Friday, October 15, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis

 




Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on October 19, 2021 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Truth of the Divine is the sequel to Lindsay Ellis' "Axiom's End", and now the second part of what is now known as the "Noumena" trilogy.*  I liked Axiom's End (my review here), although it's not what fans of Ellis' youtube channel would really expect - the book was not a humorous takedown of tropes and ideas, but a serious first contact story dealing with an alternate 2007-2008 dealing with human reactions to aliens who have their own issues of superiority, caste, and morals that clash with human ones, all filtered through the perspective of a young good meaning woman sort of lost in the world due to the actions of her asshole father (who is basically an ersatz Julian Assange/Glenn Greenwald hybrid).  That said, the book ended incredibly abruptly, and featured a political situation that did not really make any sense to me and was a bit jarring, so I wasn't sure what to expect from book 2.  

*Ellis didn't sell books 2-3 of the trilogy iirc until after book 1 came out, so my review of book 1 treated it as a stand alone, as it largely was, even though it ended off on a weird stopping point with a lot of open threads*

Truth of the Divine is a more ambitious novel than its predecessor (and that's not calling Axiom's End unambitious), with its contents expanding to a second viewpoint character, plots with both the aliens and humans dealing with the question of personhood, and a secondary plot dealing with relationships, trust, and depression and suicide when those relationships break down...sort of.  The result however is a bit more of a mixed bag.  When it comes to the themes of personhood, Truth of the Divine is strong, with a strong exploration of the theme once you get over some political issues once again.  When it comes to its issues of relationships, of the major character's depression and relationships....I don't think it quite so much works, due to how it handles a relationship that's basically abusive in my opinion.  The story ends on a more satisfying cliffhanger than book 1, so I'll probably be back, but it still isn't quite as much a winner as I was hoping for.  

TRIGGER WARNING:  Suicide, On-Page Suicide Attempt of a Major Character, Depression and PTSD.  These are major plot elements not shied away from which weren't present in book 1, so be wary if those are triggering to you.  
-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
Humanity is no longer alone - a fact that is no longer hidden by a few government officials, and has caused the downfall of the last American Government.  For humanity, this has resulted in a new political debate, centering in America, as to what to consider these aliens - are they persons?  Are they dangerous?  Are they entitled to the same rights as humans in our society?  The question will give rise to dangerous provocateurs, both inside the political sphere and without, who will stop at nothing to ensure such aliens (and perhaps others) are not considered the same as humans.  

For Cora Sabino, this question is hardly one on her mind - instead what's on her mind is the empathic connection between her and the alien Ampersand, who bonded with her as part of saving her from other aliens months ago - a bond that she has kept secret from the military and CIA for whom she acts as an alien interpreter.  But the bond goes both ways, and emotions flow back and forth between herself and Ampersand, and are causing her to not know what she really feels and thinks, other than that she wants there to be some greater connection between herself and Ampersand than would seemingly be possible cross species.  

But Cora's desires and emotions are only thrown for more of a loop when things begin to happen suddenly around her once again: first, a new alien bonded to Ampersand arrives on the planet, seeking to die alongside Ampersand; second a human journalist named Kaveh stumbles upon her and the new alien, and forms his own relationship with them all, one that makes it clear that the personhood fight is of key importance for the future.  

And finally, it soon becomes clear that Ampersand is still covering up secrets and is lying to her and is unwilling to let those secrets go even though it hurts them both......
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Okay so I'm going to get one thing out of the way first - Truth of the Divine's political premise still seems far fetched, and might be an issue for some suspending their disbelief.  Last book dealt with the idea that covering up first contact would be a big enough issue in 2007 (on the verge of a financial economic recession) for George W to resign, which well...yeah no.  This book deals with a political movement rising up to fight against alien personhood as a big major issue that takes center stage in American society, despite 99.99999% of humans never being likely to interact with such aliens, which again seems far fetched and unlikely given the other issues people have (for example, exposes about government spying by the same types of people who do the exposes about aliens here didn't exactly raise political firestorms that lasted long).  Even more incredulous, the anti-personhood movement, which basically mirrors modern right wing movements, supposedly comes from third party-esque movement taking from both parties, even though it again just seems to mirror trumpist nativist policies and well - third parties aren't a thing in the US for a reason, and this would make more sense as a renewed stronger right wing party taking over the GOP party, which is mainly how it plays out in the book.  Just needed to get that out of the way first.  

