Gemsigns, Stephanie Sautler (Book 1 of REvolution Series)

Gemsigns
Stephanie Saulter
ISBN: 9781623651602
Dystopian near future, post-apocalypse, cloning, gengineering, gene therapy, social order, racial tensions, caste systems, slavery, human rights.

First off, I have to say that the author was very lucky that I did not have anything else I was interested in reading when I read the prologue/chapter zero.  She is also lucky that I did not read that bit while I was still in the library, or it would have gone right the hell back onto the shelf.  That was some pompous self-congratulatory word play and storyline musing going on in there.  (The note on the jacket copy about wanting to write literary fiction didn't help her case with me either.)

However.  I got past that, and the writing from then on was excellent!  I had a great time reading, I enjoyed the story immensely, and I am glad to see that there is a series supposedly in the works.  I have concerns about the worldbuilding and minor nits about characterization and plotting, but then I ALWAYS get snippy about worldbuilding, and characters and plots are difficult.  For a first attempt?  Pretty damn solid writing.  I hope to someday do as well myself.

It's hard to summarize the world without getting into either plot-spoilage or my own worldbuilding gripes, but I'll give it a shot:  (If you want to avoid spoilers of how the world got how it was, and learn about the world through the course of the book, stop reading now.  It's all explained pretty well through in-universe sources over the course of the narrative.)

Seriously.  Spoilers for worldbuilding.

Cool?


The world's population, some years from now, succumbed to a plot-device, er, disease, that necessitated massive advances in genetic engineering to ensure the survival of the species.  Most religious and cultural objections were steamrolled (and subsequently eradicated) in the urgency, and the few outliers (social or religious) were isolated either willingly or unwillingly into ostracized camps of extremely small token minorities, while everyone else got on with the new reality of homogenized religious, cultural, and social mores which have made wars, violence, and "racial" differences largely an unremembered part of pre-disease history.

Due to the massive scale of the disease, the gene therapy for cure and prevention of the disease was scaffolded into further gene manipulation to provide the reduced population of normal humans with additional disease resistance and general health and long life.  After all that work was put in, corporations realized they could encourage further modifications to create genetically-enhanced specimens to perform tasks which were now too hazardous or difficult to risk with precious rescued normal human lives.

Because it's important to know the difference between these creations (who are expensive and useful) and normal humans (who are precious and untouchable) the corporations designed obvious markers into the genetic expressions - glowing unnaturally colored hair becoming the standard.  Adapted gene-lines were also distinguished by the presence of conditions which were negative expressions of useful traits:  Enhanced visual light spectrums often came with synesthesia or migraines.  Data-hacking or enhanced memory could result in autistic-like mentalities.  Enhanced hearing, underwater breathing, or extra organs (for donation) all made obvious physical changes to the body.  These mental or physical handicaps were not of concern to the corporations, as long as they did not too badly impact productivity.  All of this was in stark contrast to normal humans, who by this point are all preternaturally healthy and largely physically homogenized.  This all made identifying genetic property easier for the corporations, and easier for normals to think of them as "other" and to dismiss.
Eventually, these properties (GeneticallyModified, G-M, pronounced "gem") realized they were being used as slaves, rebelled, society was made aware of horrific systemic abuses by major corporate entities who "owned" these genetic profiles (and the resulting Gems), a limited Declaration of general universal human rights was created, and at the beginning of our tale, we're in London, preparing for a convention to decide on the possible avenues for granting limited or modified "human" rights to the recently emancipated populace of Gems.

Whew.  That took some telling.  Isn't it an interesting concept?  Don't you want to read about the events leading up to this historic Conference, and the Gems and norms who will play a part in shaping the new social order?



I will mention my niggles, in vague and general terms, just to have them out.

1) The world is largely black&white.  Evil is very evil, good is very good, no one is grey.  In a situation and society such as described in the book, that seems a peculiar narrative choice.

2) Despite evil being very evil, most of the evil happens offstage, and not to main characters.  Evil is also terribly incompetent and fragmentary.

