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| The Reference Library |
by Don Sakers |
Even before the word “genetics” existed, science fiction writers were speculating and writing stories about the subject. Although Gregor Mendel’s work was first published in the 1860s, his ideas didn’t penetrate the scientific mainstream until William Bateson rediscovered his results in 1905 (and coined the word “genetics”) and publicized them. Meanwhile, in 1896 H. G. Wells published The Island of Doctor Moreau, arguably the first important novel of genetic engineering. (To be sure, Wells calls Dr. Moreau’s techniques “vivisection,” but the results look an awful lot like genetic engineering.)
Before actual genetic engineering emerged, science fiction interpreted the concept through several different lenses. The primary method was good old selective breeding, sometimes called “eugenics.” Biological change came to the human race across many generations, usually according to some master plan.
Thus, in Olaf Stapeldon’s Last and First Men (1930), we follow the development of eighteen successive species of humanity into a far-distant future. E. E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman series (beginning in Astounding with Galactic Patrol in 1937-38) involves millennia-long bloodlines, both human and alien, controlled by the benevolent Arisians. In Robert A. Heinlein’s Howard Families series (starting with Methuselah’s Children in Astounding, 1941), the Howards are bred for their longevity, becoming a race of near-immortals. Heinlein’s Beyond This Horizon (Astounding, 1942) told of a world in which selective breeding had created a near-utopia. Frank Herbert’s Dune series (serialized in Analog starting in 1963) gives us the ten-thousand-year bloodlines supervised by the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood.
Selective breeding involves large populations and long time frames. Another way to view genetic engineering was more focused on small populations or individuals, using a variety of unspecified chemical and biological methods to alter germ plasm and create new forms of life. We’re all familiar with the various biological castes depicted by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World (1932). The first great SF practitioner of this method, James Blish, gave it the name “pantropy.” Several of his pantropy stories (including “Sunken Universe,” 1942, and the classic “Surface Tension,” 1952) were published in one volume as The Seedling Stars (1956). In C.L. Moore’s “Promised Land” (Astounding, 1950), pantropy is used to adapt colonists to life on Ganymede. “Between the Dark and the Daylight” by Algis Budrys (1958) settlers on a hostile planet develop adaptations such as claws and armored hides, and eventually overrun the unmodified humans. Pantropy allows humans to live underwater and even in space in A. E. van Vogt’s The Silkie (1964).
A third take on genetic engineering follows in the steps of Doctor Moreau by breeding or mutating animals to give them more human-like aspects. Robert A. Heinlein’s “Jerry Is a Man” (1947, later appearing in book form as “Jerry Was a Man”) was a prescient early example of this approach, in which an intelligent ape stands trial to determine his humanity. In Cordwainer Smith’s Instrumentality of Mankind series (notably “Alpha Ralpha Boulevard,” 1961, “The Ballad of Lost C’Mell,” 1962, “Under Old Earth,” 1966, and Norstrilia, 1975), a host of half-animal Underpeople are the true heirs of humanity. Curt Siodmak’s Hauser’s Memory (1969) explores using genetics to transfer human memories and even personalities to animals. More recently, David Brin has used a variation on the theme of selective breeding in his Uplift stories (commencing with Startide Rising, some parts appeared in Analog starting in 1981), in which sapient patron races “uplift” non-sapient animals to intelligence.
Once science discovered DNA, it was able to catch up to SF and give us the language and techniques of true genetic engineering. Starting about the 1970s, genetic engineering became a common theme in science fiction. In Time Enough For Love (1973), Robert A. Heinlein picked up the Howard Families series and took genetic engineering far beyond simple controlled breeding. Kate Wilhelm’s Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1976) gives us a world in which cloning replaces sexual reproduction. Cloning and genetic engineering also figure heavily in Arthur C. Clarke’s Imperial Earth (1976).
Geoff Ryman’s The Child Garden (1989) presents a world in which genetic engineering results in living beings that serve as houses, vehicles, and machines. Nancy Kress has made a name for herself with genetic engineering stories like the Sleepers series (starting with Beggars in Spain, 1993)—in which a new breed of immortals result from attempts to engineer away the need for sleep—and this year’s collection Future Perfect: Six Stories of Genetic Engineering.
Many SF movies and television shows include elements of genetic engineering (usually laughable ones), but one standout is the excellent 1997 movie Gattaca.
This issue, I have several recent examples of genetic engineering in science fiction. As you might expect, they’re a pretty diverse lot.
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Body, Inc.
Alan Dean Foster
Del Rey, 290 pages, $13.00 (trade paperback)
iBooks, Kindle, Nook: $9.99 (e-book)
ISBN: 978-0-345-51199-7
Series: Human Blend 2
Genre: Adventure SF, Biological SF,
Man & Machine |
Body, Inc.
