This month I'll be looking at two books set in California. Each book features a California divided, one by war, the other by disease.

THE WILD SHORE, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ace, March 1984, $2.95 TOR, Orb May 1995, $13.95

In 1968, Ace released the first of Terry Carr's Ace Science Fiction Specials. Carr selected more than his share of ground breaking works by new authors that would revolutionize the world of science fiction. Among his selections in the first series were Ursula Le Guin's multi award winning THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS and her fantasy novel A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA, Alexei Panshin's Nebula winning Rite of Passage and first novels from new authors, Joanna Russ and R. A. Lafferty. The first series ended in 1970. Carr was back with a vengeance in 1984, editing a third series of Science Fiction Specials for Ace. Though the first series contained about four times the number of books, the third series is no less striking and revolutionary. Carr selected multi award winner Necromancer, William Gibson's first novel. Michael Swanwick's IN THE DRIFT and Lucius Shepard's GREEN EYES, first novels for both authors, were also part of the series. Swanwick has gone on to win a Nebula award for his novel Stations of the Tide and Shepard has won numerous awards including World Fantasy Awards for both of his short story collections. Kim Stanley Robinson's THE WILD SHORE launched the third series. Robinson, of course, has gone on to win the Nebula and Hugo awards for his Mars series.

THE WILD SHORE is the story of a United States devastated by nuclear attacks. No one is sure who launched the bombs, but many assume that their origin was the U.S.S.R. Japanese ships guard the Pacific Coast, keeping survivors from leaving. The survivors try to rebuild roads and railroad tracks in an effort to reconstruct their civilization. The Japanese bomb the tracks and roads every time the survivors begin to achieve their goal. Some of the survivors blame the president for this predicament, because he didn't retaliate. Others believe that there would be nothing left of earth if he had. Many communities have adopted a lifestyle much like that of our earth before money and government ruled. They trade at swap meets, living mostly on what they can make and grow, what fish and animals they can catch. The opening scene introduces the reader to the main cast of characters, Steve Nicolin, Gabby Mendez, Kristin Mariani, Mando Costa, Del Simpson, and Henry, narrator and lead character in the novella. They live in a small community isolated in the San Onofre Valley of California. The group of friends, in their late teens, are out for a little grave robbing. Their friend, Tom, is the wise old man of the community. Tom tells them that, in the old days before the bomb, families were wealthy and buried their relatives in gold caskets. They discover that old Tom is wrong. On their return, they also discover that strangers have come to visit, by rail, from San Diego. It is this expansion of their isolated small world that sets the direction that The Wild Shore will take. Their view of the world continues to expand when Henry and Tom take the return trip to San Diego to meet the mayor of that town. The San Diegans are much better off and more organized than Henry's people. Henry's world expands still more when their trip takes them to a local printer. The latest book he has published is the exploits of a man who traveled around the world. Henry and Tom can't believe this is possible. The world gets even larger on their return trip to San Onofre. When the Japanese bomb the rail tracks, the travelers have to escape using a small boat. Unfortunately they run into a Japanese ship. Henry's world enlarges when the Japanese capture him. In a very short time Henry's adventures expose him to three new world views, all of which conflict with the one he grew up with, and drive the novel forward. It is these conflicting views and Henry's efforts to reconcile them, that is the main focus of THE WILD SHORE. There is a sense of calm and serenity that pervades the Wild Shore, a feeling that, though much is wrong with the world outside, everything is right with the world within the San Onofre valley. It is a feeling that I've not encountered in many other novels. The outside invades, conflicts arise, yet Robinson maintains this serenity through most of the telling of Henry's story. Henry sees his small world as beautiful and holds on to that, even though these outside forces seek to disrupt the beauty. This feeling is extremely engaging. The novel is difficult to put down for this reason. It is then, ironic, that Henry is responsible for much of the destruction that occurs in his community. His friend, Steve Nicolin, wants to aid the San Diegans in a war against the Japanese. This puts Henry in between his friend's desire and that of his community. Henry's struggle with this decision, and the necessity to betray his community to follow his friend's wishes, puts Henry through some major emotional trauma. He can't win. At least it appears that way. In our world, with few community ties, there would be fewer repercussions on a community wide scale for choosing against the community. There would always be another community to join. In San Onofre, the consequences are devastating, by comparison. There are advantages and disadvantages to both worlds. Robinson shows us the advantages of small community life well in THE WILD SHORE.

Another major theme explored in the WILD SHORE is truth verses fiction. Many of the stories of the past that Tom tells are tall tales, but the San Onofrens have no referents to tell them that. There is no way for them to know what is truth with Tom, the Japanese, the San Diegans, or the man who sailed around the world. All could be true or all could be lies. In the same way, this makes all of the events that Henry relates in THE WILD SHORE questionable. There is no way for us to know if all of what he has recorded is true, if he really was the hub of all these events. Then we come full circle, this _is_ a novel after all. All is fiction. I think the scene I am most thankful for in THE WILD SHORE is when Henry and Tom discover that someone has traveled around the world. People like to talk about the sense of wonder that Golden Age science fiction brought them as children. The sense of wonder found in this scene is far beyond anything I've seen in intergalactic tales anywhere.

