Memory

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truebuilder, April 11, 2011 (view all comments by truebuilder)
Linda Nagata's _Memory_ is the best coming-of-age novel I've ever read, and read, and read (I have several copies in different formats, and treasure the re-readings). It's also a deep blending of science fiction and fantasy that brings some of Roger Zelazny's works to mind (_e.g._ was _Lord of Light_ sci-fi or fantasy or another thing --- I like to think of LoL as a blending). It easily passes Ursula LeGuin's "Mrs Brown" test in that I can remember the protagonist's name "Jubilee" months and years later. Jubilee is "real" in all the senses of the word that matter here.

The gestalt is a strange almost pastoral world, not a sphere but a ring (unlike Larry Niven's _Ringworld_, this stage for her characters is on the outside surface), with no nations, no heavy industry, no flight, but possessing similar enough technologies (some from our future, some from our past) that they just "fit in", and do not distract from what counts, the story. There's an internet-like connectivity as well as nanotechnology. There are ordinary rifles, vehicles (a motorcycle that can adapt to and thus climb stairs is a nice touch), computers (but not what we have). And there's love, but it's not what we have either. And history _is_, not was, as the memory-of-the-world "silver" can bring back what once was, everything except for living creatures.

Nagata skillfully sets up this entirely believeable world, then proceeds at crucial points to break rules. This is hardly a new literary technique; she just does the breaking very skillfully and believeably.

And where does this world come from (I mean in the context of the characters and not from the obvious author)? Here Nagata begins to weave in a Zelazny-like mythology. And in this and other areas she gives enough detail for the reader to render mental imagery, but not enough to "explain".

That last point bears some discussion. What would the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" have meant if a voice-over "explained" it all? How much would such have weakened the conclusion? And HP Lovecraft's stories, could they really have been improved if he'd explained more? So I consider this one of Nagata's more subtle writing techniques that brings greatness to an already superb story.

It's hard to see how the story could have been either improved or extended (I don't believe there will be any sequel) or even imitated. It's the mark of a great book that it goes where no one else has gone, and so thoroughly plows new ground as to ensure no one else will be following. Just as Zelazny "owns" Amber, and Tony Hillerman owns the Navajo-detective genre, Nagata owns _Memory_.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780765340764

Author:

Nagata, Linda

Publisher:

Tor Science Fiction

Subject:

Science Fiction - Adventure

Subject:

Science / General

Edition Description:

Mass Market Paperbound

Publication Date:

20051227

Binding:

Electronic book text in proprietary or open standard format

Grade Level:

General/trade

Language:

English

Pages:

416

Dimensions:

6.75 x 4.19 in