Saturn Returns is the first book of the Astropolis series by award-winning Australian writer Sean Williams, perhaps best known for the Books of Cataclysm and Star Wars : The New Jedi Order - Force Heretic series (the latter written with long-time writing partner Shane Dix). Williams’ new book is an intriguing mix of balls-out Space Opera and head-spinning conspiracies that take in not only the end of civilisation but also the nature of the self.
Imre Bergamasc was once the leader of the Corps, a small mercenary group engaged in fighting an attempt by a super-intelligent group of post-humans to take over the running of the galaxy. Then he changed his mind. Then he died. Then he came back as a woman to find all of his friends hating his guts and galactic civilisation as he knew it lying in tatters. A “Saturn Return” is actually an astrological term indicating one of the three points in your life when Saturn completes its 30-odd year orbit of the Sun and comes to impact upon your life. Astrologers consider these “Saturn Returns” as moments where we progress to adulthood and then to old age, completely re-inventing ourselves in the process. Aside from giving this book a great SF title, the concept of the Saturn Return also defines the essence of the book as a reborn Imre Bergamasc not only comes to realise that he is no longer the person he once was, but he might not even be the same person as the other Imre Bergamascs who might be floating around the Galaxy. Indeed, rather than trying to rebuild his old life, Imre decides to reform the Corps and return to Earth in order to rebuild civilisation from scratch.
As I was reading this book, I was struck by how much it resembled two other books, namely Iain M. Banks’ 1993 Against a Dark Background and Roger Zelazny’s 1970 Nine Princes in Amber.
Much like Against a Dark Background, Saturn Returns is a work of action-packed SF that has a good deal of wry wit and a desire to innovate. At 280 pages, the book is short and to the point. While its mystery/self-discovery elements can lead to the pace slowing, it is generally not long before Bergamasc is called upon to lead his gang into battle or use his tactical nous to solve a problem. The action sequences are exciting to read and the book’s pace accelerates towards the end leaving you eager to find out what happens next in this projected three book series. The book also, much like Against a Dark Background, features a group of colourful mercenaries whose distrust and cynicism regarding each other is gradually overwhelmed by intense bonds of friendship and loyalty. Williams’ approach to world-building is also similar to that used by Banks in his first non-Culture work of SF as both books introduce new ideas but do not hang around long enough to get bogged down in explanations and technobabble. Indeed, part of the fun of reading this book is working out the implications of someone being a Prime, a Singleton or a Fort and by refusing to infodump at us, Williams’ not only makes learning the world a pleasurable experience, he also manages to give his world a slightly shop worn and mysterious feel to it. Williams himself describes this feel as gothic but, as with Against a Dark Background, the feel is more baroque; like an exotic and busy world that marks the boundaries between the death of one age and the beginning of another.
Saturn Returns’ similarities to Nine Princes in Amber do not involves world-walking but rather Williams’ approach to characterisation. In the first Amber novel, Corwin is partially amnesic but his tactical training, cynicism and urge for survival is so ingrained that it results in him escaping a trap and tricking a load of people before he even knows who he is. Williams uses a similar trick when he introduces us to the reconstituted Bergamasc who spends the book learning the state of his world as well as trying to work out who he actually was. Intriguingly, neither Bergamasc nor Corwin are the people they were before they lost their memories. A sizeable chunk of Saturn Returns is devoted to the concept of personal identity and is explored through Williams’ different modes of human existence allowing people to slow down or speed up their perception of time as well as copy themselves and send those copies off to have their own lives. As with the rest of Williams’ ideas, his touch is light and rather than bludgeoning us with big ideas, Williams is content to let us try and sort out the implications of all of these different modes of being. Indeed, at one point a character questions whether it’s correct for a person to speak of all the versions of himself as though they’re one person and they’re told to accept it or shut up about it. Clearly Identity politics are alive and well in the 879th Millennium.
Well-written, exciting and surprisingly smart despite being very accessible, it is genuinely difficult to find fault with Sean Williams’ Saturn Returns but I think that maintaining the perfectly balanced lightness of touch will become increasingly difficult as the series goes on. The fact that the book’s plot relies so much on conspiracies wrapped up in concepts of personal identity means that Williams faces a real challenge in trying to keep the series both intelligent and fun without either fudging the plot or bogging the whole thing down in endless exposition. This concern aside, Saturn Returns is a great little book and I honestly look forward to the rest of the series.
NB : This review was based on a review copy kindly provided by the UK Publisher Orbit. For more details please see my Disclosure Policy.
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