Mind Over Ship
David Marusek
320 pp. Tor. $24.95
Pub. Date: 1/20/2009
ISBN-13: 978-0765317490
Reviewed by Paul Stotts
Modern science will tell you—reproductive cloning ain’t easy. A multitude of issues currently makes it difficult. Techniques are inefficient. Surviving cloned animals are generally unhealthy, suffering from defects to their vital organs and premature aging. Not to mention the ethical questions involved. Just because we can do it—should we? It’s a veritable dream for ethical philosophers. And a nightmare for everyone else.
Being a clone’s clearly even harder. (And forget about being an A.I.—that’s just brutal!)
David Marusek’s latest sci-fi extravaganza Mind Over Ship shows us it isn’t all Bing cherries and organ harvesting being a clone. It’s actually hard work. With clones giving up more sweat than stem cells. More labor than lungs. But that’s what happens when you’re the working class. When you’re society’s economic foundation and the shoulders which the privileged rest upon. A test-tube grown labor pool exploited like the immigrants in
So clones get a full dose of life’s little kicks in the butt—but only a few tablespoons of individuality. It’s a poor trade off—all the work, not much selfhood—and they’re getting tired of it. Really tired of it.
2135. Humanity is on the brink of interstellar colonization. Oships are poised in orbit, waiting to launch, cryogenic colonists tubed up inside. But a divisive corporate boardroom battle within the Garden Earth Project (GEP) is brewing, threatening to scuttle all colonization efforts.
Profiteers on the board want to abandon the GEP’s mission of colonizing space. More money could be made by keeping the Oships in orbit. And converting them to space condos. Only a small minority of board members—intent on continuing the GEP’s original mission—opposes this for profit scheme. So it’s colonists or condos, both sides plotting behind-the-scenes with Machiavellian guile. Doing whatever it takes to win.
Ellen Starke recuperates from the accident that killed her mother, Eleanor Starke. As the new head of the massive conglomerate, Starke Enterprises, Ellen struggles to gain control of her mother’s vast financial holdings. Complicating matters, only Ellen’s head survived the crash, her body completely destroyed in the explosion. Now her adult-sized head has been attached to a new body, infant-sized and growing slowly. Leaving her a helpless grotesquerie cared for by nurses and her devoted evangeline companions, Mary, Cyndee and Georgine.
But Ellen is not safe. Threats lurk everywhere. The people responsible for orchestrating Eleanor Starke’s murder still remain unknown. And Ellen may be next on their list. To save herself and her mother’s empire, Ellen must uncover the people responsible for her mother’s death. And she’s got to do it quickly.
Marusek’s imagination is striking. Jaw-dropping-on-the-floor striking. Like a nuclear implosion mushrooming your lungs, knocking the air out of you. Leaving you knocked on your ass at the same time. Immense and intensely creative, there’s a powerful intelligence to Marusek’s imaginings. He re-imagines everything. Not just technological issues, but political and social ones too. Nothing in the novel feels normal, or comfortable. Uneasiness prevails. The setting is alien and strange—like it should be—with only a tinge of modernity to it. The imaginative force behind the novel is impressive, strong and blunt.
But also intimidating. Like being dumped into the ocean—with no land in sight—and not knowing how to swim. Which makes Mind Over Ship difficult to get into. The learning curve is steep. And the story throws no life lines. So you struggle, enormous waves pounding you, keeping you under. Leaving you gasping for air.
Catching up with Marusek’s maniacal imagination can be a slow plod, requiring tremendous effort. Mind Over Ship isn’t an easy read. More a rigorous intellectual exercise than a leisurely Saturday afternoon SF read. Like doing abstract algebra problems. Some find that fun, for others—not so much. The novel challenges you, always demanding more. Always demanding you think. Marusek’s sheer creative force overwhelms the narrative early on. But once you catch up the novel is a rewarding experience, rich and nuanced. And worth the effort.
The storyline is, not surprisingly, complex. Marusek follows a host of characters in the novel, interweaving their lives together, always creating a larger tapestry, painting the world in bold, broad strokes. When pieces start to slid together in the final act, the effect is magical. Things click rapidly. Like machine gun epiphanies.
Last Word:
Mind Over Ship is wildly inventive, piling ultra-cool ideas upon killer speculations. Leaving you scratching your head, asking: Where did that idea come from? Marusek is a creative juggernaut, delivering more bundles of speculative joy than a midwife on meth could ever imagine. Challenging and thought-provoking, the book demands effort, a sci-fi drill sergeant. A hard taskmaster, it raps your knuckles for failure, but rewards you richly for success.
Final Grade: 78 out of 100
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