Medusa Uploaded

I read all of Devenport’s previous books when I was in high school/college. Sadly, all are out of print. When I happened across this new novel I immediately ordered it and it reminded me how much I love Science Fiction.

Oichi is one of nearly 300,000 people aboard the Generation Ship Olympia, on the way to a new planet after some forgotten catastrophe struck their homeworld. The population is strictly divided between “worms” (worker class) and the “Executives” (ruling class). The basic story reminded me a lot of Snowpiercer, but the space opera element allowed the story to go well beyond that simple conceit. Oichi has an exceptional and highly illegal database implanted in her brain; designed by her father. It contains music, show more but between those files is hidden so much more – secret pathways and the ability to interface with an AI. When an Executive throws her out of an airlock, Medusa saves her, and the revolution begins.

This thriller is multilayered, with a lot of surprises. Oichi becomes an assassin, trying to undermine the Executives and find a way to distribute the music implants to the children, and eventually everyone, on board. But there is much more to Medusa than meets the eye. Who created her? Why does their homeworld have no name? How did the destruction of the other Generation Ship occur? In addition to these mysteries, there is a lot of political machinations among the Executives that is very entertaining. Oichi is a fully realized character, but since she is basically on her own; other characters are no so well developed. I hope the sequel expands on some of them.

No book is perfect and my main problem with this one was the flashback structure. Or rather, flashforward. Devenport begins each major section with Oichi about to do something, and then the story jumps back in time to tell readers how she got to that point. This wasn’t ideal since by the time we got back to that starting point, I had forgotten what the story was supposed to be building to. However, this was a minor annoyance. Overall, I loved the book and have already preordered the sequel. I hope Tor publishes more of her work. show less

(I wanted to give this 5 stars, but I'm not quite sure what stopped me.)

Devenport does a great job fleshing out generation ships and how human culture would have evolved in such large-but-cramped, regimented and hierarchical society - "worms"/servants, mid-levels, and those on top; the way that people of different levels have different ways of socializing and vocabularies, etc. The ship itself feels expansive and limited at the same time, especially as certain citizens don't have the access that others do.

Oichi is a fascinating character, wholly devoted to her goal no matter the cost and removed from the human emotions that her "collaborators" experience (even though she joins them in marveling at the beauty of music and film, two show more cultural aspects of society that have long been lost).

I very much appreciated her ability and willingness to disguise herself in order to traverse the varying social levels - we saw life and politics as a worm, a mid-level security person, and a mid-level executive, which widely varied and were well-described. The political machinations were well done as well; not too boring or detailed to slow down the plot, but crucial nonetheless.

Apparently the sequel is more of a companion novel - set in the same universe but following a different plot? If so, hopefully is answers the questions that linger from this installment. While it doesn't necessarily end on a cliffhanger, there's still so much more to know! show less

Pros: fascinating characters, excellent world building, layered mysteries

Cons:

Oichi Angelis is a murderess and conspirator upon the generation spaceship Olympia. Using a Medusa unit, she’s been taking out key members of the Executive class. But the Executives aren’t the only threats to her mission to overturn the ship’s rigid class system.

The back cover synopsis for this book calls Oichi a ‘worm’, which I’d misinterpreted as meaning she was either a computer program or A.I. of some sort. So I was surprised to discover she was a human, and that ‘worm’ was a slur for low level people on the ship. Oichi is a fascinating character, who’s completely unapologetic about the live’s she’s taken (who are mostly horrible show more people), that you can’t help but like her. In many ways it’s her connection with Medusa, a partly biological machine, that allows her to be such a good assassin.

The world-building is great. The author manages to explain the ship’s history in ways that felt organic but not intrusive. For example, there’s a scene where Oishi is pretending to study for school while she’s actually doing something else. So the narrative is interrupted by occasional digressions of the video that’s playing on her screen. At other times we learn about the ship as she does, especially with regards to the executives and their dealings.

There are several overlapping mysteries, all introduced in layers. One mystery is a snippet of conversation Oishi overhears as a child. As she grows up she tries to understand what the Executives were saying, but her interpretation changes as she learns more and more.

Chapters are written in a circuitous way, starting with foreshadowing of what’s going to happen, then a linear narrative leading back to what was hinted at or stated earlier. I was impressed at how well the author managed to guide you through the narrative. There was only one spot where I was confused about when an event happened, and that was cleared up quickly. As Oichi learns more about one mystery, others - so many others - come to light. The book keeps you guessing about everyone’s motivations.

I really enjoyed this and can’t wait for the next book. show less

The Giger-esque cover and the book blurb did their job: I got hooked. But upon reading the story, it struck me as far less dark than it was made out to be. Oh sure, we had the nefarious dystopian aristocracy which gets to control servants through their cybernetic implants, overwrite security protocols seemingly at will, spy on everyone, and flush people out the airlock with impunity, but I found them to be caricatures ripped from some 18th century aristocratic drama like Dangerous Liasions.

