Monday, July 12, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: We are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker

 




We are Satellites is the latest novel by award winning SF/F author Sarah Pinsker, who won the Nebula Award last year for her timely novel "A Song for a New Day," (my review is here) which dealt with a world driven online and virtual due to a plague and the struggle to come back with live music.  Like that book, We are Satellites is an extrapolation of ideas and characters previously created by Pinsker in some of her prior short stories, consolidated and built out into a full length, if short, novel.  It's another exploration of technology and life in a very possible near future, exploring the impact of technology on people's lives, and families, and more.  

And it's a really interesting one, featuring a family - two moms, a son and a daughter - grappling with the impact of technology that can't be used by all of them, which promises to give those who have it a leg up.  It deals with the impact of technology on society, on the difficulty faced by those with disabilities due to futures thought up by those who don't think about them, and on the difficulties faced by a loving family with different abilities in such a world.  As with Pinsker's other work, it's a really interesting exploration of issues, with some really strong characters, but the plot wraps things up a little too easily for the issues it presents.  

--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------------
Val and Julie have a tough, but fulfilling and loving life together.  Their teenage son David is doing okay in school and their adopted daughter Sophie may suffer from seizure disorder, and they may not have all the money they might want, but life is good with Val as a gym teacher and Julie as a congressman's aide.  

Then came the introduction of the Pilot, a device implanted into one's brain - with a light shining from one's forehead - which helps people multitask and pay attention to multiple things at once far better than they normally can.  Val thinks they're a fad at first, but soon every kid at school has one, David wants one to keep up and Julie kind of wants one to see how it's like and to keep up at her job.  But Sophie's seizure disorder means she can never get one and will always be held back as a result.  

It's a bit of technology that changes all their lives, and sends them in very different directions as they each try to adapt and grow.  Soon the family that loved each other finds themselves hiding things in fear of disappointment, and in danger of falling apart as the world is transformed around them and some are seeming to be left behind.....
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We are Satellites uses its four main characters - Val, Julie, David, and Sophie, to explore some really interesting themes and issues, revolving around, as I said before, advancements in technology which can't quite be used by everyone to the same level, or even at all, to the point where the technology may help some, but leaves many many others in the dust.  The story is split into three acts, with a time skip between each, such that the story starts revolving near entirely around Val and Julie, only to focus more on the kids David and Sophie as the two age into young adults.  

And this works really well because Pinsker infuses the characters with such life, so that you never really feel like any of the characters are just plot devices for the themes, but rather are really relatable people.  

So you have Val, the woman who sees a technology she doesn't quite want, that is probably out of her price range to start, and that one of her children can't possibly get, and has to figure out how to handle a world where that technology becomes seemingly ubiquitous, especially as that technology leads her children and wife into places she is desperately afraid of.  

You have Julie, the woman who can't help but be interested in the new technology, and who will absolutely need it for keeping her job, but who can't help use it and other technology to try and spy on those she loves to ensure they stay safe, even if it means really betraying their trust.  

Most interestingly, you have David and Sophie.  For David, he wants the technology because all the other kids have it, but once he gets it, it has side effects for him that he can't quite possibly explain, because no one else seems to feel the same way.  And so he feels like there's something wrong with him, a feeling that leads him to join the military in hopes that they can help him....which they can't.  And when he comes back from the military, he finds himself lost once more as an adult, desperate for help, even if that help comes from dangerous places. 

For Sophie, as a girl with a seizure disorder that is manageable if people know how to react to it, she has no choice but to not get the technology.  And so, she finds herself in classes with only people without Pilots, with those thought of as left behind - the disabled, the religiously inclined (after all body modification is against many faiths), those who simply don't want it, etc.  And so she finds herself joining and leading a protest movement, a movement that the rich and powerful corporation behind the technology isn't quite happy about, and a protest group that puts her at odds with one of her mothers, who has the technology she dislikes so much.  

There's a lot here to unpack, and the four main characters make it work so well.  So again you have issues like the disabled being held behind by technology that doesn't accommodate them.  You have the military using the technology which it subsidizes to prey on kids who don't know what they're doing and are a bit lost.  You have jobs discriminating against people quietly who don't have the technology, putting those people even further behind, and you have a government thinking the solution is merely to subsidize more people to get the technology rather than to try to help those who can't.  And of course you have a corporation behind the technology dedicated to doing anything to try and cover up any limitations in the technology, and interested in taking advantage of its reach to ensure its good reputation, privacy laws bedamned.  

Really that's the book's greatest weakness is the insistence on wrapping it all up with a bow by having the corporation go full bad guy, and the technology turn out to have significantly more problems than advertised.  And while that certainly fits Pinsker's themes of corporate greed, it also weakens the themes of the issues involved with technology only available for some by presenting the story with some solid answers that there really aren't?  The other issue is that Val sort of disappears after the first two acts, despite her arc never really going anywhere, which feels kind of weird.  

Still, We Are Satellites is a really interesting examination of some fascinating themes with some really strong characters to take us along the way, and is very very worth your time.  Recommended.  
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