Earth or Better?

When he woke, Djem wondered what he lost when he died. Had he lost his soul?

The novel itself begins with a short flashforward, before the first chapter. It describes a murder attempt; its beginning words are

He watched intently; he expected the bomb to detonate.

Djem is the intended victim. He is not killed (but a reader does not learn that for a very long time).

The novel is science fiction that will appeal to nerds. I would have liked to have read it when I was young although it should appeal to the older, too. The physical technologies are available now or should become available within forty years. For example, a very small vehicle goes interstellar without a faster-than-light drive. It is realistic.

The book contains no sex and although it does contain several killings, it is not exceptionally violent. It one sense, it is a detective adventure story.

The novel contains about 100,000 words. In a `hardback' size, the text takes 250 pages. When the book is formatted for paperback, it requires more than 360 pages total.

The novel is based on the notion that a utopian group settles Melior, a planet 30 light years from Earth. Much later, the prime government on Earth sends an Envoy to Melior. (That is Djem. Since he does not know anything, he must learn. He is a major character.)

On Melior, someone tries to murder Djem! And even though the two planets are separated by enormous gulfs of time and distance, on Earth, others try to murder an Envoy from Melior. (Earth fills the second part.) What is going on?

The story starts with Djem's awakening and question -- a question that is answered slowly and indirectly. Djem is `reborn' on a rotating space station. (The first volume, set on Earth a generation or two from now, tells us more about `rebirth'.) Djem's first guide has him kneel down and look along a floor of the space station to see that it appears to rise. As she says, "None of the corridors are so long that you can see them curve, unless you put your eye close to the floor..."

The environment is not too strange for a reader who knows little, a young person, and on the planet it continues recognizable. Its desirability fascinates both the young and the old reader.

After Djem comes awake and adapts, the sentient computer, the friendly AI who runs the space station, is penetrated. Djem's room is tossed about. The action is only a warning. It is not one of the murder attempts that happen later.

Djem goes to the planet. The city to which Djem goes provides an environment that is more complex than the space station. There he learns from a young woman, Leestel. She has been planted on him by the Melians as a spy, but that does not matter. Although she is of interest to readers, the attraction between her and Djem is not consumated.

In a different thread, starting with the second chapter, we meet Taffod, a Melian adventurer. He is in a long distance race. I end that chapter by saying

As he went on, running became harder and harder. His real-time, perceived world became smaller. He tried to repeat those big words. He couldn't. He remembered life on Earth, and ran on anger. He remembered his first steps on Melior, and ran on hope. He remembered affection, and ran on love.

Finally, the run ended and he collapsed.

In another chapter, the fourth, we meet a Taffod duplicate. The man has the same original memories as Taffod, but was `reborn' into a six legged being on the next outer planet. He is making his way to mountains that he will cross. From Djem and others, we have learned about `rebirth' into human bodies. (The practice provides for indefinite longevity, except that each instance delivers a chance of permanent death, too. This discourages most from being reborn more than absolutely necessary, but does not discourage all. It does not discourage people such as Taffod. The practice also permits long, slower than light, interstellar trips.) By his existence, Taffod's duplicate tells us that rebirth does not have to be into a clone.

Although it is never put so bluntly, in a civilized society an adventurer must seek danger. People who do not seek adventure (and are not in a foreign service or occupation like that) can live safely.

On Melior, Djem is accepted as Earth's diplomat; he learns a little about the local politics and receives a message (the novel does not describe the scene that way, of course) that tells him why his room on the space station was trashed.

From a reader's point of view, suspense builds.

Djem also learns about utopian society and about the technology that makes it possible. (We can now make rapidly reproducing self-replicators, but our current replicators cannot make everything. In the novel, replicators can make anything. The novel presumes a technology in our future.) Djem also learns that the original microbes on Melior, dead now, and the living life on the next planet out, Tegmar, did not arise from the same source as Earth.

He helps move stones around a newly dug pool. (Later, before the last assassination attempt, he will sit on one of the stones.)

Meanwhile, another Taffod duplicate, this one on Melior itself, flies an ultralight. From that flight, we learn that Taffod expected this duplicate to die in a mountain climbing adventure soon after being reborn -- while providing full sensory data. (The duplicate did not die; he was unexpectedly skilled. By the time the story is told, he does not want to die.) We also learn that

[b]efore terraforming, surface features had endured more erosion; the single celled life that then existed could not prevent it. Earthly grass and trees did better.

