[Review] Hannu Rajaniemi: Collected Fiction

Very few authors can put hard sf in a story without making it a boring science class or a pretentious show-off, and Rajaniemi is one of those chosen ones. You don’t feel dumb for not catching all those terms or weird names; in fact, they don’t really matter much, because they’re not the center of the story but an instrument when conveying big, complex concepts. I’ve been hearing about Rajaniemi for a long time, but the situation didn’t present itself for me to read one of his novels. Now that this collection appeared, I could not delay this task.

The experience when reading for the first time Rajaniemi, is like a person reading Gibson at the beginning of the internet and computer age in the 8o’s. You know it sort of makes sense, and yet you don’t quite get it all; all that remains is the essence and the music of these words and ideas in your mind after finishing a story, wishing you knew more quantum physics just to get more out of it, even if only details. It’s like literature written by aliens, and that’s great.

As it happens with every anthology, it is a mixed bag, but luckily this one, has better ones than not so good ones. I decided to write a little bit about each one of the story without giving too much away.

[*****] Deus Ex Homine — In the first story we find people infected with ‘god viruses’ and a war against those turned evil with soldiers called angels using a sort of armor to fight with. The concept is mind-blowing, but at the end what sticks with you are the characters reacting to this technology and their intact human feelings despite all this environment.
[*****] The Server and the Dragon — The writing is so abstract and obtuse that one can’t be mad at it for being smarter than oneself, and you don’t have any other choice than to revel at what it means, its mystery and what it entails. Science terms are thrown at you, things that maybe you’ve never heard of, and yet, after finishing the story and you search on the internet what they mean you get a definition (an interesting one, and exact) but the realness of the meaning doesn’t always fit the way it is used in the story. You may google what a Shkadov thruster is and get a straight-forward answer, but in the story is not necessarily used like we would: Rajaniemi adds mysticism to it, making it abstract which gives the story and its tone a peculiar sensation. The story is about a ‘server’, take it as the electronic definition of it, or as a living advanced being, it does not matter. It speaks about itself and about its environment as if it was a living, sentient being. It talks about creation and evolution through the darkness of its surroundings. It speaks about a Controller (maybe a god, or maybe us, people using it), and of an encounter with a dragon (which may or may not be a virus), all the while using astrophysics terms that make you wonder if indeed, it’s talking about an advanced being playing god in the future with all this knowledge of the cosmos.
[****] Tyche and the Ants — A girl living on the Moon is guarded by a computer and robots. she has several friends with silly names, who are most likely fruits of her imagination. She soon finds a creature, an ant, that destroys the house of one of her friends. The ant, and more that come along, are probes from the Great Wrong Place (Earth). Interesting story where the author beats around the bush (not really a bad thing) when it comes to explain the background and origin of the character and how she got there, like in the following paragraph: “You see, in the Great Wrong Place, people like us could not be safe,” Dad continued. “People like Mum and me and you were feared. They called us Greys, after the man who figured out how to make us, and they were jealous, because we lived longer than they did and had more time to figure things out. And because giving things silly names makes people feel better about themselves. Do we look grey to you?”. Another part of it that is really well done is that there’s no description of her appearance, we know she was created by the people on the Great Wrong Place, but maybe she’s not really humanoid and that can play with one’s imagination for a while.
[**] The Haunting of Apollo A7LB — A spacesuit haunts a man that bought it illegally. He shows up at the house of the spirit’s wife, without willing to and with no memory of how he got there. A straightforward tale, simple, minimal and well-written.
[****] His master’s Voice — This one is another magical story with almost the same language of the server and the dragon, but quite easier to get into. It’s about a dog and a cat who go rescue their master after being imprisoned in a virtual jail for cloning himself. The world -so I’ve read- is the same as his quantum trilogy one, and for one who hasn’t read it, certainly may serve as a kind of Introduction. The way he mixes the fantasy and the technological gives it a flavor of fairy tale. This one is still abstract because the hypothesis of singularity sounds like that to us, now.