THE WILD SHORE is still available in its current Tor Orb edition. If it isn't in stock, get your bookseller to order it. It is well worth reading.

* * *

JOURNALS OF THE PLAGUE YEARS, Norman Spinrad, Bantam September 1995, $9.95 (FULL SPECTRUM; Lou Aronica, Shawna McCarthy, ed.; 1988; $4.95)

I was taking a break from readings for After Words when I picked up JOURNALS OF THE PLAGUE YEARS. I chose JOURNALS because it was short. I could read it quickly and move on to the next book for review. I had forgotten that JOURNALS was set in California. I was about one quarter finished when I realized that JOURNALS had to be part of my column on California Visions. Spinrad describes in his afterword for the 1995 Bantam edition how JOURNALS wrote itself. He had intended JOURNALS to be a full novel. Against the advice of his agent (she didn't believe that in 1986 any publisher would touch a novel about AIDS), he wrote an outline for the novel. The outline grew longer and more detailed. Ultimately, Bantam bought the outline as a finished novella. His agent was right, they were unwilling to chance it as a full novel, but they were willing to feature it in the ground breaking anthology FULL SPECTRUM. For Spinrad, it was almost as though the story chose its own length. Ironically, it was its length that caused me to read it now and include it here.

Each chapter, headed by the name of the character featured in it, is unrelated at the beginning of the novella. The characters lead separate lives. As the book progresses, they meet, and we get different character viewpoints of each scene. This structure works well to tell the story in JOURNALS OF THE PLAGUE YEARS.

Spinrad describes a California divided. San Francisco is a quarantine area for AIDS sufferers, guarded by the military. The world outside San Francisco is a fearful place. Everyone is afraid to have sex, even with their spouses. Suspicion rules, plague tests govern where you can live. The military steps in and ships you off to San Francisco if you test positive for the plague. Interestingly, in San Francisco, people are free of the fear that engulfs the outside world. They already have the plague. They have sex freely with other plague victims. Only the shadow of the military, the prison walls, and impending death hangs over that freedom.

If you've read Spinrad's work before, you already know that political movements and the people who become symbols of those movements fascinate him. He has explored this idea in nearly all of his novels and it pops up here too, in the characters Saint Max and Linda Lewin. Saint Max, a plague victim, will have unprotected sex with any other plague victim, no matter how sick. He believes that if he collects all the mutating plague strains inside him, that they will eventually mutate into a benign strain. Linda Lewin carries on his work after he dies and becomes Our Lady of Saint Max. A movement begins around her. Others begin to do the Work of Our Lady. I'll be honest. I like the idea of a movement of this kind. It is a necessary part of this novel. But I'm growing tired of these long capitalized titles. They seem to weigh down the text and muddy the point Spinrad is trying to make.

Dr. Bruno contracts the disease in a drunken, 40th birthday, mid-life crisis sex spree. He learns of his condition within a few days and immediately sets out to find a cure. He finds it, but the pharmaceutical company he works for makes so much money on Plague treatments that they hide his discovery. This part of the story brings up two issues. One is that medical science, or science in general, has all the answers. All we have to do is study the problem extensively enough, and the doctors will find a miracle cure. This is an intrinsic belief that science fiction writers and readers hold dear to their hearts. It is also the intrinsic belief of the American populace at large, as evidenced by the amount of money we pump into AIDS research, chemo therapy, and drug treatments. But I'm not sure this is realistic. I want to believe it, but I don't think I do. I don't think I can believe anymore in the magic pill that will save us all. The reason I say this is because for most of my life I was under the treatment of regular medical doctors. They were all good doctors, respected in their communities. My allergies never got better. I was sick every winter with ear infections and bronchitis. I took antibiotics at least once or twice yearly. It wasn't until I left regular medicine that I got better. I changed my diet, started taking vitamins, and used natural antibiotics when necessary. My allergies have nearly disappeared in the last three years. I've been off regular antibiotics the entire time. I have had no ear infections or bronchitis in that time. I have more energy than I have ever had in my life. There was no magic pill or treatment. I have been reading recently that the same may be true for AIDS sufferers. People seem to be getting better results from a holistic approach than from the regular medical approach using AZT, chemotherapy and other drugs. Only time will tell, but for now, I'm putting all my bets on alternative approaches to health and medicine.

The second issue raised is that pharmaceutical companies will do anything to save their profit. Today pharmaceutical corporations make millions of dollars on AIDS drugs and treatments, just as Spinrad describes in JOURNALS OF THE PLAGUE YEARS. I sometimes wonder how eager they would be to introduce a real cure, particularly if they couldn't make money on it. Spinrad sends a chilling message in this book. It doesn't surprise me that editors, publishers, and agents were hesitant to publish it in 1986 as a stand alone novel.

JOURNALS OF THE PLAGUE YEARS is an important work, well worth your time. The novella should still be available from your local book store, but you'll probably need to order it.

turn the page
previous
back to contents
return home