Centuries from now, with the world an environmental ruin, personal genetic enhancement and nanotech implants are everywhere. In The Human Blend (reviewed in the May 2011 issue) we met wraith-thin lovable rogue Whispr and his friend, Dr. Ingrid Seastrom. Whispr accidentally acquired a silver data-thread that bears information about a powerful new technology, and Ingrid became his protector when dastardly forces pursued them.
Now Whispr and Ingrid are in Africa, in the territory of the South African Economic Combine (known officially as SAEC and colloquially as SICK). SICK, apparently the source of the data-thread, is the kind of evil corporate empire that we all love to hate. Whispr and Ingrid feel that they are close to the answers they seek.
Unfortunately, SICK’s ultra-enhanced sadistic assassin, Napul Molé, is on their trail. By escaping him in the last book, Whispr and Ingrid showed Molé up, and now he’s determined not just to catch them, but also to make them suffer.
It’s all great adventure, with sympathetic characters and solid speculative science.
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Uglies: Shay’s Story
Scott Westerfeld
Del Rey, 208 pages, $10.99
(paperback graphic novel)
iBooks, Nook: $9.99 (e-book)
ISBN: 978-0-345-52722-6
Series: Uglies
Genre: Biological SF, Graphic Novels
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Uglies: Shay’s Story
In 2005 Scott Westerfeld introduced us to the world of Uglies. In this future world, at age 16 all adults have an operation that turns them “Pretty”—eliminating individual differences and making everyone a perfect physical specimen—after which they enter the shallow, hedonistic adult world. Children under 16 are “Uglies,” humiliated and embarrassed by their trivial imperfections. Most children dream of the day they will become Pretty . . . except for Tally Youngblood’s friend Shay. Shay, the rebel, runs away rather than become Pretty . . . and Tally follows her. At first Tally comes as a spy, to retrieve Shay from her fellow rebels and bring them all back. Tally’s slow conversion to rebel and her subsequent adventures make up the four books of the Uglies series.
Uglies: Shay’s Story goes back to the beginning and tells things from Shay’s viewpoint . . . and does so in a very accessible graphic novel format. David Cummings’s black-and-white illustrations dovetail perfectly with script by Scott Westerfeld and Devin Grayson. Readers familiar with the Uglies series will definitely want this one, and those who haven’t yet read Uglies will find it a perfect introduction to the series.
This would be a perfect gift for a bright teen or pre-teen, but adults can certainly enjoy the story as well.
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Exogene
T. C. McCarthy
Orbit, 384 pages, $7.99 (mass market)
iBooks, Kindle, Nook: $7.99 (e-book)
ISBN: 978-0-316-12815-5
Series: Subterrene War 2
Genre: Biological SF, Military SF,
Psychological/Sociological SF
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Exogene
Genetically enhanced soldiers are an obvious concept, and many authors have written about them. In the Subterrene War series, T. C. McCarthy is presenting the kind of full-bore, total-immersion exploration of the concept at which science fiction excels.
In this somewhat-near future, wealth is measured in rare metals so precious and so important to industry that the world is convulsed in war to control the remaining deposits. The key weapon in these wars is the germline soldier: genetically enhanced, grown in vats, totally expendable. The first book, Germline, showed the war from the viewpoint of a journalist embedded with a U.S. military unit in Kazakhstan.
Now Exogene introduces us to Catherine, one of the germline soldiers. Catherine and her compatriot Megan are perfect weapons in the enhanced bodies of teenage girls, and they’re good at what they do. There’s one hitch: after two years on the battlefield (if they survive), they will begin to “spoil”—their minds and bodies will start to unravel, and they’ll be decommissioned (executed). Catherine used to think she was ready for this fate; she was certainly taught that it was God’s will.
But then she hears rumors of a place in Thailand, a place where spoiled germline soldiers go to live in freedom. And she’s determined to get there.
If you don’t care for military SF, at least give McCarthy a try. These books don’t center on weapons and tactics, they’re about people facing the ultimate challenges of war. A third book, from yet another viewpoint, is scheduled for August publication to complete the trilogy.
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The Games
Ted Kosmatka
Del Rey, 368 pages, $25.00 (hardcover)
iBooks, Kindle, Nook: $12.99 (e-book)
ISBN: 978-0-345-52661-8
Genre: Biological SF, SF/Horror
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The Games
During the Cold War, the Olympic Games became a surrogate for geopolitical rivalries, with each medal won a victory for one side or the other. In the near-future world of The Games, the Olympics are replaced by an international competition of genetic engineering. Nations design animal-derived killers and deploy them in gladiatorial games, with gold medals and enormous prestige going to the nation whose creation defeats all others. The one limitation is that no creature can contain any human-derived DNA.
The designs of genius geneticist Silas Williams have won the United States numerous gold medals . . . but competitors are getting closer. At the end of his rope, Silas turns to an experimental supercomputer, allowing it to design the genetic template for the perfect killer.