Still, I wanted to find out how this civilization came to be on a kilometers-long generation ship. But as information is tightly controlled by the Executive class and Oichi was a worm—the derogatory term for the lowest class of workers who maintain show more life aboard the ship—it was a mystery for her to solve. We learn right away that this civilization has incredible cybernetic technology. Everyone seems to have a chip in their heads that they use to access communications and limited data. Some others have artificial eyes, voice boxes, and hearing (hence the Executives' ability to control their servants so that they don't disrupt their dinner parties). And Oichi has a chip in her skull that enables her to 'bond' with Medusa, the sentient AI.

But for all of their amazing tech, they abuse the hell out their airlocks. The Executives use them to murder and assassinate people all the time. They override the safety protocols (so what good are they) and flush out the bodies, sacrificing breathable air and biomass to the void. This is so stupid. I don't care how big the ship is. If you're going to flush out 800 cubic feet of air (sometimes more), the atmosphere on board your ship is getting that much thinner. And the 100 to 200 lbs of biomass is also wasted. Everything on a generation ship gets recycled. Everything. It's one less mouth to feed now, but all that calcium, water, and organic matter? You're not getting that back. Why not suffocate the victims in the airlock (since no one literally wants blood on their hands) and take the body to the waste reclamation unit where it can be ground up and anaerobically digested? Not as dramatic, perhaps, but after the airlock scene plays out several times, it loses its ability to shock the reader.

Another problem was with the voice of the narrator, Oichi. She flitted from "adolescent waitress" to "big sister" to "impressionable debutante" to "happy-go-lucky sociopath." She interrupted her own narrative constantly by name dropping classical music pieces whenever she had a moment of reflection or introspection or just for the hell of it. At times, the interactions between Oishi and some bots created by kids—and her interaction with one kid in particular—popped images of cutesy anime into my mind. It undercut the seriousness of the plot.

One last complaint: I couldn't get a sense of how much time passed. There were flashbacks and flash-forwards dictated to us by Oichi, but the way they were presented I wasn't always certain when "now" was. Late in the novel, she matter-of-factually states that several years had passed, but it seemed like only a few months.

To summarize, I loved the tech, the concept, the plot, and the mysteries, but the narrator's constantly shifting tone, 18th century aristocrats, anime cuteness, and wanton airlock abuse irritated me.

2.5 stars rounded down to 2 due to disappointment. show less

Devenport, Emily. Medusa Uploaded. Medusa Cycle No. 1. Tor, 2018.
The generation starship is a well-worked subgenre in science fiction, but like the Flying Dutchman or the Ship of Fools, it seems to be an inexhaustible inspiration for writers. There is always a new twist possible. In Emily Devenport’s Medusa Uploaded, a genetically engineered servant girl is rescued by a strong AI with robot extensions when she is shoved out the airlock by her bosses who suspect she may not be as servile as she is supposed to be. The next thing you know she is developing spy-craft and skill as a stealthy assassin. She and her cybernetic ally start a revolution that would make Heinlein proud. As the story progresses, the world of the ship and its show more politics turn out to be more complicated than our heroine ever suspected. I plan to read the second installment. show less

This is a great deal of fun if you like first person assassin narratives, or can at least tolerate them in the interests of seeing bad guys get proper comeuppances. We are also treated to underdog chameleon taking on new identities including the exposure to treats of Life of the Rich and Powerful scenes. Classic music is named to evoke the mood, to sound track, many of the scenes. The implantation of music libraries used as a cover for interfaces to Medusa units is major plot point, though really the whole plot with all it's twists and improbabilities is really just a bulletin board for the fun capers of our heroine and her paired Medusa. The end of chapter forebodings are rather annoying.

DNF@25%
This was more soap opera than space opera, with a society divided between an evil rich class and a downtrodden proletariat. But despite the futuristic setting of a giant spaceship with robots and AI and implants and all sorts of other advanced tech, everyone talks and acts like they were on Earth in 2014. The protagonist's narrative talks directly to the reader, which feels gimmicky, and there are so many flashbacks and side stories that there is no flow at all. There are lots of grudges and lots of scheming, but the cheery tone doesn't match the heavy subject matter e.g. gang rape, mass murder/genocide, revenge killings, etc.. The many many 20th century references feel completely out of place, as these are people who haven't show more ever lived on a planet, or even heard of Earth.

I'm sure that the plot eventually unspools in such a way that things happen, but the listening experience is too annoying to continue. Luckily I already have another generation ship book queued up, hopefully I have a better time with that one. show less