Looking Glass is not the kind of fiction that generally drives discussions around this blog. It is a violent, introspective, dystopic, and darkly humorous look at a rough future through the eyes of a distinctly maladjusted anti-heroine, Dr. Catherine Farro.

Phil and I had a great FastForward Radio interview with Tobias when he published his last novel Crystal Rain. That was a very fun and informative show.

So I’m obviously looking forward to reading Ragamuffin. I’ll post a review as soon as possible. Also I hope we can get Tobias back for another episode of FastForward Radio.

UPDATE:

Tobias is very cool about posting the first 1/3 of his novels online. Here’s the beginning of Ragamuffin.

I (four…) suspected that I would be disappointed, one way or another, with what this book would have to say about those long-delayed dream gadgets of my childhood. But any book that cribs its title from the Speculist’s “Seven Questions About the Future”

I (four…) suspected that I would be disappointed, one way or another, with what this book would have to say about those long-delayed dream gadgets of my childhood. But any book that cribs its title from the Speculist’s “Seven Questions About the Future”

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The cover-art is reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs pulp sci-fi, and there is a Burroughs flavor to the book: a lost civilization cut off from the larger galaxy, a larger-than-life hero (or two). But I was reminded also of Vernor Vinge’s fiction – particularly his novel Peace War.

Crystal Rain is set on the far away world of Nanagada. Because of its tropical climate it was settled mostly by people from our Caribbean. But that was long ago. All that remains is legend – how the ancients crawled through a wormhole to come to this world.

The central continent of Nanagada is divided by a huge mountain range called “The Wicked High” mountains. South the mountains are the dreaded Azteca who are allied with alien “gods,” the Teotl.

North of the Wicked Highs lives the fisherman John deBrun and his Caribbean neighbors. John is haunted by a past he can’t remember. He has traveled to the northern Capital City and has even sailed the frozen north ocean in search for answers. But he is now living a quieter life, while his wife begins to wonder how he stays so young…

The cannibalistic Azteca don’t stay on their side of the Wicked Highs, and their peaceful neighbors to the north appear ill equipped to defend the invasion. The northern Mongoose Men and the smaller Ragamuffin band will certainly be overpowered without a miracle.

Can John deBrun’s mysterious past provide salvation?

Finding out is a lot of fun. The SciFi Channel was equally impressed.

Read the first third of the book here.

And then order a copy, or look for it in your local store.

Yesterday I received an advanced copy and I’m impressed. Had I not just put in a long day I would have read through the night. It’s a fun novel.

I’ll get a full review up this weekend.

UPDATE FROM TOBIAS: “By the way, your readers might be interested in reading samples of the novel free over at www.crystal-rain.com (just click on ‘excerpt.’)

Tor has given me permission to post the first 1/3 of the novel up free as a teaser. I’ve been putting up a chapter every day or so, and I’m about ready to put up chapter 5.”

Not that I agree with all of Garreau’s thoughts here. After outlining the possible technologies that the future may bring (what he calls the GRIN technologies – genetics, robotics, information, and nano-tech), he divides his book into several sections: Heaven, Hell, and Prevail. His idea is that there are some people – Ray Kurzweil being the most prominent – that see nothing but “Heaven” ahead. Others, like Leon Kass, see every new development as a harbinger of coming dystopia – the “Hell” scenario.

Then Garreau outlines a scenario that he obviously leans toward – “Prevail.” In the Prevail scenario we will advance with the same “two-steps-forward, one-step-back” rhythm that we’ve always experienced. New technologies will bring new problems that will be solved, as we’re able.

Heaven, Hell, and Prevail make for nice clean divisions in a book, but I don’t think that Kurzweil (or we Speculists) can be so easily pigeonholed as utopians. Even Leon Kass might be less of a dystopian in reality than he is portrayed here. Instead, almost all people who consider the future would accept some form of Garreau’s idea of Prevail. Prevail is really a sliding scale with Heaven at one extreme and Hell at the other.

No doubt The Speculist falls on the optimistic half of that spectrum. We believe that our accelerating development will provide more solutions than problems. We’re Billy Joel futurists:

‘Cause the good ole days weren’t
Always good
And tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems

But that isn’t “Heaven.”

Enough nitpicking…Radical Evolution is a gold mine of information about coming technology. I especially enjoyed the section on DARPA. Just a quick example: Garreau mentions DARPA’s “Unconventional Pathogen Countermeasures” program. The goal of this project is to create super-soldiers that are resistant to all disease.

The object of the game is to discover the essential part of life common to many of these pathogens…and interrupt them. An example would be finding an enzyme that appears only in bacteria, but not in us… Another [method of attacking disease in general] is “genomic glue” – something that sticks onto the genome of the pathogen so tightly that it prevents the genome from being read…

How far along is DARPA in the development of this kind of wonder drug? The interview subject wouldn’t say, but there is this tantalizing clue:

The nice part, so far, is that the bugs have not been able to develop resistance to the treatment no matter how hard the researchers have tried to induce it.

Radical Evolution is thick with this sort of reporting. This one is not to be missed. Look for it May 17, 2005.