Haze, by Katharine Kerr (ARC Manor)
Katharine Kerr is one of the most versatile writers of
speculative fiction. Although many readers know her best for her long-running “Deverry”
fantasy series, she also writes superb urban fantasy and hard science fiction,
with such works as Polar City Blues and Freeze Frames. Now she
returns to a far future when interstellar civilization depends on travel
through hyperspace stargate shunts. Kerr’s universe is richly detailed,
enormous in scope of space and history, replete with ancient grudges between
sapient races, current politics, and plots-within-plots. And a mystery: the shunts
are supposed to be permanent, anchored at each end to nearby planets, but
something—or some ONE—has accomplished the impossible and destroyed a shunt. Which
vital route will be the next target?
We are drawn into the story through Dan, an immensely
talented starship pilot capable of linking with a ship’s AI to navigate the
shunts. Like other pilots, he uses the drug Haze to blunt his craving for the
transcendent experience of hyperspace when he’s not working. But Haze is highly
addictive, and Dan’s use of it has gotten him cashiered out of Fleet, destitute,
and turning tricks on Nowhere Street on a backwater planet to feed his habit.
When Fleet offers him a way back to his old job, under the care of his former
lover, Devit, and enough Haze to keep him functional, Dan doesn’t have a
choice. There’s a reason he’s refused treatment for Haze addiction, a secret he
guards with his life. Disguised as merchant traders, he and his new crew begin
investigating the disappearance of the shunt. And that’s when things start to
go seriously wrong.
Kerr’s use of Dan as an initial viewpoint character who introduces
us to this world is brilliant. He’s at turns fallible, aggravating, and heart-breakingly
attractive. The offspring of a noted film beauty, he’s been genetically
modified to be sexually irresistible to both men and women, and to
unconsciously respond to their advances. Devit has been the only person in his
life to care about him as a person, but at a terrible cost. In this society,
both bisexuality and polyamory are widely accepted, but relationships like
theirs are fraught with challenges. Anyone who’s ever loved a person with
substance abuse issues knows how painful and impossibly difficult it can be. As
Devit grows closer to legendary cyberjock Jorja, their problems and the choices
both must face become more urgent.
As the mystery unfolds, with a nuanced pacing of plot
reversals and surprises, layers of both human and alien cultures emerge. One of
the more fascinating of these is the relationship—sometimes symbiotic, often sullenly
adversarial—between human pilots or cyberjocks and the AIs that run ships,
stations, archives, and more. Scholars find themselves at cross-purposes with
the military that is supposed to protect them. Old feuds between species simmer
just below the surface. The revelation at the end is highly satisfactory, meticulously
plotted, and a fresh surprise.
It's hard to list the strengths of this remarkable novel
because there are so many. They include exceptional world-building, social
systems and relationships, hardware and AIs, and most of all, the characters.
People find themselves trapped with no healthy way forward, like Dan and Devit.
They try new strategies and alliances, not always successful. As they confront
new situations or old ones come back to haunt them, they struggle to move
beyond the past. Wounded, recovering, and scarred, their lives can never be the
same. In other words, Kerr’s fully rounded characters change and grow in ways
that drive the story forward.
Award-worthy and highly recommended for lovers of space
science fiction.
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