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Review by Aricia GavrielVery occasionally a book comes along that blows you away. This is one of them ... an idea, to begin with, that's absolutely fresh, and a treatment of said idea that's six layers deep, and fully developed, yet at the same time not the epic-length fiction one's come to associate with Mel Keegan. Don't get me wrong: I love a long, hot book, but in the last year or two my life has turned into a combination tumble dryer and cement mixer, so I don't have as much time to read much and even less to review. It's very nice to be able to sit down with a story, enjoy the heck out of it, and finish it, in two or three sittings. (A friend of mine read this on a plane trip. Perfect size and shape, he said, to make the hours speed by.) MORE THAN HUMAN takes place in "the near future" -- about the same time frame as AVATAR, give or take a bit -- and concerns the crew of an Einsteinian starship, the Gilgamesh, and their altercation with the authorities at point of entry back into the Earth solar system. They're coming "home," and their first port of call is Titan, the moon of Saturn. Little do they know that in their absence, the law has changed. Genetically engineered humans are now categorized as "less than human," and their human rights have been confiscated. There are stories within stories within stories, in this book. Look deeper and deeper into it, and the more you look, the more you see. The most obvious plot is the love story between Adrian, who's ostensibly a government "suit," and Jason, the drop-dead gorgeous AI engineer off the starship. Look again, and you'll see the second layer of the story, which is about the gradual corruption and dissolution of human politics (and god knows, we're well on our way down the slippery slope in our own age). The future could be a scary place for folks who don't, can't, or won't conform. Johnny Depp recently gave an interview, answering some cute questions about why he dresses a bit weirdly, and with that shy, lethal smile he reported that it's all about not conforming to the "lemming" model. The issues on MORE THAN HUMAN are the self-same issues as Mr. Depp put his finger right on. In the future of this book, anybody who doesn't fit the mold is wading knee-deep in trouble. And luckily for the Gilgamesh, the government spook, Adrian Balfour, is a somewhat borderline case who's only just accepted by society, law and government, so long as he toes the part line, takes a job nobody else wants, keeps his mouth tight shut and does as he's told. Well, Adrian's been a good boy so far ... but now, like Mal Reynolds, he aims to misbehave. Big time. Look even deeper into the story, and the next level you pick up on is the tale, told albeit at secondhand, of the colonization of a new world, Eidolon. And the next layer down is about "social drift," or how human beings change, morph, with the passage of generations spent in isolation. This is the process that takes one culture and turns it into another ... say, the way the United States redesigned itself on the fly, using the building bricks of the many cultures from which the settlers came... Jason Erickson and Captain Dirk Vanderhoven are the Eidolonians you get to know the best; and getting to know Jason means getting up close and personal. He was born on Eidolon, grew up there, was designed, engineered, bred and born for the new world, and he's ... different. Boy, if he different! Not just a big beauty (six foot six, blond bombshell -- see the evidence ...scroll to foot of page!), but also a "socketed AI engineer." His sensuality is waaay different from anything Adrian knows, and the exploration in the differences between the two men makes for some red-hot scenes. MORE THAN HUMAN is the second collaborative effort by Keegan and DeMarco. They work well together. Their first partnership was on Umbriel, an urban fantasy which I enjoyed hugely, and intended, and still intend, to review. Of the two, MORE THAN HUMAN is much more fully developed, but the authors obey the old showbiz law: alway leave 'em wanting more. And at risk of sounding like Oliver, I want more! I want to see the new world, Eidolon. And I want to know, powerfully, how the story of Earth's rebel group turns out. This layer of the plot is a whole 'nother realm. A book could be written about the rebels, whose story is dark, brooding, angry. This aspect of MORE THAN HUMAN is very compelling and fascinating. So I dropped a line to the publisher, with a message for Mel Keegan, and asked, is there more? In his usual generous form, Mel was kind enough to reply at length, and what I understand is that there's a lot more to tell, and it will be told after Hellgate is complete (which it will be, this year, with #6: Event Horizon). Yippeee! [AG dancing 'round room waving arms, Bollywood fashion] MORE THAN HUMAN is highly recommended. You want a sizzler of an m/m romance? You got it. You want some of the best hard SF since AVATAR, with a gay spin? You found it. You want a story that'll get you thinking, make you take another look at human culture and politics today? This is it. (Something that came to me via facebook this morning: "The Bible Belt is the place where they think being fat is genetic, and being gay is a lifestyle choice." Take that dumbness and project it 180 years into the future ... and we got problems. Big ones.) Five stars out of five, and a huge smiley face for good measure. And yes, it's on Kindle, at a great price. Novel length: 86,600 words |
