Mappa Mundi - It's the Essence of Hype
Amazon says:
Banes & Noble thinks:
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Author: Justine Robson
Title: Mappa Mundi Genre: thriller Deep in the midst of a music review I was half listening to on the radio, the creative hemisphere of my brain snatched out the phrase "Flynn can barely carry a tune," followed almost immediately by the reviewer's judgment that singing ability is not necessary if the artist can write lyrics that make a listener sad. My reponse? Horse manure: that's the definition of a poet, not a musician. Regrettably, though, the idea that proficiency in a single aspect of the craft makes one an artist has somehow permeated our culture, reaching all the way from tone-deaf musicians to designated hitters. For me, the most recent evidence comes in the form of a book that's been lauded as ground-breaking, written by an exciting new talent, and a host of other superlatives. The book in question? Justina Robson's Mappa Mundi. The hype? Overblown - to say the least. But here - let me show you. Natalie Armstrong, PhD, MD, has it all: brains and beauty cohabit the same saucy redheaded wench. One of the first and still one of the best NervePath programmers in the world, Natalie toils for a low-key British clinic working to implement the Mappa Mundi project; a project intended to create nanotechnological control of the human brain for the first time (I think). Enter Jude Westhorpe from the USA. The hunky FBI agent, on a busman's holiday of sorts, is desperate to contact Natalie because of her NervePath expertise (I think). Seems that an unknown agency has tested a crude nanotechnological mind altering agent on the Northern Cheyenne reservation where his half sister lives. He comes bearing a sample of the triggering code (I think) that that half-sister stole, plus a cryptic file folder filled with information about a whole slew of men, including the fabulously wealthy Mikhail Guskov who funds and directs (I think) Natalie's research. Where Jude got the file folder is a complete mystery to him: it just appeared... The first test of MappaWare - or maybe it's SelfWare, the difference is unclear - the Clinic runs on a human being goes horribly wrong when patient X's dose of coded nanytes is sabotaged, causing him to involuntarily exit the global human consciousness (I think). Natalie gets a dose of the same nanytes, but the process is halted just before she... what, disappears, too? Goes over the edge? What ensues in the aftermath of this revelation is a race between Gushkov's research team and a shadowy foe that seems to be run by some three-letter agency in the US government, perhaps in the Pentagon? maybe the NSC? Jude's torn between his attraction to the elven-visaged Natalie and his leggy copper-curled teammate Mary, who happens to be a double? maybe triple? agent working for or maybe it's against Gushkov's team. Lots of people get killed in messy ways, though by whom and for what reason remains unclear not only to Jude and Natalie, but to the reader as well. At page 381, Natalie gives Jude a note detailing what it's all about. Damned shame she didn't give it to him 300 pages earlier. When finally the inevitable showdown between the forces of... good (I think) and evil (I think) occurs; someone gets dead, someone disappears, deus ex machina arrives in a golden chariot to tie up all the loose ends, and we're done. Thank heavens that's over. You have no idea how hard that was to finish. Writing successful futuristic fiction requires of the author a clear vision of a feasible future. On that basis, Robson's effort works. Mappa Mundi is set about a decade down the timeline from when we sit today, and Robson has created a rather mundane extrapolation of some current trends. The first is microminiaturization and the creation of nanotechnology (what Wesley Crusher plays with in a few ST:TNG episodes); the second is advances in medical technology. The combination is a fascinating, though not particularly inventive, concept. The idea of coding specialized nanytes with "selfware" to alter certain parts of the human psyche is a little fresher. The specialized and genetically-targeted "Deliverance" system for dispersing the MicroMedica/selfware/whatever through a population is a good one. Give Robson points for inventiveness. Sadly, however, the author who chooses to write futuristic fiction must also construct a work that cleaves to the basics of fiction. The reader needs a plot that keeps him or her interested and characters in which s/he becomes personally invested. Without attention to those core aspects, futuristic fiction cannot rise above the level of a newspaper horoscope. A scifi author who cannot create a plot and characters to go along with a fresh concept is not unlike a "musician" who writes good lyrics but can't carry a tune. This is where Justina Robson's work falls short - far short. Robson begins Mappa Mundi by introducing her main characters in five "legends," tales of their past, and a sixth vignette of current events. While the "legends" are apparently intended to create back-stories for her characters, they fail miserably to do so. All they do is create talismans that will appear later in the story - a scar on Jude's neck, a crystal model of a space shuttle. Robson then shifts into high gear with her plot, pouring out page after page of pseudo-scientific and semi-philosophical babble. What she does not do, however, is create a "mappa" of her plot. After 450 pages or so, it becomes apparent that there's a struggle between good and evil, however Robson's cavalier depiction of the chief of the good guys as a Russian Mafioso in about his sixth identity tends to blur the distinction. The opposition - the "bad guys" - seems to be made up of a cabal of US intelligence and defense agencies; though the British Ministry of Defence may be in on it. That remains unclear. Robson's characters tend to do things for completely unknown reasons; motivation and mindset being something that apparently is deemed unimportant to the reader. Oddly, all the characters seem to think they're on the side of good - a rather pedestrian plot twist, if you ask me. Worst of all, however, is that Robson fails to lay the groundwork for the technological aspects of her plot. In lieu of expository text; in lieu of even the barest of hints about the purpose of this mythical MappaWare (or maybe it's SelfWare - after 520 pages, I still can't make the distinction). It isn't until that note from Natalie to Jude on page 381 that the philosophical, psychological and programmatical bases of the project - indeed of Mappa Mundi itself - are revealed. That's far, far, far too late. If you've decided to read this book anyway - and that's certainly your right - take this bit of advice: read the note somewhere around pages 381-383 (it's set in a different font, so should be easy to recognize) before you embark. Knowing that information when you start just might bring the novel up to the level of the hype it received when first published. Otherwise, forget it... Note: Robson could have benefited from a read-through by a native speaker of English raised in the USA. Americans don't "go down to the local to watch some cable sport," and there's no such thing as a "Montana Senatorial Office." There are several other jarring malapropisms that trip lightly from tongues of her American characters, at about the same level of linguistic faux pas as having one of her British characters slip an item into a fanny pack. all content copyright © 2001-present by scmrak
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