October 06, 2004
Earth Made of Glass by John Barnes
It is surprising to find an author in the late 90s writing a story that intellectually is the successor to the old 'humanistic' science-fiction authors. This is a tale of social engineering, at a scale more modest than the Psycho-Historians in Asimov's Foundation, but more carefully realized.
After centuries of slower-than-light travel humanity has colonized several worlds, each one effectively developing independent of each other and the homeworld. This isolation suddenly evaporates as a new technology arrives (called a `springer') which lets individuals instantaneously transport from one world to another. This brings together the Thousand Cultures, testing each culture's xenophobia.
This book follows two bureaucrats (who are also spies) married to each other on their assignment to the recently settled world of Briand. Briand was settled by two groups of people, each of which are living out some historical fantasy of the extremely rich. One colony is made up of Mayans living in a culture imagined as being in their Classic Age before the arrival of the Spanish at their shores. The other colony is dedicated to reviving the ancient culture of Tamil Nadu (in South India) responsible for the classical texts of Cankam (Sangam) poetry (the poetry is generally dated to 100-500 AD).
This odd juxtaposition and clash of two cultures like the Mayans and the Sangam-era Tamils is just strange. They are cultures that are neither similar nor opposites and the depiction of their conflict is perhaps the best reason to read this book. Each colony has access to modern technology but they are both dedicated to the purpose of reviving their respective ancient culture. The arrival of the springer has thrown these two colonies into hostile conflict as they attempt to share the meagre resources on their planet. The bureaucrats are sent into this situation to find a peaceful solution.
As the plot develops you realize that as many of the events unfold, it is not clear which of them occur naturally and which are engineered by the people that govern. The most chilling effect of this book is perhaps how easily societies might be manipulated. However, the pacing of the book is extremely meditative and might turn off most sf readers. The length could have been cut at least by a third to form a more effective book, but as it stands this book will be interesting to readers who seek out carefully constructed fictional worlds.
A common method of understanding the relationship between countries is to compare it with the relationships between people. John Barnes tries to juxtapose the troubled marriage of the two bureaucrats to the hostility between the two colonies. However, this thread did not impress me as much as the world-building and the other subplots in this book.
This book is a sequel of sorts to an earlier book by Barnes set in the same fictional universe: "A Million Open Doors". At the time I read this book, I hadn't read the earlier book but it did not seem a pre-requisite at all.
%T Earth Made Of Glass %A John Barnes %I Tor %D 1998 %G ISBN: 0812551613 (pb) %P 416 %K science-fiction
Review written: 2000/03/15
Posted by anoop at October 6, 2004 04:28 PM