o continue my
almost tradition of full disclosure (I'm told you have to do
something 3 times before it's actually tradition), I do know Dr.
Davis and have been lucky enough to be the close friend of his eldest
son. In fact his eldest son gave me my copy of his book. His family
have been very gracious and kind to me over the years and I remain
continually grateful. That said I promise that everything I say
about this book is because it's what I actually think, whether y'all
believe that or not is up to you.
This is not Dr.
Davis' first go around at writing, he has been in fact writing for
some time which is impressive when you consider he is also a
respected trauma surgeon for one of Arizona's many hospitals. A
profession not known for having a lot of free time. Despite this Dr.
Davis has over the years built up a good amount of written work.
This is his first fiction work that I've read however.
Queen Mab Courtesy
is his most recent fiction work, a near future science fiction that
embraces a lot of the same themes and ideas of cyberpunk... Without
the cyberpunk baggage (sooo much 80s... SOOO MUCH). Don't get me
wrong, I love me some Cyberpunk although I tend to prefer the edge
cases. For example, I love me some Shadowrun! Hoping to restart that
game soon! That said Cyberpunk does tend to demand the use of
certain tropes and themes some of whom I think are rather obsolete.
It also tends to have writers thinking they can do nothing but style
over substance or go way down in the depths of cynical posturing
without anything of any real weight to say. Frankly if I wanted that
I could go watch the news. I'm not saying you can't have dark
stories. I'm not saying that the bad guys can't win. But do
something with that darkness don't just wave it around like a flag!
Seriously, this kind of waste is just criminal.
**Cough**
Right, book
review, sorry. Moving on. Queen Mab Courtesy takes place in the
near future in the year 20something. How story focuses on a young
man named Horacio 'Tito' Guzman. Tito is in many ways an unfortunate
young man, although through no fault of his own. Tito is a Denver
Dwarf, or to explain, he is someone who is born with massive birth
defects due to a vaccine that wasn't properly tested. Now I'm sure
you ask, why would we use an improperly tested vaccine on people?
Simple. The vaccine was to contain a genetically engineered plague
released in the worse terrorist attack in over a century. The
terrorist group that committed this attack is frankly unimportant,
what's more important are the effects that attack had on Tito and the
society he has to live in. For example Tito is a dwarf and has eyes
that are placed in a way that gives him a blind spot right in front
of him. It makes reading somewhat difficult for him but he manages.
Let me talk about
Tito for a second. Tito is a intelligent, determined young man who
not only has to live with being treated like a circus freak by the
average person but also a mental 5 year old. His gifts and talents
are constantly denied and constrained. Anything good he finds in his
life will inevitability be taken away. The best he can hope for in
the system is a life of menial labor constantly supervised by people
he could outsmart while high and drunk. Add in that his father
disappeared when he was 3, pretty much abandoning him and his mother
to the tender mercies of that system. His father was the man who
invented the vaccine which makes Tito's own troubles somewhat ironic
in a sense. As one can imagine all this has made him a tad angry and
bitter. He is also deeply mistrusting of people and the society he
must navigate. Let's talk about that society shall we?
The society is one
that has become obsessed with safety and normalcy. Enormous powers
have been ceded to the state in exchange for comfort and security.
The police for the most part have been replaced with robot crawlers
(although there are human supervisors you can demand to speak to).
Citizenship has become more strictly defined, and means becoming part
of a system that tracks everything about you. For example one of the
robot police crawlers remembers a character that his water bill is
due that day. Dr. Davis doesn't actually tell you any of this.
You're left to infer this from Tito's commentary and the actions and
statements of other characters. This is actually one of the things
I like best about the book. The good Doctor resists the temptation
to drop massive amounts of exposition on his readers and insists that
if you want to know about the society that the story is taking place
in, that you pay attention to that story and the characters within
it. When done well and it is done well here, it's another thing that
pulls you in because you frankly want to know more. It also prevents
the flow of the story from being broken up with paragraphs of
explanations a lot of people would rather skip (I'm looking at you
Weber!). Another trap avoided here is politicizing this society.
There are elements that could be considered right wing (omnipresent
security state, surveillance and powers deferred to a corporation)
and left wing (massive welfare state, incredible focus on comfort and
avoiding offense etc). One thing that drags down a lot of dystopian
fiction in general is the authors standing up on a soap box to assure
that if his political opponents win, THIS IS YOUR FUTURE! My usual
reaction to that is to roll my eyes so hard that I'm left with a
headache. This makes continued reading difficult honestly. Here we
don't get that. The society here feels like something built in a bi
partisan moment. Usually those are good things, but I'll remind you
that bi partisan moments also created the Patriot Act. This society
is a distopia but a comfortable one that could be cobbled together by
Senators from both parties working together under popular demand
after the deaths of way to many people.
There are people
who have refused to become part of the machine and they aren't
citizens. They're called blanks. They have no rights and live very
dangerous lives on the edge of society. Tito isn't one of them but
damn if he isn't trying. When the book opens Tito is fleeing from a
police crawler for the grand crime of welfare evasion. See as a
Denver Dwarf (the majority of the group suffering from mental
disabilities that haven't effected Tito thankfully) Tito isn't a
citizen but a ward of the state. He hates that and is determined to
escape that fate. Unfortunately the robots know neither pity nor
fear and as such are unmoved by Tito's determination to simply live
his own life. Lucky for him this time he is aided in his escape by
another character in this story, Charlemagne Sleazer, aka Charlie,
who pretends to sell chestnuts for a living. In reality he makes
his living by trading favors or what he calls “Courtesies.”
Charlie is a
really fun character to read. He's flamboyant and eloquent and
quotes literature in a fun way. He also doesn't do it so often that
you get tired of it. We also never have to suffer from Charlie
telling us what he can do. He just shows us. I'd like to note that
to other writers, showing me instead of telling me things will get
you many bonus points. Charlie does favors great and small, for
people of all sorts of social stations from his land lady (who he
gets smokes for, which he has to because tobacco is banned), a local
grocery store owner, a computer programmer and more. Charlie is also
interested in Tito, for reasons that will remain unstated in this
review as they would be spoilers. After rescuing Tito, Charlie takes
him as sorta of an apprentice in the fine art of favor trading. Tito
and Charlie shadowrunners for hire in and of itself would have been
an awesome book, but Dr. Davis ups the ante. Maybe a little to
quickly but there are limitations of space to consider after all.
With the discovery
of a dead man who doesn't exist, Charlie and Tito find themselves
embarking on a investigation that will force both of them to confront
their pasts. In Tito's case he'll find himself learning things about
himself and his family that will both comfort and disturb him deeply.
We'll also through flashbacks get a look at the major events of
Tito's life, helping us learn why he's so angry. Frankly, you'll see
he has good reason. I really enjoyed this book and frankly I think
you will to. I've already given a copy of this book out as a gift.
That said it wasn't perfect. There are parts of the book that drag a
bit (I didn't care for the section of the book going over Tito's
school days honestly, I felt the book could have done without that)
and the book is maybe slightly over focused. It's good that it stays
devoted to it's characters instead drowning the story in a desire to
explain everything... But... This was a larger picture I really
would like to have more of a look at. Additionally the violence (of
which there is shockingly little of for a Cyberpunkish novel) is
rather lackluster. That may be because I have rather demanding
standards for violence. Other then that it's a great story about a
young man coming to grips with his past while trying to avoid capture
by the police and solve a murder.
Queen Mab Courtesy gets a A-.
So good news for
space battles! Next is the Bone Doll's Twin (recommended by my
little brother, yes family recommendations come first.) but after
that, A Bridge of Birds, with more recommendations to come!
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