Paperback: 439 pages
Publisher: Gollancz (10 Sep 2009)
ISBN-10: 0575083557
ISBN-13: 978-0575083554
Reviewer: Cara
Copy: Bought online
From the back of the book:
Who decides what it means to be human?
On twenty-third-century Earth, ravaged by climate change, political power has been grabbed by a few powerful families and their green saints. Millions of people, most little better than slaves, labour to rebuild ruined ecosystems. Those who fled Earth’s repressive regimes to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn live in a fantastic variety of habitats, some deep underground, others protected from inhospitable atmospheres by vast tents; all scientific utopias crammed with exuberant inventions of the genetic arts.
But the fragile peace between Earth and the colonies is threatened by the Outers’ growing ambitions to spread out through the Solar System, pushing human evolution forward. On Earth argument rages: whether to take pre-emptive action against the Outers, or to exploit their scientific talents.
Amidst all the debating and turmoil, war between the two branches of humanity moves ever closer.
The Quiet War begins with an introduction to Dave#8, a genetically engineered clone, bred, conditioned and trained to be a soldier for Greater Brazil. This opening gives us insight into the politics and morality of the Earth regime, and where Dave#8 realises the paradox of him being created to fight the “anti-evolutionary engineering of [their] genomes” by the off-world colonists of the Jupiter and Saturn moons. This is a novel of big ideas set in a future Solar System after a collapse in Earth’s ecosystems.
Earth is controlled by the three powers of Greater Brazil, the European Union and the Pacific Community. The Quiet War focuses principally on Greater Brazil where government is by the ruling families, and consanguinity (or blood relationships) counts for much more than ability or merit. The dominant religion is Gaia, which to me seemed not dissimilar to Catholicism but with a strong environmental emphasis. Considerable effort is placed on restoring Earth’s ecosystems following the Overturn, a planet-wide environmental disaster, yet the majority of the population are crammed into cities and are pretty much owned by the ruling families. This future Earth is no utopia by any stretch of the imagination.
The colonies on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, the Outers, on the other hand, are democratic, libertarian and innovative. They use genetic engineering to enhance their environment and themselves both for practical and cosmetic effect. Their society is open and accepting of freedom of choice and individualism and has many similarities with our own culture, in my view, especially with regard to dissemination of information on the net. It is in the descriptions of the various colonies that McAuley’s imagination shines through
“Jupiter’s swollen disc hung high above, waxing from slender crescent to full glory and waning again in a cycle of little over seven days, fixed in the same place in the black sky because Ganymede, like Earth’s Moon, was tidally locked and always presented the same face to its primary.”Led by culture hero and "gene wizard" Avernus, the Outers have created perfect biosystems within their domes, breeding vacuum organisms that can obtain necessary elements from the moons' soils and oceans and ice. They live in Enceladus' underground oceans, plant their crops on the shoulders of asteroid impacts, and grow gardens deep in the clouds of Saturn.
Two ideologically opposed societies are set to clash in an ideological power struggle culminating in the inevitable war. There is precedent: the Mars colonies were previously destroyed by Earth so the Outers know what could happen to them should they drop their guard. Earth comes across as being more antagonistic, I felt that the Outers would be quite happy to continue on with their lives without any interference from their home planet. Certainly Earth, with their cloned spy/soldiers, pilots with augmented nervous systems and warships in orbit around the outer planets was overtly aggressive. Yet they wanted the advanced bioengineering techniques developed by the colonies to restore their own ecosystems.
Two characters stood out for me. The first, Dr Sri Hong-Owen, is the leading geneticist for the Peixoto family of Greater Brazil. She is ruthlessly ambitious and brilliant, having developed much of Earth’s military biotechnology including the Dave clones, yet dreams of becoming a disciple of Avernus, the Outer’s genetic wizard. It is this contradiction that makes her interesting. She is not, however, likeable or sympathetic. The other is Macy, a lowly soil engineer who is sent to the Rainbow Bridge colony on Jupiter’s Callisto Moon. As an outsider in a society not her own, with a brash and forthright personality, I found her appealing and cared about what happened to her throughout the book.
Overall I enjoyed The Quiet War, but found I was occasionally bogged down by the sheer volume of technological information. While I like some background information, degree-level science is not to my taste and, to be honest, I found it off-putting as there was just too much of it. However, the politics of both Earth and the Outer colonies were intriguing and the overall ecological theme was fascinating to me, particularly given the current climate change situation we face today. I especially liked the idea of Catholicism embracing the Gaia theory and co-opting it into their doctrine, yet still remaining as intolerant as they are today. I thought that McAuley presented a clever view of how Earth’s future could be and that he showed considerable insight into how the current science and ethics of genetic engineering could possibly develop. Certainly The Quiet War left me with a lot to think about, which is always something I appreciate in a novel.
Plot: 6
Characters: 7
Style: 6
Rating 6/10
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