BOOK REPORT: SLOW GODS by CLAIRE NORTH

 

 

FROM SLOW GODS  by CLAIRE NORTH*

 

THE SCENE: Former lovers Gebre and Mawukana unite briefly as Gebre's world, Adjumiri, draws closer to destruction by a celestial event, a supernova that is set to envelope the planet in a few years. Billions have become refugees in the decades prior to the expected catastrophe while 800 million remain who cannot be lifted off-world in time. Currently, Gebre’s institute on Adjumiri is being raided by Shine forces looking for a communication headset that may help them communicate with their far-flung starships more readily. Gebre's  museum is dedicated to the preservation of Adjumiri cultural artifacts they hope can be saved. They work to preserve the past even as the future arrives, rendering all their plans for nought.

Gebre tells Maw (who is now only partly human, having been transformed by the “Dark”, an entity or force inhabiting “arc-space” where interstellar ships enter to travel light-years in a short span of time. There is also a countervailing entity to the Dark in real space that people call “The Slow”, which is a mysterious, giant, black sphere, apparently a machine, that moves around from planet to planet, star system to star system, sometimes communicating, most times remaining silent. It has been around for centuries, for as long as anyone can remember, and like the ancient Greek Oracle at Delphi, when it does speak, everyone listens. But, what Slow's purpose is, who built it, are answers no one has.

 

MAW HAS POWERS gifted to him during his transformation by the Dark, including virtual immortality, which can be wildly destructive and bloody, for he can not—or will not—always control his impulses, but Gebre, in their final communication before being killed by Rhode and his henchmen, urges him to act with compassion and kindness for his fellow humans:

 

“We are the seeds of the forest, we blaze so bright, no life is special. No life is special. No life is special and all of them are. No love matters more than any other, no story is more important, nothing matters more, nothing matters less, so choose, choose, we choose every day to be more than just ourselves, to live for more than just ourselves because it is beautiful.” ( P. 199.)

 

IN ANOTHER PASSAGE, a number of years after Gebre's planet is consumed by radiation and gamma-rays given off by the approaching edge of the supernova, killing hundreds of millions, Cuxil, the “Consensus” ambassador from a group of worlds and peoples that share, telepathically, a single consciousness, comments to Maw when war looms on the horizon against “The Shine”, an uber-capitalistic confederation of planets that oppresses many worlds with its system of dominance and exploitation. [Sound familiar? Just sayin’. Ed.] Ambassador Cuxil responds to Maw when he asks what is the point of the war, what is the point of his life, what does any of it mean, why should any of it matter? Cuxil's  reply echoes Gebre’s speech when she says to Maw:

 

“This life will be gone soon” she breathed. “It will not be remembered. It will not be, as the Adumiris say, sung in the stars. We are the seeds of the forest, are we not? Where we fall, others may grow. So live Mawukanan a-Vdnaze. Before all is dust: live and blaze bright.”  (P. 307)

 

👉IT SHOULD BE NOTED that these prayers or acknowledgements, or hopes or wishes makes the distinction that we are of the forests, are earthly creatures, and the songs that will be sung will be from our earthly existances, not as the Adumiris say, from "the stars". 

 

    CLAIR NORTH (aka Catherine Webb)

ANOTHER EXAMPLE of this—prayer? perhaps—occurs as the war with the Shine nears its end. As a Pilot of “arc-space”, a realm/non-realm whereby vast distances of hundreds, even thousands of light years can be traveled nearly instantaneously, Maw is determined to bring his vessel into position where he can contact the trapped human pilots of The Shine, who remain in a state of suspended readiness, poised to attack and destroy planets that would turn against The Shine’s oppressive rule. However, the crew aboard his ship want Maw to return to their recent battle site to rescue comrades they were forced to leave behind. Maw chooses to continue his journey to contact the Shine pilots (several thousand, I believe, who are entombed in “Black" ships equipped with planet-killing armaments. To contact them he must overcome the mutineer, Maolcas who holds a knife to his throat, demanding Maw turn the ship around. Maw disables the anti-gravitation system, which returns a heavy gravity in the room and flings Maolcas against the back wall, probably killing him.

Maw then whispers:

 

“We are the seeds of the forest. No life is special and all of them are. No love matters more than any other, no story is more important, nothing matters more, nothing matters less. Where we fall, others may grow, so live. May your song be sung, may you name be whispered among the stars.” He goes on to say he didn’t think Maolcas heard him. (P. 339)

 

MAW MADE THE CHOICE, to reach out to the trapped Shine Pilots, their existence a living hell, akin to being strapped to a chair, blind-folded with headphones screaming nothing but white noise. Awake and alert they stand ready to receive their activation codes to attack and destroy a planet The Shine deems an enemy. It should be noted that “arc-ships” traversing the void between stars need human Pilots, specifically human brains, to accomplish this task, something like the mutated human “Navigators” in Frank Herbert’s Dune books. 