[***] Elegy for a Young Elk — Another post-human set story. A poet and a talking bear roam the outskirts of a city. It has a firewall that keeps some advanced beings outside of it and live in the sky (orbit, I suppose). The wife of the poet is one of them and comes down to ask him to get something for those beings that fell into the city. I liked how he creates a future where nothing is like we would imagine, so different that it doesn’t look like our future at all, but a completely different dimension. I read too that this one is in the same universe as the QT trilogy, so, one more introductory text.
[***] The Jugaad Cathedral — There’s a mention in this story about some sort of software implanted in the cornea with which people can actually see the interface of a virtual program. They type mid-air and can check stuff like clout status and fashion status. That particular thing, typing in the air and seeing all in their heads, reminded me of an anime -Access World- where they do the exact same thing. And curiously too is that, in Rajaniemi’s story the main character plays often in a virtual game where she regularly meets her friend, Raija, a game that is a sort of Minecraft or Warcraft. And I say curiously because in that anime, there is, too, a virtual game, where they fight other players. But that’s as far as the similarities go. The short story actually is a little more than that and portrays the use of the virtual technology and its impact in the real world, which has been dehumanized. Good pace, but not particularly original.
[**] Fisher of Men — Maybe the most accessible of all the stories: a man finds a sea woman, mermaid most likely, and she wants to marry him and live with him underwater. Now, that may not sound too inviting, but it is, since there’s an aura of danger in this woman and not everything is peachy-looking. Simple and not your average fantasy tale.
[***] Invisible Planets- A ship’s AI listens to the ‘memories’ of disappeared planets which it carries. Kind of a nostalgic story, the planets’ history is short but interesting, and there’s an aura of poetry in the way it is written. Also, a nod to Calvino’s Invisible Cities.
[***] Ghost Dogs — Another fantasy tale about a boy and ghost dogs. It was really nicely written, yet not amazing. It’s kind of sad and nostalgic, so if Rajaniemi could convey that (which is no easy task) that means he has another great skill besides his Physics knowledge, and that is the ability to flesh out characters in so short a space.
[**] The Viper Blanket — An interesting story about a satanic cult. Well written, and again there’s a poetic feeling about it that is quite catching.
[**] Paris, in love — Quite an unusual story about a Paris, the city, falling in love with a man, literally. Fun and weird.
[*] Topsight — A couple of friends go get the ‘spirit’ of a dead friend and put it in a bottle. One of them finds a halo of her that, with an app, allows her to see her dead friend. I didn’t feel it as a strong a story as all the others but still interesting the way Rajaniemi creates different technology for different stories without repeating himself.
[*] The Oldest Game — A man goes back to his old house in Finland and meets his childhood friend and talk about what the former’s father did before killing himself. Although at first sounds like a drama story, it does change at the end when the character meets a giant and talks about the other world and creatures of mythology. Not quite a story on the level as the other tales, but still has some exotic ideas.
[***] Shibuya no Love — An interesting concept surrounding a dating gadget that allows people to experience emotions and situations with a person that he/she finds attractive. The ironic ending only shows the double-edge side of technology.
[**] Satan’s Typist — The shortest story of all (barely two pages) and still good. The title says it all: a woman writing contracts for men in despair.
[***] Skywalker of Earth — The longest story in the collection. An adventure story about a NSA agent that is going to interview a scientist concerning an object heading to earth. All which follows is completely unexpected, and fun. I’d trust Rajaniemi with any page-turning space-thriller.
[***] Snow White is Dead — There’s an introduction to this story, and it goes about an experiment where Rajaniemi used electrodes to test a readers mind while reading this same story but following the reader’s reaction and adapting to his/her mental state. A sort of choose your own ending kind of experiment where the story changed adapting the reader’s mood states. Although i would have liked to test that, I only could read the story ‘raw’, and it was still very good. Basically is a retelling of that tale, more modern, but darker. Surprising and well done.
The last sections are a number of micro fiction tales posted on Rajaniemi’s Twitter account. An indeed, experimental exercise.

Overall, they’re unpredictable stories, which are always welcome, but once we read those two first stories, it is very difficult for all the other ones to reach that level, and so it results in quite an unbalanced buffet. However, if one wants to try a Rajaniemi before tackling his hard trilogy, I’d say this is compulsory reading. Also, that’s one killer cover.

*Thanks to Tachyon Publications for providing an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hannu Rajaniemi: Collected Fiction, by Hannu Rajaniemi

Tachyon Publications, 2015

★★★☆☆