I
was having one of those bibliophiles’ moments of crisis: with so many books to
read, what next? I looked through the
stacks, read a few back cover blurbs, and stutter started a few pages. But none felt right. None clicked: this is the book to read
now. What to do? I did what I always do in such situations:
fall back on something dependable.
Knowing in the very least his books are tightly plotted, possess sharp
prose, and intelligently playful with politics and technology, I fell back on
Ken Macleod, particularly his 2010 The
Restoration Game. The final result: while
not his best, Macleod remains in my TBT pile*.
An
inference to a nation state’s continually evolving quest to bring itself back
to some self-perceived glory day, The
Restoration Game plays with the idea of political recursion, as told
through the life of Lucy Stone. An admin
for a small start-up computer games company, she receives a most unusual request
one day from her mother: to design a computer game based on the history,
legends, and myths of their native Krasssnia, a former Soviet bloc state. Lucy’s past a bit of a mystery, particularly
the identity of her father and whether indeed her mother is an agent working
for a government, researching the background details of the game soon draws her
into a political sub-world she never thought existed, and just perhaps, may
even bring her back to her native Krassnia to face the demons of the controlled
state.
As
many readers will guess shortly through the novel, The Restoration Game is something of a Russian nesting doll in
terms of meta-reality. But, as James Lovegrove
in his
review states, “The big reveal, when
it comes, takes some swallowing. MacLeod, however, is sensible enough to
bracket it with irony.” This irony,
in fact, saving the novel from falling into the depths of so much science
fiction these days (i.e. irrelevancy), it courses back through the novel and
puts into place the major theme.
While
Macleod is working with ideas well worn in science fiction (spy suspense,
political intrigue, virtual reality, gaming, etc.), he does so as only Macleod
does these days. For the uninitiated,
this means a healthy dose of communism—or thereabouts. Not banging on a pulpit in support of the
paradigm, Macleod continues to use his fiction to explore the social and
economic concept. In The Restoration Game’s case, this is
through the world of computer game design and real world Russian (not Soviet,
well, in fact, leftover Soviet) politics.
Seemingly a response to the Ossetia War (Russo-Georgian War),
his fictional Krassnia fills a role that Crimea and eastern Ukraine are
unfortunately filling today. All too
prescient, Macleod has a poke at Russian empire (re)building as the real world
follows quickly in time.
Like
Charles Stross’ Halting State,
Macleod chooses to tell a portion of his narrative in the second person. Not redolent, Macleod did what Stross should
have by limiting it to the “in-game” sections of the novel. The result is a narrative voice that
effectively balances… its elements.
Thematically, however, the two do strike different but relevant chords
of political relevancy (despite what some may not notice**).
After
two series, The Restoration Game
marks Macleod’s fifth stand-alone novel in a row, not to mention fifth novel in
six years. Though the ideas fly fast and
free, The Restoration Game shows no
sign of being rushed. The prose, at
least in the first half, clicks engagingly into place, the plot is obviously
worked out on something more than a napkin, and the politics bleed all too red
into the real world. The novel ticked
all the boxes I depend on Macleod to tick, and thus can’t complain.
*TBT
– to be trusted when you just need to relax and enjoy a quality story. Other
authors include but are not limited to another Macleod (Ian), another Ian (McDonald),
Elizabeth Hand, Jeffrey Ford, Maureen McHugh, Adam Roberts, Paul Di Filippo,
Jon Courtenay Grimwood…
**In
doing my post-reading for The Restoration
Game, I came across this
review from self-informed genre spokesperson Justin Landon. Rather than falling back on the years of work
of science fiction scholars (not an oxymoron), Landon invents his own
definition of science fiction in order to frame his insubstantial review. Just where did those gate guards go, anyway?
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