Djem goes to a space station circling the next planet. On its space station, someone tries to assassinate Djem. The reasoning behind the attempt is becoming clearer. That assassination fails because Djem sees Leestel and darts forward to welcome her at just the moment when he is supposed to be killed while standing back.

The attempt shakes Djem. He and Leestel head back to Melior. There he is completely ignorant of another assassination attempt -- that is the attempt foreseen in the flashforward; the AI prevents it. The murderer decides to kill Djem himself.

Djem is sitting on a stone by the pool that he (and the reader) saw earlier. He has told his guard robot to stay away -- "How likely am I to be attacked here?" -- and he has to defend himself from the attacker, who says as a distraction while he is trying to get closer "Djem, you are a hard man to kill."

Djem saves himself before either Taffod's duplicate or the guard robot arrive. (The duplicate on the next outer planet has Taffod's memories and finally remembers enough to forsee; the guard robot is warned by the AI.) Both intended to rescue Djem, but would have been too late.

That is very nearly the end of the first part. The action is followed by a quieter scene in which Djem visits a local church. He sings a song based on `Silent Night' but with different words. (Djem did not like the new words.) He learns that the Melian religion is overtly different from, but in many ways, covertly similar to the beliefs he had.

On the return to his Embassy, Leestel and Taffod explain what amounts to the covert similarities, although they do not use those words. (They talk about the unknown, the unusual, the unexpected, and the numinous.)

They also describe the actually different, that the Melian religion encourages them to attempt to determine reality before deliberating.

A reader primarily interested in action will ignore this segment. Other readers will find this the peak of the book.

Taffod creates another duplicate to go to Earth as Melior's Envoy. (Taffod is willing to do this; and people like his accounts. Besides being an adventurer, he is diplomatic.)

It takes the Taffod duplicate as long to go to Earth as it took Djem to come. But Earth hardly varies. The powers that be suppress technological and other change.

On Earth, the duplicate, called Telren, meets a woman, Yeltroe, "who is not planted on him" but whom he likes and who explains. Meanwhile, an Earth group attempt to murder Telren. The second attempt is successful. (Yeltroe is wounded, too.)

But Telren is reborn in a manner that convinces many in Earth's government that the technology exists. They want rebirth -- but at the same time, the number two and number three persons in each part of government and in each independent organization fear that the existing number one will continue in position and that they will never gain further promotion. In a static society, death provides for new people. When leaders have immortality, their seconds have no chance. (The conundrum also effects Melior, but it is not yet seen there so clearly.)

The rebirth problem is solved by making the rule that when reborn, leaders lose their positions. As a side effect, Earth will change slowly as the reborn do something different in their new lives. The planet continues on a sustainable path.

The story returns to Melior for the end. That part contains a political fight -- what to do about rebirth -- and a brief segment on the main characters. They will leave the planet for another. (Their adventures are described in a third volume.)

That is foreground. In its background, the novel provides solutions for three problems, none new:

1. Material Poverty

This problem was solved in theory by von Neumann in the 1950s. He invented the notion of fast replicators. It might have been solved practically (but at a high initial cost) in the 1980s. If invention and innovation are not suppressed, the problem of material poverty should be solved at a relatively low initial cost within two generations.

2. Losing in Rivalrous Circumstances

This problem was solved thousands of years ago with the notion of a `jubilee year' in which land is returned to its former owners. (I doubt the notion was ever fully instituted. The more modern idea of a Christian Jubilee is different.) The novel's solution changes the relevant entity from society to individual.

This problem occurred because of my need for adventure both on Melior and on Earth. It is the motive for murder.

3. Ecological Collapse

In the 1970s and 1980s, this problem could have been solved in a not-too-expensive manner that enabled Americans to stay rich, become richer, and others to do the same. I don't know how inexpensive it would be to do the same now, or whether it is possible at all on Earth. (The novel offers a solution that I think would work on Earth, although I am not sure. The novel claims it works on Melior, another planet.) Certainly, von Neumann replicators that work with natural substances would help.

Ecological collapse is background.

Incidentally, the utopians use a base 12 numeric system instead of our base 10 numeric system. They count on their fingers: when you look at your left hand, palm facing you, with your fingers bent, you can easily see the four tips of your fingers and the eight closer knuckles, twelve in all.