Terra Incognita: Three Novellas
Connie Willis
Science fiction
The thing is, Connie Willis is a really good writer. It's just that she has certain extremely predictable elements. Characters talking past each other. Muddle. A protagonist (often female) who can't get anyone to listen to her. An annoying authority figure (often male). Muddle. A resolution that occurs in spite of, rather than because of, anything the characters do. More muddle.
Two of the three stories in Terra Incognita--"Uncharted Territory" and "D.A."--partake of this pattern. That said, it's much more tolerable at shorter length, and when it's played for laughs. Willis's Passage, for example, is an interminable slog which only becomes readable when the main character finally dies; but To Say Nothing of the Dog is a tour-de-force that I'd recommend to just about anyone. "Uncharted Territory" applies the formula to the classic exploring-strange-new-worlds plot, and it works quite well if you accept the premise that such an endeavor would be run like a Monty Python skit. It's funny--exceedingly so, in spots--and it has a nice ending. "D.A." (which is really a short story, and the only recent piece) reads pretty well, but the outcome is awfully predictable.
The exception is the middle story, "Remake". This one is more of a classic what-if scenario than the others, and it's one that could actually be coming to pass. The tone is downbeat, almost noir. The characterization is very strong, too. You'd need to be more of a film buff than I am to fully appreciate it, but it's an effective piece of work.
Terra Incognita isn't a book for readers who like exploding spaceships, nor is it really suitable for SF non-aficionados. (Willis's Domesday Book is known to have filled the latter role, although in my opinion it's overrated.) It's worth reading if you're a fan of literate science fiction. If you've only ever tried Willis's novels, definitely give this one a shot.
The collection doesn't include what I think is Willis's best shorter work, Bellwether. Her two-parter Blackout and All Clear is a good short novel wrapped around a massive doorstop consisting of people muddling around ineffectually and, ultimately, pointlessly. Lincoln's Dreams is well-written but falls flat at the ending.
I read "Remake" a few years ago -- it was published as a stand-alone -- and I remember thinking it was good, but chunks of it were from the point of view of a character on a drug trip, which is always narratively risky and I didn't think paid off here.
ReplyDeleteMy problem with that isn't exactly the narrative risk; it's that I don't have much interest in dope-addled self-centered slackers, which is what the narrator is. I just didn't like him. This is my own limitation, not Willis's; he's a fully-believable character, rounded and all that stuff, well-portrayed--and a loser.
DeleteI blame my upbringing. Too many classic old-school books, you know, with protagonists with whom a chap can sympathize--or even, dare I say, identify. Hopelessly twentieth-century of me, I know.