“Flow”, Arlan Andrews, Sr. (Analog, 11-2014) (online)
Eligibility: Eligible for
2015 Hugo in the category of Novella
Status: Nominated
This is the editorial
voice review. The reader's voice review is forthcoming. (for info on what
this means, see here)
First Thoughts
This
is an exploration of an apparently post-apocalyptic world, complete with (also
apparently) slightly mutated/evolved humans and a variety of novel societies in
the process of rebuilding civilization.
The story leaves some interesting space for speculation on the part of
the reader, while at the same time painting an intriguingly interesting picture
of this imaginary world. I found myself
stopping to wonder at several points, which is always a good sign. Sadly, though, the plot seems a little thin,
with little to compel the reader beyond interest in what new dimension of
society will be revealed next. It was a
quick and easy read, but lacked any real depth.
Ideas
The
author briefly toys with the implications of an economy that revolves around
resources and scavenged tech, and injects brief messaging regarding religious
dictatorship, but otherwise there is little in the way of deep political ideas
here: instead, he spends his time on speculative anthropology. We follow the tale inside the head of a native
of icy regions on an exploratory journey “down the river” to discover what
happens to the icebergs the ice-bound clans sell for currency. Along the way, we get to learn quite a lot
about how at least 3 different societies operate: the ice-bound tribes, the
ice-shippers themselves, who guide the bergs down the river like enormous
barges, and the residents of the warmer lands, who live under the thumb of a theocracy. Mr. Andrews has clearly put a great deal of
thought into how these societies would work, and despite occasional clumsiness
in exposition he paints the world in a very interesting and vivid manner,
helped along by the simple fact of having written in the first person so that
we see everything filtered through the protagonist’s eyes. All this said, the rather casual fashion in
which he approaches some of the weightier issues introduced – particularly the
protagonist’s religious scepticism, and the tar-soaked brush with which
religion of any kind is daubed – is a great loss, and is also a bit jarring:
why bother bringing it up if you’re not going to work with it? The problem, evidently, is space: this is a
story about exploration, and if time were taken to explore these issues – with the
resulting conflicts of one kind or another – while it would have made the story
read more like an adventure and less like a National Geographic special we
would have ended up with a novel rather than a novella.
Writing
The
writing here is quite good, with strong control of pace and colour. I found the description rich enough to convey
a strong impression of the setting without being overly wordy. There is
rather a lot of encyclopedic exposition, but filtered through the protagonist
or through discussions with his “more civilized” counterpart it doesn’t grate
as much as it might. I couldn’t help but
think that if the author wanted to depict such a physically and socially rich
world, third person might have been a more effective choice as it would have
provided more options for exposition. Dialogue
is occasionally a bit rough, particularly where the author has felt obliged to
give us colour by way of dialect (things work much better when he just lets the
words flow) but frankly isn’t a large part of the story in any case, since it
mainly takes the form of the protagonist’s interior monologue. For all the technical skill at the detail
level, however, there’s something missing from this story that I think hobbles
it: conflict. There is some conflict, however it’s very small scale and of no real
significance to the story being told.
The protagonist has goals, and
at some points there’s some brief complication in his efforts to achieve them,
but for the most part the story keep chugging along just like the Mississippi
paddle steamer I kept forgetting the ice berg was not. Towards the end, a crisis climax is
introduced seemingly just to provide an excuse to bring things to a close (to
be fair, this isn’t actually a random occurrence, and does make sense in context, it just seems to spring on us rather
suddenly and be resolved remarkably easily).
On the whole, the richness of the background is fascinating and
intriguing, but without any clear, driving force behind the sequence of events
it becomes a little difficult to care very much about either the societies in
question or the characters themselves.
Characterization
Embedded
as they are in this fantastic world, the characters start life with a certain
amount of built-in individuality. As the
story goes on, we learn more and more about the protagonist, who starts to take
on the dimensions of a real person, and the author does a creditable job of
gradually revealing him, his ideas, his history over the course of the story. Unfortunately, with the exception of some
internal speculation on the protagonist’s part regarding the implications of
some of his discoveries there really isn’t much range of development, despite
the length of the piece and the extent of the revelations the character receives
as a result of his journey. Likewise,
from about half-way through we start to get more familiar with the ice-berg
sailor who serves as the protagonist’s guide in the civilization
down-river. The sailor’s function seems
to be mainly that of a foil to justify observations and explanations that
otherwise would have been awkward done in the form of first person narration,
and as such he really doesn’t experience any development either. I find myself unable to fault the author much
for the apparent lack of character development, however, since the story lacks
any real drive or conflict of the kind that would produce it.
Verdict
As
a world building exercise I think this piece works very well. The section of the world painted for us in detail
is well done, and leaves enough gaps to encourage the reader to imagine and
speculate further. Likewise, the author
demonstrates control of narrative and description, and uses this to good effect
to reveal the personality and context of the protagonist in measured doses over
the course of the story. Where the tale
falls down is in relying entirely on the spirit of exploration as a vehicle for
moving the story forward. For a piece
this long, this is simply inadequate to provide the necessary momentum, let
alone sympathy for the protagonist.
While my own inclinations made it easy to read through to the end simply
out of anthropological curiosity, there really didn’t seem to be anything
compelling about the plot or the protagonist: although the story ends with a
tantalising hint of adventures to come, I found it difficult to really care
enough to hope for the next installment.
If this were rewritten into something shorter, it would work well as a
quick exploration tale about a “country bumpkin” starting from his first entry
to the city (eliding the whole journey downriver as being “before the beginning”
of the real action). Alternatively, it
could be written longer very easily simply by taking the rather abrupt and
shallow crisis point and building it into something more significant that could
be used to drive action from beginning to end.
In fact, this is the way I would love Mr. Andrews to go: expand from a
novella to something like the classic pulp adventure novels of the past (about
200pp in pocketbook format) with the addition of an ongoing conflict plot line,
and then suddenly I would be compelled to buy book two in order to find out
what happens next.
Readability:
Pass
Hugo
quality: Pass
-- Smade
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