Solis by A.A. Attanasio (1994)
Intelligent adventure
Book cover blurb
A thousand years in the future, Charles Outis (who has had his head cryonically frozen upon his death in the 21st century) wakes to find himself enslaved by a brutal technocracy. His brain is imprisoned in an automated mining factory in the asteroid belt where it operates the complex machinery that extracts and processes the ore. Finally he mages to broadcast a distress signal that is picked up by the androne Munk, an artificial being with a programmed empathy for homo sapiens culture.
Monk, aided by tough trouble-shooter Mei Nili, rescues Outis’s brain. ‘Mister Charlie’, as he is known to his rescuers, comes to learn that his only hope of bodily reincarnation (through cloning) and sanctuary lies in Solis, an elite community on Mars. But the trek to Solis is beset with lethal dangers from predatory humans, murderous alien monstrosities and the harsh, unforgiving Martian terrain itself. And at journey’s end, the destiny awaiting the pilgrims is dramatic - and wholly unexpected.
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My Review
This book was a big surprise for me. I wasn’t expecting it to be so gripping and fast-paced. Yes, it’s very much hard sci-fi, but it also manages to be an enjoyable adventure.
Solis opens like a hard sci-fi book, full of tech terms and futuristic jargon. The writing feels dry and unappealing. But this is just a precursor, a starting point to get us up to date and prepared for the story about to unfold.
Moving further into the book, the hard sci-fi feel remains, but we’re ushered into a more action-based journey, a quest really. This switch grabbed my attention and kept me enwrapped through the entire read. This presents a juxtaposition to this book’s readability. On one hand, you have rather intellectual prose, (this author loves his thesaurus) and on the other you have a pure boy’s-own adventure story. The two shouldn’t easily fit together, considering normal convention; however, they really do work here.
The cast of characters is small, three main characters and a handful of secondary bit parts joining the trek as the story unfolds. A diversely intriguing main cast, each grappling with their own inner turmoil. There is an androne (robot), a human and a one thousand-year-old, previously cryogenically-frozen, brain. All striving for a meaningful reason to exist, striving for something more.
Despite being published in 1994, Solis doesn’t feel dated in the slightest, sitting perfectly with most current science fiction books being released today. I’d even propose it places above many. Attanasio successfully avoids the common pitfalls of jargon, item and place names, which can quickly feel outdated and corny by modern standards, thus dating work prematurely. Each moniker employed feels well-considered, fitting and logical, feeling ageless because of it.
Unfortunately, I felt let down by the ending. The finale was rushed, jammed into the last three or four pages. Everything had built up to this point, with the hopes and dreams of all these characters in the balance. I was expecting these anticipated resolutions to be more involved.
The epilogue also came across as a lacklustre attempt to tie up one final loose end. After being so enthralled and enamoured by how the author managed to weave such an ‘old-fashioned’ adventure amongst hard sci-fi he lost a lot of credibility in the very end by shoehorning in these eagerly awaited elements.
My copy of this novel
Hodder & Stoughton hardback edition.
Published in 1994
181 pages
ISBN 9780450606427