Thursday, September 20, 2001
Title: The Secret Of Life
Author: Paul McAuley
Publisher: Voyager
Both the Chinese and Americans have been exploring Mars to try and find signs that life may have existed there, or in fact may still somehow survive there. However past some fossil evidence there has been no evidence of more recent life; at least that is what the Chinese claimed. Reality seems to contradict this and when an act of industrial espionage goes wrong there is something "foreign" growing in our oceans, and expanding at a frightening rate. As a prominent biologist who has been studying the beginning of life, Mariella is recruited by NASA for a new trip to Mars, though NASA's corporate backers aren't particularly happy about her inclusion. Against a background of corporate informational blackout Mariella spends the time running up to the launch trying to find out the truth behind the expanding slick and the possibility that life may actually have been found on Mars. Especially when that life may back up her theories about the origins of life on Earth and when the slick may threaten life on Earth.
The Secret Of Life is told in three sections - the run up to Mars launch, the time on Mars and the return from Mars. During each, Mariella is pit against the way in which things should be done, a fact that becomes increasingly evident as each section progresses. At first this doesn't seem obviously the work of McAuley, giving a more straight-ahead approach, with its scientists and politicians. There are more impressions of Greg Bear or Bruce Sterling coming across - with a quote from Bear on the cover and references to the first born crisis that is comparable to herod's disease in Darwin's Radio, or the environmental impact and political jockeying that reminds of Distraction/Heavy Weather. The nature of Mariella is that she is against this background but has some counter-culture leanings, which tends more towards Sterling than Bear, and less McAuley with the likes of Fairyland as an example. However as the book progresses there is more to tie this back to the McAuley paradigm, Mariella going into the underground and using her counter culture links disappears into the "invisible country" (references to a short story and short story collection by McAuley) described as the real America. In particular the recurring character Darlajane B pops up long enough to get a laugh from me and to reinforce the links back to Fairyland and the likes. To me this seems to be detached from that kind of work, though it is interesting to know that the events of this books are not exclusive, especially when the first American trip to mars actually took place as a back drop in Fairyland.
The Secret Of Life is for the most part enjoyable, tying in nicely with the likes of Fairyland, Invisible Country and the return to Mars following Red Dust. Though as much as I enjoy his work this has some of the weaknesses that I have come across in the past, so that parts do not entirely convince. Certain long dialogues from the lead character come across as being too preachy, so that while the idea of corporate interference in science and society as a whole comes across as a nice sub-text it is overplayed in some of these sections. In turn the ending and the decisions that it reflects do not sit entirely well and I'm not sure that they really reflect the choices of the character.
RVWR: PTR
September 2001
