L. Neil Smith (1946–2021)

As it happens, Contact and Commune is an apt title. The novel concerns first contact between humankind and a non-human technological society. And the commune? Well, the expedition is from the American Soviet Socialist Republic and the United World Soviet. A case of the universal lack of ability to foresee the demise of the system? Well, this was written before it disintegrated in 1991. The book was written in 1990--well after the writing had been broken off the Berlin Wall. The premise is show more that after economic crisis, the world turned back to old style Marxism. In some ways, Smith’ scenario of backsliding into socialism is more credible in the age of Occupy Wall Street than when the book was published.

But for Smith there are statists and there are his sort of libertarians and nothing in between. That means he has some blind spots that make it impossible for him to credibly depict an American Marxism. The spacecraft, for instance, are named after Democratic politicians: the Daniel P. Moynihan, the Howard M. Metzenbaum and the James C. Wright. Smith can’t see the difference between middle of the road Democrats and Marxists. (Never mind that mid-21st century anyone would remember any of them, particularly the last two.) The “commune” side of this novel just isn’t credible to me in several respects. Never mind the level of political preachiness this book slides into, heavy handed even by the standard of Smith’s usual novels which I’ve often found overly polemical. (And believe it or not, I consider myself a libertarian, so if I find it annoying... )

And the “contact” side? Well, there are science fiction authors that simply rock at putting across credible aliens with truly different mindsets. Orson Scott Card’s “pequeninos” in Speaker for the Dead or the alien in Robert A. Heinlein’s The Star Beast or those in Ursula LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness come to mind. L. Neil Smith’s aliens feel like... well, how did he himself put it? Ah, yes, a “cross between a paleontology exhibit and a cartoon where the animals wear trousers.” They’re about as believable as Jabba the Hut or Jar Jar Binks.

If you are interested in reading Smith's tale of Communist humans versus Anarcho-libertarian aliens, this book probably isn’t the way to do it anyway. Contact and Commune is the first part of two books; the third in the trilogy was never released separately. In 2000, Forge of the Elders was published, comprising the first two novels and the previously unpublished third work. So if you want to read this despite all I’ve said, order that book, not this one. Believe it or not, I have read and enjoyed books by Smith. I liked his Probability Broach. It’s libertarian science fiction too, and perhaps too much insider in-joke for non-libertarians, but it has imagination and a sense of humor. Both The Crystal Empire and Henry Martyn are good adventure stories and neither sport a heavy-handed libertarian message but are enjoyable by general readers. One is an alternate history involving a Sino-Aztec empire and the other is swashbuckling space opera. All three of those novels are something Contact and Commune is not: fun. show less

Their Majesties' Bucketeers is an AU where Holmes and Watson are Lamviin - small, trilaterally symmetrical crustaceans who live on a desert planet that is in their people's equivalent of our Victorian period. Also, they do *everything* in threes, not just symmetry - including sex and gender, so yes, there is, in fact, canon!OT3. It is at *least* as awesome as it sounds.

I found a copy of this book at a yard sale when I was about fourteen, and it's on my list of "books that got re-read dozens show more of times in high school"; I only found & remembered it a few weeks ago when I was unpacking, and I had forgotten just how much I loved it; and hadn't realized how much of my thinking about SF in recent years has been working from this book as the lost archetype.

Mymisiir Offe Woom, our POV character, is a surmale paracauterist (paramedic/trauma surgeon) in their Majesties' Bucketeer service. In fact, rhe has followed in rher surfather's fingertracks to become one of the first generation of respectable surmale professionals, and is fiercely proud of the independent status that offers rher.

Rhe is friend, admirer, and chronicler of Agot Edmoot Mav, male Inquirer in the bucketeer service, inventor of scientific forensics, and the world's first undercover detective. Mymy is continually beset by Mav's insistence on pickling his brain with dangerous chemicals, and on keeping company with disreputable personages - such as Vyssu, the smart and outspoken female brothel manager (and knitting enthusiast) who eventually completes their trine.

I submit to you, lords, ladies and lurries: is it not *awesome*, the mere fact that this book exists?

Together, the three of them are investigating the dramatic murder of Professor Srafen, an old surmale mentor of Mav's and discoverer of the theory of evolution, and in the process travel between many parts of Lamviin society, including an apocalyptic cult and the mad inventors' club. And, of course, they fall in love with each other. :D

Yes, you can say all you like about various permutations of Holmes/Watson/Irene/Mary, but Mymy/Mav/Vyssu will *always* be my Holmesverse OT3. (Mav is substantially less broken than Holmes in movieverse, but he's broken *enough*, an it's amazing how close M/M/V comes to *being* movieverse OT4, with Watson and Mary neatly combined into one character in the person of Mymy.)

