David Alexander Smith (1) (1953–)

Boston is sinking. Slowly. At about the rate of 4" per year. That's the premise at the start of the book. We're then shown how people are adjusting to this new reality. "Seeing the Edge", "Nomads", "Projects", and "Dying in Hull" are great character driven stories which highlight a noble struggle in the face of adversity. All are somber and offer little hope. While one character is mentioned later and another has a few (surprising) descendants, they're gone from the book, never to be heard show more from again. And that's a shame because we become attached to these characters and want to know how their lives turned out.

Then the book takes a right turn with the arrival of aliens--that's not a spoiler as you can plainly see them on the cover of the book. Even the tone of the stories takes an abrupt turn with light-hearted ("The Elephant-Ass Thing", "Seating Arrangement", "Topology of the Loophole", "Not for Broadcast") and fantastical ("The Parade", "Fennario"). Once the novelty of aliens wears off, the tone returns to seriousness as Boston becomes swept up with its own importance and struggles with the idea of revolution, just as it did three centuries before.

While this project of writing about the future of Boston from 1990 to 2100 was an ambitious one, I believe that the writing group bit off a bit more than it could chew. There are many gaps in the record and we're told about things that just are but not how they came to be: most of the aliens, construction of "The Cube", the rise of Boston's new power brokers. Editor/author Smith wrote a standalone novel, In the Cube, that's part of this Future Boston universe and pre-dates this book. However, I don't appreciate having to now track down that novel in hopes of filling in those missing gaps.

Despite my complaints, I enjoyed this book. I'm a fan of the city--most notably for its rich history--so I was intrigued by the project. I loved the alien named Bishop 24 and the Phneri race. Their continued presence in the book held it together as the human characters were too often discarded. Maybe if the book and the material from In the Cube were mushed together and then presented as a trilogy, a more cohesive narrative could've been constructed. In the end, my need for answers outweighed my satisfaction level. This was a good book but could've been much better. show less

My reactions to reading this book in 1994. Spoilers follow.

Another excellent installment in the shared universe of Future Boston, the same series that produced Alexander Jablokov’s excellent “Place of No Shadows” and the pretty good “The Egg” (expanded as “Slow Lightning”) by Steven Popkes. Like both those stories, the stars of this novel are the setting of Boston circa 2081 (the other stories are set in other times) and the very well-done aliens.

Boston is sinking into the sea show more and an interstellar port. Most of it is in an arcology – the Cube of the title – heavily infused and dependent on alien biotechnology, most of it supplied by the never-seen, sinister Targive. (They do alterations of minds for the price of performing their own choice of mental and/or physical alterations). Here the main alien race covered is the Phneri. At first they seem like cute, anthropomorphic beavers with strange speech (they have trouble with verb tenses) patterns and superb imitative talents. One Phneri, Akktri, is the alien partner of private detective Beverly O’Meara. However, there are dark rumors of them dismembering children, and they were used by Iris Sherwood to blow out the walls of the Cute’s “basement” during the seige of 2061 (when Boston won its independence from the US) – an act she’s reviled for. (Exactly why she did this is never explained which I found the novel’s biggest flaw – but perhaps it’s covered in the Future Boston anthology).

Human reaction to the aliens in their midst runs from feelings of worship or inferiority to prejudice in the case of the Phneri. The Phneri also have superb powers to reconstruct the past from left over traces presumably chemical and physical but this ability, like their racial group mind and ability to mix future visions with the past, isn’t very rational or scientific but then aliens in sf are rarely constructed to show a certain scientific principle at work; they are constructed to be alien, to provide another perspective on humanity. They can imitate and reconstruct 40 year old events on a street corner or construct perfect imitations of art. They have no words to distinguish “original” and “copy”. They love things with history. Yet they also have a disturbing love of violence, hunting, and are death obsessed. Their central tenet of philosophy seems to be we are all dead already; they speak of life as art to be examined in the ritual of “esfn”. They speak of killing someone when their “art is complete”, when their life satisfies their peculiar aesthetic sense. It is a process of appreciating a person’s life, savoring their ”art”, auditing their past, remembering them. They are also a race bearing the terrible memory of slavery before a starship dumped them above Boston Harbor. Altogether, they are fascinating, funny, disturbing and definitely alien, and the best part of this novel.

The plot itself is a well-done mystery involving the disappearance of Sherwood’s daughter, and O’Meara’s search for her. The plot suffers a bit from excessive neatness in that Smith tries to have everyone personally (with the exception of O’Meara’s brother) or politically involved in the mystery. Part of that problem comes from Smith imposing a “literary” structure on the story, i.e. a central theme played out in several variations throughout the plot. Here the theme is troubled family relations, specifically parent-child ones. O’Meara has to come to terms with her father’s death in the Siege (she initially blames Sherwood for this but eventually realizes it was his fault entirely), and the fact she loved and misliked him. Diana Sherwood tries to embarrass and discredit her mother Iris in a fake kidnap scheme which ends up getting Iris killed. Only then does Diana begin to appreciate that Iris poured her guilt and love into Diana after the terrible actions she took in the Siege and during the years when Iris rigorously tried to rule the Cube and avoid being corrupted by her power. Hu Nyo, member of the very wealthy Nyo merchant family, plays games of intrigue and power and subterfuge with her grandmother Mi Nyo (who, I believe, shows up in a Future Boston story of Smith’s ) – a family that constantly is testing each other for worthiness and shows little affection. (Christine Tolliver, I believe a character from the above Jablokov story, is here shown later. In Jablokov’s story, he, along with another professor, were seeking for a path for humans to tread in a universe of strange and often superior aliens. Here he exists on the periphery of xenophobic politics.)

A good novel with the best aliens I’ve come across in years. show less

Well, this was interesting what with my having moved here not long ago. It's always interesting to read about futures, excuse me, "futures," set in times that have already passed. Interestingly, the Boston in this book was having trouble with flooding and all that, not because of climate change but because the city was sinking. And then, of course, the aliens showed up. It's an interesting read. My two favorites were "Dying in Hull" and "Ye Citizens of Boston." YMMV.

Beverly O'Meare is a licensed private detective in a very different future Boston. She is investigating a disappearance which appears to be a kidnapping. As with a lot of science fiction the story involves deeper issues; in this case, family relationships, memories both personal and racial.

Excellent character development, very interesting aliens (especially Bevs partner) and a good mystery to boot.