Ares Express
Ian McDonald
Spectra Books
Reviewed by: Terry
4 out of 5 stars
Wow! There’s really something special about Ian McDonald’s
Mars books. McDonald’s Mars is a place I love to visit in all of its crazy, off
the wall, illogical glory. I’ve rarely seen the numinous, and irrational,
nature of magic so well displayed in fantasy books, let alone in a sci-fi one
(the exception would have to be Sean Stewart who is also expert at such
depictions, though in a very different vein). Despite the strangeness of
McDonald’s Mars (which as I noted in my review to _Desolation Road_ smacks heavily
of magic realism) I’ve rarely seen such a consistently envisioned and joyfully
painted world. This book was a hell of a lot of fun and it even taught me a few
things: 1) Hell hath no fury like a failed art student; 2) If something is
going to run your life it might as well be the Rules of Narrative, they just
might save your life; 3) Feisty and Resourceful (But Cute With It) Heroines can
kick some serious ass; 4) If you’re going to do it at all, do it widescreen;
and 5) never underestimate the power and resourcefulness of grandmothers. But I
think I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here.
_Ares Express_ is a sequel of sorts to McDonald’s
aforementioned foray into a wild and wonderful terraformed Mars. In this outing
we are introduced to the life and times of one of the great tribal-trains that
travel across the Martian frontier as we jump on board the Catherine
of Tharsis and meet our feisty and resourceful (but cute with it)
heroine Sweetness Octave Glorious Honey-Bun Asiim Engineer 12th. As
a member of the leading clique in the multi-family domiety of this rolling city
all she dreams about is driving the train that her family has run for 11
generations. There’s only one small problem, she’s a girl…and everyone knows
that girls don’t drive. Luckily for Sweetness the universe, and more specifically the Powers of
Narrative, have something more in store for her and after she crosses paths
with a certain Green Man nothing will ever be the same.
There are a few things you may need to know. First off, this
ain’t Mars like you’ve ever seen it before (well, expect for the previous
volume of course) as the past and the future collide in strange and wonderful
ways. This Mars is circled by a glittering moonring composed of godlike AIs who
manformed the world in the first place and are now worshipped as the angelic
hierarchies of God the Panarchic and his sometimes almost-human saints. The
planet is criss-crossed by the great rail lines of the Bethlehem Ares railroad
and its multitude of behemoth engines, while its skies are dotted with great
floating airships. Each city, village, and town is more strange than the last,
whether it’s the interconnected megalithic city-states of the originally
settled Grand Valley that lie under the glittering diamond Worldroof, or the
tiny lotus-eating hamlet of Solid Gone under its literal cloud of deadening
apathy. And the kids! When they’re not dreaming of manning the orbital defense
stations or becoming reality shaping cineastes they’re listening to that outlandish
music put on by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra. I guess if you’re going to
terraform your world with quantum computers that scrutinize the expanse of the
multiverse in search of the best of all possible worlds as part of their planetary engineering you shouldn’t be surprised if things start shading into
magical realism. In short if there’s one thing McDonald seems to know it’s a
sensawunda and he builds it into the very fabric of this world and then turns
it up to eleven. It struck me at one point that his Mars books are kind of like
a Terry Gilliam movie (though better written): they’ve got that zany, manic
surface of ‘anything-is-possible’ and off the wall characters with an
underlying core of emotion.
Secondly Story (with a capital S) and its relation to human
lives is integral to this, um, story. There’s a very self-conscious artifice to
this "story as Story" aspect that McDonald revels in and in order to get the most out
of it you’re going to have to buckle in for the ride and not worry too much about
the rules of probability. For the duration of the narrative the main character
*is* a story and McDonald examines not only the way this impacts her life, but
also how we need and use stories to give our lives meaning (and shape)...even if it is
someone else’s story. Ultimately we are all ‘trapped’ by our lives to some
degree, that formless shifting thing that is shaped by both our decisions and apparent
blind luck (or lack thereof), and which only seems to gain a shape when we look
back on it (and force it to adhere to one). One begins to wonder if the lucky
ones are those whose lives truly do form stories in the strictest sense of the
word, or whether it’s a mixed blessing at best.
Finally, be aware that it’s a wild ride. Once the Powers of
Narrative take control of your life and invest it with Purpose you’d better be
prepared for an adventure. In this regard I was once again impressed with
McDonald’s truly cinematic style, a style that, while full of gosh-wow moments
and hair-raising exploits straight out of an action movie piled one on top of
the other, he still manages to couple with meaningful substance and interesting
characters. Throughout the tale of Sweetness Octave Glorious Honey-Bun Asiim
Engineer 12th McDonald likes to both meet and invert our
expectations of the Hero. First of all she is female, not generally the norm
for stories in this genre (at least back in the day), and secondly despite
being ‘the hero’ she is not always invested with full agency, being driven
hither and yon by the dictates of narrative. The latter might sound like a bad
thing, but as I mentioned above if you buckle yourself in you should enjoy the
ride and Sweetness is certainly resourceful and spunky (but cute with it) enough to win us over.
An interesting side element to her story is the fact that while she certainly
attracts her fair share of members of the opposite sex (and is in no doubt as
to her own attractiveness) she is never an irresistible lure to any of them.
One after the other each of her plethora of prospective mates turns out not to
be ‘the one’, though they all serve necessary functions in her story. They
are ultimately very much an adjunct to Sweetness’ heroism, though still required for its fruition. They are the helpers who aid in, or
dudes-in-distress that define, her heroism. It was an interesting inversion of
some of my expectations.
I haven’t even talked about the main story arc, despite its
obvious centrality to a story about Story, but suffice it to say that it
involves disappointed ambition, thwarted desire, the destabilization of
governments and, ultimately, a threat to the very fabric of reality. The
villain is top-notch (how can you not be with a
name like Devastation Harx?), if a bit behind the scenes, and the many surprises, twists and turns that
comprise the plot are fully satisfying. Things move from the personal and
particular to the general and universal and then back again as Sweetness’ personal
rebellion sends shockwaves into the wider world and those in turn circle back
to affect her closest family and friends. All in all it’s a lot of fun and
certainly has cemented Ian McDonald as one to watch for me. I have to admit
though, in looking at his wider catalogue, that it seems he veered away from
this kind of balls-to-the-wall fun and went in for much more issue-oriented
sci-fi in many of his other works. Not a bad thing, but I’m curious if I’ll
like these supposedly ‘serious’ books half so much as I did these two grand
adventures in a Mars that can never be.
Also posted at Goodreads
