Though Steven is best known for his Epic Fantasy Malazan series, it’s been clear for a while that he’s a genre fan. As well as Epic Fantasy, he has also published Star Trek inspired SF-comedy that fans of The Orville may appreciate, with (I believe) a third book due soon in the US.
And now there’s this: a full-blown, ‘proper’ SF novel that takes one of the genre’s biggest tropes – first contact – and gives it a whole new spin.
The story begins with science fiction author Samantha August being abducted from a street in broad daylight – one minute she was there, the next, gone. We discover that she has been chosen by a foreign artificial intelligence, who on the behalf of some enigmatic aliens, wish her to be humanity’s representative. (Science fiction writers have fewer personal axes to grind, have greater imagination and are better equipped to cope with grasping out-of-the-box concepts, it seems.)
To show the seriousness of its intent, whilst Samantha makes up her mind to be involved, the AI (amusingly named Adam) begins the task of saving Humanity and the world’s ecosystem in ways that, to humans, seem incredible. Violence becomes near-impossible. The world’s natural resources – the rainforests, the Canadian Tar Sands and others – suddenly become shielded no-go zones. Food and water is provided for those who need it. A new cheap energy source is given freely to those who want it, something that will power everything from an electric toothbrush to a space rocket engine.
It seems like a new world and a new dawn for Mankind. But it is not a free gift without conditions. Adam explains to Sam clearly that Humans must show the aliens that we are able to adapt, and in the usual sf-nal process of Uplift, prove ourselves worthy of this boon. There is also that tricky situation of what to do in a post-capitalist world (Iain M. Banks gets a mention here.) And what about the moral and ethical issues, whether people can cope with a loss of free will in return for a world without violence?
Off-planet, things are also changing. On the Moon those troublesome alien Greys are sent packing, and their no-longer-secret base there is being developed into – something – which Humans are dissuaded from visiting. At the same time, Venus is being transformed, thanks to a giant sunscreen and the use of many comet impacts, clearly for something in the future.
As this brief summary suggests, there are big ideas here. Steven builds these up carefully and, as a consequence, Rejoice starts fairly slow. Much of the first part of the novel is spent introducing characters from various backgrounds and setting up the premise.
There’s then a lengthy pause whilst the aliens (or at least the AI Adam on their behalf) sit back and let the world adjust to the new situation. The world struggles to make sense of what is happening and there is an element of denial at this stage. To reflect this, we see events from various diverse points of view around the world. There’s the Trump-like US President, Raine Kent and his advisors in the West and to counter-balance this, the story from the perspective of Liu Zhou, the Science Advisor to Xin Pang, the Leader of the Chinese government and Konstantine Milnikov, a Putin-like Russian leader. Away from politics we have vlogger Joey Sink, business entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers and mercenaries in the African rainforest. Overviewing it all are various delegates of countries in the United Nations struggling to decide what to do next. Steve can’t resist a little self-appreciation here – it’s great fun to see the Canadians be involved (a nod to Steve’s native country) emphasised by a cameo from Canadian s-f writer Robert J. Sawyer.
At about the halfway mark of the novel we begin to see the Human response to the AI’s arrival. The pace picks up a little as the Chinese stage a raid on the abandoned Grey lunar base to gain a potential advantage.
Up to this point the AI’s purpose is still unknown, even to Samantha, who is still considering being the Human-alien liaison. On the whole, it seems benign and beneficial, though not without a price. Steven does well to consider the moral and ethical views of many of those concerned. In this aspect, in places Rejoice reminded me of an upgraded, contemporary version of Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End – not a bad thing, in my opinion.
When Samantha returns to Earth in the last part of the novel, her speech to the United Nations and the listening world is eloquent and logical. At this point my doubts about using a science fiction writer for this role are dissuaded in a tour de force speech that reminded me of Klaatu and Gort in the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still (more than the original story).
Most of all, here the book brings a Star Trek style optimism by the end. There is hope for the future and even an excitement that humans are on the threshold of a new beginning. The ending is a major cliff-hanger that will need clarification in a future novel.
In summary, Rejoice is a great ‘proper’ science fiction novel that takes what I think often makes s-f great. There are big ideas here and Rejoice treats them seriously. It is clearly a novel that has been thought about for a while and is written with enough confidence to tackle those s-f tropes full on, dragging them kicking and screaming into the light of intense scrutiny and using them to an appropriate conclusion.
As well as being accessible, entertaining, and even amusing, I suspect Rejoice will raise many questions in the thinking reader’s mind that will bear repeated thought after finishing the novel – and if ever you needed the sign of a good SF novel, in my opinion, that is it. Big ideas examined with a broad perspective and balanced with a certain degree of humour and optimism – Rejoice is a triumph.
Rejoice by Steven Erikson
Published by Gollancz, October 2018
ISBN: 978 1473 223 806
414 pages
Review by Mark Yon
In some ways this reminds me of Steele’s Arkwright. 🙂
Hi Valentin. You make a good point. They are both celebrations of a much more positive future than I think we’ve seen in SF recently, but I think I think Rejoice is much ‘talkier’ than Arkwright (which I loved, btw.) Rejoice really gets to the discussion of issues, if anything rather like Asimov’s Foundation, I think.