The whole book is told in Mymy's first-person POV, and there are no non-lamviin characters at all (though there's an introduction from a human POV that gives the story context as an account of historical events from before their first extraplanetary contact.) The worldbuilding is just so spot-on, with everything taken for granted but introduced slowly and naturally, so that by halfway through what is really a very short novel it seems perfectly normal for Mymy to use the little lurries' room and admire Mav's shapely walking-arms and shudder in disgust at the mention of rain. And the surmale pronouns and words seem natural by about three pages in (I still kind of wonder why the accepted othergender pronouns have ended up being unpronounceable things like xie and sie - what's wrong with rhe and rher? They're good enough for Mymy!) If I can ever write an SF novel that carries off an alien world *this* well, I will be satisfied with my skills.

It's not a perfect book (though it's close): the author L. Neil Smith, who you may recognize as the writer of several of the early Star Wars novels, is a very politically active social liberatarian, and the wonderful, subtle worldbuilding and mystery story is interrupted at several points by extremely *unsubtle* political dialogues, though they're easy enough to identify & skip over; if you can handle Heinlein, it should be no trouble.

And it's got the race and colonialism issues that all Victorian stories must, compounded by the libertarian insistence on individual determination above all, although having them be furry crab creatures who never quite exactly parallel Earth cultures makes it -- at least slightly less personal. Also, I didn't remember this from my earlier readings, but Mav is multiracial - his father was a high-ranking officer in the Imperial military, but his surfather was Podfettian (think German or Russian) and his mother was from a dark-furred colonialized culture several continents over. And Vyssu's antecedents are unclear but she is stated to be recognizably descended from colonized peoples as well. It's hard to say just what that means in the book's context, through the lenses of time and alienness and libertarian doctrine (and despite the characters being mixed-race, there's some clear exoticizing going on, especially of the native-american analogues), but damp does it cry out for fanfic. :D

(I could go on and on about lamn gender too, but I doubt anyone else reading this knows the book, so I will simply reiterate: IT NEEDS FANFIC.)

Apparently some of the lamnviin characters from this book reappear in some of Smith's later novels, post-contact, but those novels sound much more politically doctrinaire so I have been having trouble gaining the enthusiasm to read them, as much as I *love* his worldbuilding skills when he lets the politics go.

Verdict: *So* glad it exists. And Mymy/Mav/Vyssu is still my canon OT3 for all Holmes fandom everywhere. I had forgotten how deeply I loved this book in high school - my copy is falling apart, and I still have stretches memorized, ten years since my last re-read. show less

A book-length exposition of libertarian philosophy thinly veiled in plot. It's somewhat sweet that libertarians have such deep faith, despite all evidence, in the innate good sense of human self-interest, but the whole milieu is wildly unlikely to someone not blinded by wishful thinking. In 200 years nobody has tried another governmental power grab? (Oh but they couldn't, everybody has guns!) And now three such groups, conveniently representing three distinct types of governmentalism, arise? show more How coincidental. And the Confederacy natives don't recognize the problem because they lack the desire for power? Yes, I'm sure we've all noticed this in the personal lives of American gun owners. Robert Heinlein did it better in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Heinlein's political setup on Luna was credible and the behaviour of human groups (if not always of individuals) was reasonably true to life. show less

It's 1987, and the once great United States has fallen into decline. Owning gold is outlawed, energy is being rationed, and the government is rolling back pension benefits. Everything sucks, but detective Win Bear hardly notices. His life is pretty grim as it is and he has stopped expecting more out of life. Ultimately, he's not too surprised when a seemingly normal homicide case gets him into hot water. Now people are planting bombs in his apartment and it's a race against the assassins to show more get to the bottom of the secret they're trying to cover up.

The secret turns out to be the existence of another, parallel world. During a shoot out, Win gets thrown into a strange dimension by an explosion. This new world is shiny and clean. There are hover cars, massively powerful computers, and apparently no real aging. Unfortunately, there are still people trying to kill him. His new friends help to orient him but they all must work together to overcome a massive conspiracy to take two worlds hostage.

This book is ... bad. Even beyond the fantasy of the political view, the characters are all interchangeable and bland. Win Bear is actively unlikeable and most of the plot was either too boring to follow or just plain convoluted. And the *shudder* sex scenes were repulsive. The dialogue between the couple made me want to vomit. Only an extremely insecure man would create a female character who is always complementing the protagonist's junk. Gag. show less