Ms. Hen reviews Constance

Constance

Matthew Fitzsimmons

Planetarium Station, Inc.

2021

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because it was recommended to her. This is exactly the type of book she likes to read right now. Her taste varies, but now she is into speculative fiction about the near future.

This novel is a little different from other science fiction novels. It's sci-fi, but it's a mystery at the same time. Constance D'Arcy, or Con, is a clone that is attempting to solve her own murder. Con wakes up to find that her clone has been activated, and she has an eighteen month lag, meaning the original Con had not gone is for a refresh for that long, a refresh, meaning a consciousness upload. People who have clones have to go in to get their refresh, in case their clone is activated, they will have most of the same memories as the original.

Con wakes up, and she discovers that she should not have been activated, and people from the lab are after her. She escapes, but she struggles to find out what happened to her. She discovers that she had gotten married in the time she does not remember, and she was missing from Virginia. She goes to find herself, and is shocked by what happens.

This novel has excellent world building. It takes place in the year 2038, which is not too far in the future. Ms. Hen likes to think about what the world will be like in 17 years, but she can't imagine what will happen. Con had been in a band, and her boyfriend had been driving them around in a self-drive car, which means, the passenger drives it themselves, and they got into an accident. Older people like to cling to the old ways, like they do now. Humans can be resistant to change, and that aspect of human nature will not change soon. Even younger people want to stick with things from the past sometimes, because the future and the idea of change can be frightening.

This novel isn't like any other novel Ms. Hen has read. It's a sci-fi novel, and a mystery, and it has some legal shades, about a case about whether a clone is a real person. This novel is also about prejudice, and they way some people treat clones is unpleasant. Is a clone a person? Do they have rights and feelings? Are they like any other human? These questions might have to be answered in the near future.

Ms. Hen read this novel quickly because it was so good. She loved living in this world, with Con, the badass clone. This is also an adventure novel, and Ms. Hen felt herself gripping the book to find out what happened. She adores this book, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn what the future might be like, and anyone who wants to think about other types of life, such as clones, and how they might be able to exist in the world alongside humans.

 

Ms. Hen reviews An Artist of the Floating World

 

An Artist of the Floating World

Kazuo Ishiguro

Vintage International

1986

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she read another novel by this author this year, KLARA AND THE SUN, and she really enjoyed that one. This book was nothing like the science fiction novel about a robot. This is a realistic novel about an artist in Japan around the time of World War II.

This novel is about an artist, Masuji Ono, his life, work, and family. In the present time, it is right after World War II, and he lives in a big house that used to be beautiful before the war, but is now shabby. His daughter Setsuko comes to visit with her son, and his other daughter Noriko, lives with him, and wants to get married.

In his working life, he had been an artist, and he worked with different teachers. One of his teachers taught him he should only depict art of the "floating world," the night life, and geishas, and men having fun. Ono didn't want to just create art like that, he wanted to do works that had political implication. He paid the price for this after the war when he was blamed for partly bringing the country to ruins.

This novel is written in a slow and quiet style. When it came to the part about the mentor telling of the need to paint the "floating world," Ms. Hen paid attention. She thinks this is interesting because not all artists think in the same way. Some people want to create work that is politically important, but others want to show the fun side of the world. There's no right or wrong answer, but Ono wanted to create art that's important, even though people he knew might have thought he should not have.

One aspect of this novel that Ms. Hen thinks is well-written is the depiction of Ono's grandson, Ichiro. The child is just like a real child, squirmy and indecisive, erratic and unpredictable. Children are not easy to write, possibly because they are so strange, but the author does an excellent job.

Ms. Hen liked this novel. She thinks that these characters are unique to this time period, and Japan in the past is a fascinating place. The country was on the verge of change, and anything that's changing fast is worth learning about. The Japanese might not have like the way the country was changing, but they couldn't stop it. Change can be beautiful, but terrifying at the same time. 

Ms. Hen reviews The Space Between Worlds

 

The Space Between Worlds

Micaiah Johnson

Del Ray

2020

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel, because she read about it, and she thought it sounded fascinating. She is always compelled to read new science fiction, and this book did not disappoint. She dived into the universe where interdimensional travel is possible.

This novel is about Caramenta, a young Black woman who lives on the outskirts in a place called the Rurals, who is recruited to be a traverser, since on most of the other worlds, her dop, or doppelganger, is dead. Only the minorities are hired to do this work, since most of them are dead on the other worlds. A twist occurs, and Caramenta dies, but she carries on. 

She runs into all the people that she knew on other worlds, including her sister, Esther, her boyfriend Nik Nik, and his brother Adam, who is dead on her world, or Earth Zero. Caramenta gets into trouble: when she traverses back to Earth Zero, she acquires stripes on her face, markings that she had a difficult traverse. Dell, Cara's immediate boss, is an upperclass Wileyite, that Cara has a crush on, and flirts with incessantly, but Cara doesn't know how Dell really feels. 

This novel is a style of science fiction about travel between dimensions. Ms. Hen read an amazing novel a couple of years ago called FAMOUS MEN WHO NEVER LIVED, and this novel reminds Ms. Hen of that one a lot. It's smart and complicated and passionate, just like this one.

One aspect that Ms. Hen found striking about this is that the protagonist is a Black queer woman. This is different for science fiction, because traditionally the genre is full of white men. Ms. Hen thinks it's exciting that new voices in science fiction are emerging, and the future that's being written about now is full of people who are realistic, and not simply who the white male writers want them or expect them to be.

Ms. Hen found that this novel is meant to be read in long stretches. She had to sit down and read for a long time in order to situate herself in the world in which the novel takes place. It's a different world, a violent one, full of dangers, but also full of hope, since all the other worlds exist, there could be one where you find yourself having a wonderful life. Ms. Hen likes the idea of different dimensions where she has another life, and has spent time thinking about what could have happened to her. On another world, what kind of hen would Ms. Hen be?