Medusa’sTouch by Emily L. Byrne
What
is at heart a fairly conventional f/f erotic romance is here gussied up as
space opera with an interesting transhumanist element. TiCara X273 is a medusa
pilot, having received a set of neuro-synaptic implants that allow her to
interface with the space freighter she captains. TiCara’s implants also enhance
and help to moderate her emotions; these “medusas” sometimes seem to have a
will of their own, which makes for some of the story’s most entertaining
moments. When TiCara is commissioned to ferry an aging corporate bigwig to a
remote system in search of a technological fountain of youth, she jumps at the
prospect of a rich payoff, along with the opportunity to make time with said
bigwig’s beautiful assistant, Sherin. Pursued by space pirates and corporate
secret police, aware of a spy in her midst and unsure of whom to trust, TiCara
has plenty to occupy her when she isn’t lost in romantic self-doubt, obsessing
about or actively pursuing Sherin.
Drawing
heavily on the conventions of cinematic space opera, space travel here is
portrayed as relatively easy and routine, imaginary tech helps to gloss over
problems of distance and time, and space battles in zero gravity are played out
like conventional earthbound shoot-‘em-ups. While, in real life, there may be
ten thousand potentially fatal hazards in space at any given second, Byrne
generally keeps things sufficiently engaging to encourage a relatively hefty
suspension of disbelief.
I
found Byrne’s style a tad dry in spots, a little too bogged down with
superfluous stage business that doesn’t seem to put the story forward in any
meaningful way. At times the generic erotic romance elements—endless daydreaming
and adolescent self-doubt—detract from the sci-fi/adventure narrative, dulling
the sharper edges of the plot. Like
too many stories of this kind, imaginary futuristic jargon and slang can do
more to impede a clear narrative flow than enhance a sense of authenticity. When
tech overwhelms the humanity of the story, neither science nor fiction are well
served. I would have liked to read more about the villain of the piece, who is
by far the most interesting character in the tale, and could have used more of
a build-up to raise the stakes of the ultimate set-piece, well done as it is.
In
the end, I think Byrne has succeeded in
creating an entertaining, essentially human story with Medusa’s Touch and
that is an achievement not to be dismissed. Recommended.
As
the subtitle suggests, all of the stories in this collection have appeared in
print before. I have reviewed several of the earlier anthologies from which
this material is drawn, and much of it holds up quite well.
At
his best, M. Christian is a master of speculative fiction, highly imaginative,
ironic, wickedly funny, fast-paced, endearingly snarky, and one hell of a fine
writer with a Promethean gift for evocative settings and memorable set-ups. Pieces
like Honky Tonk Lagoon, Prêt-à-porter, The Bachelor Machine, Hot
Definition, Everything But the Smell of Lilies, The Hope of Cinnamon
and Subsequent State are little
masterpieces, as fine as anything in contemporary sci-fi.
Christian’s
writing can also be pretentious, self-indulgent, plodding, bloated, obsessive, continually
flogging the same not-particularly interesting transhumanist concepts,
unwilling to put his shopworn darlings out of their (and the reader’s) misery. Yes,
the notion that humanity may become so dependent on technology, on being “connected”
that we forget how to sense or feel anything genuine is a profound idea, a
cautionary tale for our age, but the novelty wears off pretty fast, especially
when the storytelling is unfocused, taking too long to reach its destination,
ironic twists, clever as they may be, coming too little and far too long after
the reader’s interest is lost.
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