idea to check out Double-Dragon Publishing’s other titles to see if they’re as well done.

As I have said many times in this column, we have been going through a revolutionary period in publishing, a melt-down and reforming of the entire fiction delivery system. With e-book publishers starting to turn out products that are well edited and cleanly written, with major houses launching and sustaining imprints like Love Spell and Eos, and with the advent of new publishers such as Meisha Merlin and BenBella, we may have turned the corner.

At Westercon in Washington State in July, where Jean Lorrah and I taught a writing seminar on the business of writing, we met some people from the comics industry at one of the parties. We were given a long and instructive look at the state of the comic and graphic novel industry.

In other contexts, we’ve heard much of what is happening with the gaming industry, board games, video games, and Live Action Role Playing. The little theater and one-act play market is seething with renewed life.

The hunger for fiction seems to be written in our genes, or perhaps in our spirits. Watch now what happens as the delivery system between writer and reader reforms.