Cosmos Incorporated

I've just devoured the book and am happy to say that the English translation lives up to the French original in every way. It's gorgeously written and captures the unique quality of Dantec's prose; rough and choppy one minute, beautifully descriptive and dreamy the next. The plot itself is a slow build and reading the climax is like reaching the crest of a wave and being flooded with realization and appreciation of the full impact of the book's message. It is part science fiction, part philosophy, part theology. I would rate it as one of the most important works of sci-fi of the millennium so far. Five stars...plus!

I have not read the english translation but the original in french, a few years ago; I hope the translation is up to the task, since Dantec's use of the language is almost joycean and unique. This is (imho) without doubt Maurice Dantec's best work, along with Grand Junction, the following novel which closes the story (although each can be read separately and there is by no means a "to be continued" effect at the end of Cosmos Incorporated). There are some obvious influences and tributes here, like William Gibson and Philip K. Dick, but also a lot of less obvious, less popular ones, and maybe much more enriching, like Gunther Anders, Michel Houellebecq, Jean Baudrillard or Moebius & Jodorowski, and even Duns Scott. This is not your typical mass market science-fiction/crime fiction novel. It features a complex plot with a staggering richly textured and coherent universe, where not a single detail is missing; geography, geopolitics, moeurs, neologisms, quotes; they all help to actually feel the world of 2057 Dantec is bringing to us. This a breaking work, outstanding and almost defying categorization; I would say it is one of the best science-fiction books I've ever read; definitely a novel worth reading, and a cornerstone of true 21st century original literature.

The war to end all wars seems an accurate description as sometime in the near future, the hostilities devastated the planet leaving one and half billion survivors to scurry for sustenance on a planet none recognize. Cities are dead and continents radically altered as rising oceans pushed the coastline inland. Multiple nations vanished and there is one world-wide ruling government through a humongous computer network that tracks the movement of everyone. The Russian-American Mafia assigns Red Star Order assassin Sergei Diego Plotkin to travel from Russia to Grand Junction, but to do so he must cross security checkpoints where his memories would betray his mission to kill the town mayor Orville Blackburn. Thus much of his recall is erased as the mob needs to make an example of the mayor for breaking his pledge to them. He arrives in Grand Junction, site of one of the last operating cosmodromes where one can purchase a Golden Track (ticket) on a space ship to the Orbital Rim, Mars or Luna colonies. Plotkin and his AI Melatron plan the scheme including who will take the fall for the assassination. Then he meets dying Vivian McNellis; he revises his mission to get her to the rim though his employers will come after him. This post apocalypse tale plays two themes. First there is the paid hitman who will remind readers of the Schwarzenegger character in the movie Total Recall; Vivian makes him a better person, but she also is much more and much less than she seems. Besides the lead characters with a support cast that showcases the pair and their environment, there is also an overarching somewhat in the background theme of a dying earth. Readers will relish this deep look at a grim future yet there remains a glimmer of hope that a Divine Plan is at work. Harriet Klausner