The result is so complex and unfamiliar that Silas can’t begin to understand it. He enlists the help of Vidonia Joã, xenobiologist extraordinaire.
Too soon, Silas and Vidonia learn how the supercomputer has done its magic . . . for it turns out that the new organism isn’t just the most efficient killer ever to walk the earth, it’s also intelligent. And in the manner of all the best intelligent killing machines, it soon turns on its creators. . . .
The Games is being marketed to appeal to the pop-sci Michael Crichton/Robin Cook crowd, but the science is a tad too authentically detailed, the future worldbuilding a bit too well done, the writing not quite breathless enough. Kosmatka, after all, is a Nebula Award nominee. If you are in the mood for an SF thrill ride with some very convincing monsters, this is the book for you.
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Unfriendly Persuasion
Steven H. Wilson
Firebringer, 426 pages, $20.00
(trade paperback)
Kindle: $2.99 (e-book)
ISBN: 978-0-9773851-3-3
Series: Arbiter Chronicles 2
Genre: Humorous SF, Military SF
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Unfriendly Persuasion
For ten years and a vast number of episodes, Steven H. Wilson and the crew at Prometheus Radio Theatre (prometheusradiotheatre. com) have dramatized the madcap adventures of the Confederate Navy Starship Titan and her misfit crew. Unfriendly Persuasion is Wilson’s second book featuring Rigellian Arbiter-Captain Jan Atal; his genetically enhanced daughter Kaya; enigmatic alien telepath Cernaq; and poor Terry Metcalfe and Kevin Carson, the first Terrans to qualify for the Confederate Navy.
Metcalfe, hero of a recent battle with the Qraitian Empire, is disenchanted with his position and senses that there should be more to life than his military service. He gradually falls under the spell of a religious sect from the planet Eleusis—a sect that believes God lives within their planet.
So Metcalfe sets out for Eleusis, where he discovers that something is indeed living beneath the surface, a powerful alien intelligence that’s prepared to grant him everything he desires. But what Metcalfe sees as God might instead be a malevolent creature intent on destroying everything he and his friends have fought for.
The story of Metcalfe’s wayward adventures, and the struggle of his friends and crewmates to save him in spite of himself, makes for a light and enjoyable tale. Like a cross between the funniest episodes of the original Star Trek and Monty Python, Unfriendly Persuasion is a fun romp, and a bargain at $2.99 for the e-book. If you like the book, be sure to visit the website and listen to some episodes.
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Claws & Saucers: Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy Film 1902-1982
David Elroy Goldweber
Lulu, 682 pages, $47.95 (paperback)
iBooks, Kindle, Nook: $8.95 (e-book)
ISBN: 978-1-105-04350-5
Genre: Nonfiction
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Claws & Saucers: Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy Film 1902-1982
In this age of handheld, always-connected devices and multiple billions of websites, when the assembled knowledge and wisdom of the human race is only a few clicks or taps away, one might think that the age of enormous, encyclopedic directories is over.
One would be wrong.
Eighty years of SF, horror, and fantasy movies make for a gargantuan amount of information. David Elroy Goldweber has boiled it all down to the essentials that matter to those of us who watch these films for fun. You’d have to comb dozens of websites to get the kind of valuable stuff he packs into one entry for a single film.
From Abbot and Costello Go to Mars all the way to Z.P.G., here’s what you get. There’s the standard filmographic info: title, producer, run time, format, date. What’s Happening: a one-line blurb. Famous For: the distinguishing characteristics that fans care about (popular cult classic, notable performances, same director as a more famous film, etc.)
But wait, there’s more. A detailed discussion, ranging from one paragraph to several, tells you exactly what your most knowledgeable friend would want you to know about the film. These discussions are the meat of the book, and make for fascinating and fun reading. Ever since this book showed up in the mailbox, I’ve been dipping into it at random and enjoying essays on films I have no intention of ever watching. It’s that kind of guide.
Goldweber goes on to rate each movie on a scale of 1 to 10 on five dimensions: Action, Gore, Sex, Quality, and Camp. In addition, he has a “Don’t miss” line to highlight one special moment from each movie, and also a cleverly titled quote from each.
If you have any interest in genre films, if you want to impress and amuse your friends on movie night, or if you just enjoy compellingly written trivia, you want this book. The paper version is about the size of a phone book but has better paper and much more readable type; it’s pricey but would make a great present for your favorite genre film buff. The much-more-affordable e-book is a must for anyone who likes genre movies. |
And with that, I’m afraid I’ve engineered myself out of space. In the spirit of genetic engineers everywhere, go out and make some new friends.
Don Sakers is the author of The Leaves of October and A Voice in Every Wind. For more information, visit www.scatteredworlds.com.
"The Reference Library" Copyright © 2012, Don Sakers
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