3) There is one plot-point that is very difficult for a southern American to accept the way it was presented.  I understand that things are quite different in other parts of the world, but as an American living in the Bible Belt, I can quite firmly say that particular revelation would not have been possible in any city near me, at any time in the future, regardless of the chaos and death between now and then.  It was unfortunate, because it took me quite out of the story at a time when the climax was just getting rolling, and also because it really wasn't necessary to present it that way.  In fact, it could have been built obviously into the narrative with no real difference in outcome.  It seemed to be a cheap "look how different the future is!" trick, and it just fell flat for me.

4) There is a particular genetic modification that is difficult to rationalize from the explanations given.  (I am prepared for this to be explained or dealt with in further books, but it is bothering me.)

5) One of the characters spends the entire book with hints dropped constantly at as to the nature of their genetic modification, and then the ending doesn't deal with one whole aspect of the hints.  (Again, this could be purposefully kept for another book.)

6) General place-keeping tab for worldbuilding niggles that are too picky to really inflict on everyone else, but still bother me!

Overall, really glad I read it, and a really good debut by a new author.

Cat Sense, John Bradshaw

Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet, John Bradshaw
ISBN: 9780465031016
Read November 23, 2013

Nonfiction: Cat behavior.

The author has a particular point to make, and he's not shy about making it over and over and over again - cats have done really well so far to keep up with changing expectations, but we're moving too fast for them to keep up without us beginning to purposefully breed for behavior and attitude, like we do with dogs.

Whether his point will make an impact on the larger cat-breeding societies, who knows, but I for one think that he's right.

Besides his overall axe, he does present some really good studies (footnoted and bibliographied) showing cat ancestry, the history of wild cats, the archaeological evidence for cat-human interactions (scanty though it is) and then on into modern cat genetics.

There was also a decent section discussing training cats (yes it can be done) and talking about the variations in personality that have been noted in different breeds, and for different coat-colors.  He uses that of course as a springboard back to his grinding, but again, it's a solid point, and if the spay/neuter/indoor cat movement catches on worldwide, the cat population will be solidly in the hands of cat breeders, who right now seem much more interested in splashy coats and "wild" ancestry (the wild-domestic blends that are causing so many owners havoc now because they aren't tame cats) than in producing cats that can live indoors, in small habitats (apartment-sized) shared with other pets, especially other cats.

Right now, that's something the cat isn't really great at - it's up to us to help them make it as a modern pet.

Previously Published Review: Hull Zero Three, Greg Bear

It's so perfect that it almost hurts - the genetic typing has been done, mankind has evolved, friendships and loves have been established, and everyone is ready to leave Ship and descend into the glorious new world we've been traveling towards and preparing for our arrival since - well, that part's a little hazy, but we're still excited!

Except that now the glorious companionship of that arrival dream shatters, and now, all we have is just one poor befuddled Teacher, birthed either too soon or too late, in a place determined to do him in, either by design or through callous indifference to his mal-adapted self. In an even crueller twist of the knife, even the knowledge of the beautiful dream abandons him when survival depends on him learning and growing up fast. Is Teacher a quick study?

Only movement will save him, as structures irradiate, liquefy, or freeze, bulkheads can cut off at any time or place, gravity comes in crushing waves of inconvenience before vanishing again, and horrifying THINGS appear to crush and rend and destroy and kidnap - or perhaps that's only from his perspective. Just enough information can be teased from conflicting memories and sources (perhaps not all to be trusted) to determine that something is NOT RIGHT. Nothing this horrifying and off-balance could be intended to be right.

Finding out what - that may cost Teacher his life.

In a lovely example of sci-fi thriller, we're shoved into a breakneck ethical quest where love and life, memories (human and computer) your most basic emotions, and even your moral code itself aren't exactly what they should be.

As always, the rag-tag crew which assembles itself into our protagonists are kept busy trying to comprehend their mad surroundings, and to figure out just how to handle that most basic human drive - the will to survive.

My own enjoyment of this basic plotline aside, there are several dangling plot threads and niggles of irritation at premises and complications hinted at and dropped, or ideas left undeveloped, or narrative contrivances which are a touch too contrived... As I said, a bit messy.

These are minor flaws in an otherwise quite satisfying return to the author's roots in hard sci-fi.