Here, North’s Pilots have a short life expectancy and are good for only a few missions before they descend into madness and become useless for further piloting of inter-stellar vessels. Maw, because he has been partially transformed into ‘something else’ by the Dark, retains the ability to pilot ships and does not suffer any damage to his brain. His services are highly sought after, even with his, at times, rages from his “Dark” nature. Most people tend to walk around on eggshells around him. Gebre and ambassador Cuxil (and some others) are exceptions to the rule.

Maw finally contacts the stranded Shine pilots who are dying. "The Accord" forces (Maw's side) have located the Shine's shadow ships and are destroying them one by one. Even though the pilots are part of The Shine’s forces and technically enemies of Maw, he reaches out to each of them in a communion spanning hundreds of light years:

 

“I stayed with the Pilots as they perished, easing their minds to sleep.

It was not necessary, not especially important.

It just seemed like something I should do.

‘We are the seeds of the forest,’ I whispered. ‘We blaze so bright, and no life is special. No life is special and all of them are. No love matters more than any other, no story is more important, nothing matters more, nothing matters less so choose, choose, we choose every day, to be more than just ourselves, to live for more than just ourselves, because it is beautiful.

You have been loved, and you are beautiful. May your song be sung in the great forest that is growing still.” (P. 392)

 

After the war, Maw is confused and conflicted about his wartime activities, the choices he made, the consequences he must accept. But he is tired of what it is to be wholly human, with his Dark side kept mostly at bay. During Maw’s final conversation with the victorious Consensus ambassador, Cuxil, speaks to Maw’s confusion:

 

“After, Cuxil said: what would you like to do?

I would like to back to Reneki, I said [an AI Maw once had that had controlled the arc-space ship he piloted. It had also been a companion and guide]

On whatever ship is most likely to need a Pilot.

I want to go into the dark.

I want to go into the dark.

I want to go into the dark

Things are simpler there. All right, Cuxil replied. Let’s get you home.” (P. 392)

 

I was reminded of Paul Gaugin’s famous 1897-98 painting on which he wrote three questions: “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?” Foundational questions such as these are at the heart of what it is to be human. And they are also part of the questions we ask the cosmos as we try to grasp the enormity of the universe, a seemingly impersonal expanse of time and space, and our place in it. The choices we make during our microscopic existence and the ‘choices’ the universe makes are really two halves of the same coin. Go figure.

 

AFTER THE WAR with the Shine is over, Maw pilots arc-ships for the ascendant “Accord” federation of planets. During this period, Maw ponders what he has accomplished, whether the choice to go to war on one side and not the other had meant anything. Confused and unsure whether any choice he makes is more relevant than any other, Maw asks the “Dark” for answers:

 

“In the dark, I callout to my creator.

Are you there?

Do you see me?

Am I interesting to you now? Did you mean for me to become this?

Nothing answers.

Nothing ever does.” (P. 397)

 

 SOME TIME AFTER the war’s end, Maw seeks the advice of the “Lordat”, a class of priests or spiritual guides, asking them why, when he opens his arms and mind to the Dark, asking it if it still finds him interesting, it does not reply. The Lordat then gives a good summation (with a bit of ‘cheek’ at the end) of what the Dark is and what it represents:

 

“The Lordat say that the dark is interested in things that are not of itself. That it is fascinated by life unknown, minds that twinkle, souls that shine. There is nothing malicious in its curiosity. It has no sense of right or wrong, good or bad. Rather, like a soft-winged bug drawn to the flame, it flitters and flits towards the warmth of a soul as it blazes through the night.

Does this mean, I ask, that I do not have a soul? [Because the Dark does not answer him]

Possibly, one Lordat replies: But honestly, your question is a bit above my pay grade.” (P. 401)

 

👉WE SEE in these passages a growing sense of compassion in Maw for life, even for an enemy’s life. Killing, for example, as Maw sees in the ending chapters is ultimately boring. There is no more information to be garnered from a corpse, a mind grown dark. But a life blazing in the now of its existence remains full of possibility and interest. North, I think, presents the macrocosm, the giant sweep of humanity throughout the impersonal galaxy, where one decision can save or destroy billions through coping with natural disasters (a supernova), or war and galactic conflict thousands of years in the future. She also posits a universe that is (almost) entirely indifferent to humanity, whose existence is neither more important nor less interesting than anything else. The mysterious Slow sphere represents, perhaps, a ‘nod or a wink’ in the direction of humankind as it evolves within an otherwise indifferent universe.

