In these science fiction novels, love really is a battlefield
Did you ever fall in love with someone you shouldn’t have fallen in love with? This question, posed by the immortal Buzzcocks song, has consumed much of genre fiction lately. Freedom fighters fall for imperialists. Bitter rivals catch feelings for each other. And three new science fiction novels explore star-crossed lovers with an extraordinary, heartbreaking complexity.
1. “The Mars House,” by Natasha Pulley
In Pulley’s latest, humans have lived on a terraformed Mars for generations, their bodies altered to live in low gravity. When January, a professional ballet dancer, arrives as a refugee from Earth, his superior strength makes him a threat to the natives. A politician, Aubrey Gale, wants to force all Earthborn people to undergo a dangerous procedure to weaken them, leading to a confrontation with January that creates a political firestorm. Facing a backlash, Aubrey makes January a startling offer of marriage.
Trust me, it all makes sense. And it’s delightful.
“The Mars House” moves as nimbly as its ballet-dancer hero, sidestepping the potential issues with its immigration storyline and pivoting toward something that’s nuanced and fresh. The result is both an epic love story and a deft political thriller, in which lengthy philosophical discussions feel more gripping than the battles in most other books.
Most romances are, to some extent, about power: what it is and who has it. January has the physical strength to murder Aubrey with little effort, but Aubrey has political and economic dominion over January. “The Mars House” uses those power differentials to thrillingly bring this relationship to life.
2. “Annie Bot,” by Sierra Greer
Speaking of a power imbalance, this story of a robot girlfriend trying desperately to please her owner/boyfriend packs a bigger punch than you’d expect. Annie looks and feels human, and she has been given the ability to learn and grow, but she can never outgrow her relationship with Doug or the constraints of a life with him.
On one level, “Annie Bot” is a keenly observed portrait of a dysfunctional — even abusive — relationship. Annie is hypervigilant for the slightest signs of Doug’s displeasure, which she quantifies on a scale from 1 to 10, and displeasing Doug causes her immense suffering. Doug slips unthinkingly between “boyfriend” and “owner,” depending on which role makes him feel better in the moment. But Greer goes deeper, teasing out the contradictions and vulnerabilities in their relationship and showing us glimpses of the real love that Doug and Annie could have, if he were better and she were free. The ending feels rushed, but there’s a truth to this abruptness: When insupportable situations end, they end quickly.
All the best stories about artificial intelligence hinge on identity: Do our memories define us? Do our bodies represent who we are? “Annie Bot,” astonishingly, finds new ways to ask these wellworn questions. I kept reading “Annie Bot” way after bedtime, partly to see if Annie could escape from her prison, but also because every few pages there was an observation that made me think about both AI and human relationships anew.
3. “The Day Tripper,” by James Goodhand
Alex is young and in love, with a bright future — until he becomes unstuck in time. On any given morning, he might wake up in 1996, or 2023, or any year in between. And that bright future? It has turned to garbage, because of his alcoholism and some terrible decisions. As he ricochets between young and old, Alex struggles to change his life.
“The Day Tripper” features Alex’s wry, unmistakably British first-person narration, sparing no detail of his misfortunes and mistakes. At times, the motivational-speaker advice Alex follows does feel pat: The phrase “good decisions lead to good decisions” gets bandied about a lot.