If you're able to accept its premise, the major themes of personhood in Truth of the Divine work really well, and are especially important in today's world (although to be honest, haven't we been having this same debate since ET?), as exemplified by the political actors (who inspire right wing mobs) and by our main characters: Cora and Kaveh and by the aliens themselves, who have their own version of the same struggle.  For Cora, there's no question that Ampersand and the aliens are persons just the same as humanity - after all, she knows Ampersand to a certain extent, and has come to love him....even if she's not wholly sure how much of that is her own feeling and how much of that is the result of dynamic fusion bonding.  For Kaveh, the aliens themselves at first don't really matter - although he does get to pretty closely know one such alien, Nikola/Enola, on his own - but the idea that some sentient beings could be considered lesser than persons is a dangerous one for him - after all his family may be rich and doing well now, but they were political refugees from Iran and as muslims are well aware of how persecution can go, and how the concept can expand from aliens to humans.  

And then there's Ampersand, and the other aliens' approach to humans.  For Ampersand and his people, they did not believe humanity when they got the planet was on their level, and it soon becomes revealed that Ampersand is still struggling with the idea that humanity might in fact be a person on the same level as his species....and might be capable of the fusion bonding that he and Cora now share.  And he still (and more on this in a bit) does value his own species a bit more, even as he values Cora, recklessly going after another alien who absolutely does not deserve his consideration, but who he cannot convince himself to abandon.  For Nikola/Enola, a new alien, he also comes to adapt to the idea that humanity is worth their version of personhood...but for him that distinction simply means it is doomed to extinction at the hands of his own species, something that only makes him want to further hasten his own demise so he won't see the atrocity happen.  It's a strong contrast between the two perspectives that makes this personhood theme resonate tremendously, as it becomes a debate about the value of beings, one which is exemplified in the story's strong ending - in which two contrasting views are given, one of which might surprise you in a vacuum, but will make total sense in context.  

Working less well are the relationships and character beats that play such a prominent role in this book.  Just to get this out of the way, that's not new protagonist Kaveh's fault - he's a really well done character as a potential love interest and protagonist who knows he has his own faults, admits his own mistakes that he's trying to do better on, and tries to help Cora when she is basically at the absolute bottom.  His relationship with Cora, as he tries to help her do better is really well done and works.  

But then there's Cora's progression here and her relationship with Ampersand, which is where a lot of the above trigger warnings come in.  Cora suffers from PTSD as a result of Obelus' assault on her last book, as well as emotional trauma that Ampersand is herself unintentionally sending her way through their bond.  And that trauma is only exacerbated by Ampersand's behavior in this book, which honestly becomes downright abusive - Ampersand hunts to get back together with the one who harmed her (and does so at first in secret), doesn't tell the truth about his activities, or about his actions, and when forced to choose between Cora and that other, he doesn't ever choose Cora...even as he tries to act as her protector in other instances.  And Cora can't ever fully leave him due to their bond....which Ampersand insists can only be ended by one of their deaths.  Ampersand isn't intentionally trying to abuse Cora, but that is essentially what he's doing, and it leaves Cora in a state where she doesn't care about anything, where nothing seems to matter, and of course since all this involves alien secrets, there is basically no one who can give her help (Kaveh tries, but he's not a psychologist, and Cora can't even tell him everything).  And of course this isn't helped by Nikola trying to get Ampersand to commit a mutual suicide, or the idea that the alien superorganism might come and kill all of humanity in just a decade or so....or by humans trying to kill or discriminate against the aliens*.  

*Cora's father, who is a Glenn Greenwald/Julian Assange pastiche, becomes even more so here, as the asshole attempts to use Cora to further what are basically right wing racist ends.  Good times*  

The book does a great job showing the impact of this relationship on Cora's psyche....except it winds up ending with Cora and Ampersand back together, and these problems never dealt with whatsoever, without Ampersand ever taking responsibility for his actions.  It's entirely possible that book 3 will deal with this, as I'm not saying that the book has Cora make any sort of full recovery by the end - it just abrogates the need to deal with resolving these issues altogether in favor of ending on the personhood issues.  Like yes these things are related but well...you still need to deal with them separately as well, and this book doesn't really do that at all in the last act, after doing so in the middle acts.  Which prevents this from really working.

I'll be back for the final book I think, because the series remains interesting and I do hope Ellis will find a way to resolve this issue.  But it's an issue that does prevent this book from being a clear recommend, even if you're okay with the triggering factors.  

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