 

👉SHE ALSO PRESENTS the microcosm of a single human life, a single love, like Maw’s love for Gebre, or Maw’s friendship with ambassador Cuxil and others who are close to him despite his unpredictable, chaotic, Dark-spawned powers. Thus, the cosmic and the earthly are counterpoints to each other. [As I think, The Slow and the Dark are to each other, as well. Ed.] In the end, Gebre’s dying plea to Maw is recalled—to live a life that is more than just for himself—and the reader feels Maw has finally learned this lesson. He does what he can, saves who is able to save. In the grand scheme of things, to the Dark, inhabiting arc-space, nothing matters more than anything else, everything is of equal interest or not. On the other hand, the Slow, inhabiting 'real space' teeming with life brightly blazing, seems to be a more ‘hands-on’ type of God or guide or seer from time to time choosing to intervene when it wishes, like warning the Shine planets of the impending supernova event). But The Dark, after it examines its latest specimen, when it is understood fully in all its constitutent parts, when it is broken down to the molecular level, then the specimens are discarded because they are unable to provide The Dark with any new information.

👉No life is more precious or more significant than any other, and yet some lives do matter more, some choices are more relevant to the choice-maker that others, some loves are more important in the puny microcosm where we live. We make choices all the time. Maw learns that choosing always comes with a price. Some more costly than others. It’s a complicated business, choosing this or that in the tiny space and time we share with an all but indifferent universe.¹  

I think there has to be a balance between the innate selfishness of a life lived solely for its own purposes, like the self-centered world of the infant demanding its needs be met above all else, and the indifference we see in a cold and uncaring universe. A balance is needed. And an awareness that with each choice made there may come pain.²    

 

CHEERS, JAKE. _____________________________________

 

[Jake left out all the events, journeys, conflicts, wars, loves and hates, violence and peaceful times from his book review. He doesn’t want to spoil the ending or the beginning for the reader. Ed.]

 

* If you want some compelling Sci-Fi reads check out Catherine Webb’s novels. Under her given name (Webb) she writes young adult/children’s fantasy. Under her pseudonym, Claire North, she writes adult fantasy and speculative fiction, and as Kate Griffin she writes urban fantasy and magical noir for adults. I’m most familiar with her Clair North novels and recommend any because of her remarkable world-building skills and the fantastic storylines she develops in her novels. Incidentally, she published her first book at the age of fourteen! She is truly a gifted writer, who just turned 40 this year. Expect more from her in the coming years.

 

1. Check out Philip K. Dick’s 1957 novel, The Cosmic Puppets, to get a traditional sci-fi story that has a similar theme of macro/micro being two halves of the same coin. 

 

2. I haven't mentioned one character, Theodosius Rhode, an elite Shine officer who escaped Accord forces and disappeared after the war. He was responsible for much bloodshed and was directily responsible for Gebre's death on Adjumiri. Rhode eventually ends up at Maw's island residence on the planet Tu-Mdo. It is Rhode's indifference around his personal fate (i.e. will Maw go full psycho and rip him to shreds.) He is ready and perhaps hoped for this ultimate experience. Otherwise, he is empty, a hollow man who lives solely for himself and has little interest or care for anything else. We recall the scene where Rhode comes into possession of a communication device that might prove useful for the war against the Accord. He  attempts to use it and nearly dies in the process. Later he examines the headset, then crushes it in his hand, indifferent and uninterested in something he can no longer use. (Incidentally, it was his raid to capture the device, at Gebre's institute on Adjumiri, that resulted in the death of  Maw's lover.)

ON MAW'S ISLAND HOME on Tu-Mdo, Maw asks Rhode why he attempted to use the headset and Rhode replies he simply wanted to experience it. In other words it was just another self-involved 'adventure' for him, nothing more. After that Maw says he finds Rhode uninteresting, his homicidal nature  boring, as is his indifference and incuriousness  to anything that isn't functionally controlled by him like, on a cosmic scale, the same can be said for The Dark that finds no difference between one experience of the living universe and another. The living soul "blazing brightly" is not something sacred to either Rhode or The Dark, rather it is something to analyze and then discarded once their utility has been exnausted.

👉Rhode might be happier inhabiting the non-living universe of arc-space with The Dark. It's certainly seems a place where he should spend eternity. 

AFTER CONTEMPLATING WHETHER TO KILL Rhode or not, Maw finds his death as uninteresting as his life and says he is going to sleep, exhausted on his triip home. Rhode can do whatever he wants. Of course this is intollerable to the Shine officer who blubbers about Maw's imperitance in finding him of little interest. [He is dead inside; it's as if he lives in his own arc-space along side his cosmic buddy, The Dark. Ed.] Maw closes the bedroom door and sleeps for a long time. Rhode is gone when he wakes.  

 

North, Claire. Slow Gods. Orbit Hachette Book Group.  New York, New York. 10104. 2025.

 

Dick, Philip, K., The Cosmic Puppets. A. A. Wynn Inc. Ace Books Berkley edition (1983) The Berkley Publishing Group. 200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY, 10016.