Godplayers

(first published at http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=godplayers_and_k-machines reviewing Godplayers and its second half, K-Machines (Players in the Contest of Worlds)) One of Australia's foremost writers, Damien Broderick has been on the cutting edge of futurism for at least a decade now - his book The Spike was just about the textbook on the Singularity when it came out - and he is also a highly regarded science fiction critic and anthologist. His novel Godplayers, his first for big small-press publisher Thunder's Mouth, is the sort of novel that could only have been written by the polymath science fiction scholar Broderick. Its sequel K-Machines came out a year later, and I am reviewing the two together because I suspect they are intended to be one novel split in two. For me the most delightful post-modern intertexuality in Godplayers is the fact that the book intertwines two of Broderick's short stories - one very recent ("Schrodinger's Catch", from Agog! Fantastic Fiction) and one very old ("The Disposal of Man"[1], which you can probably only find if you stumble upon a copy of the early short story collection A Man Returned, of which I have a first edition from 1965, published by Horwitz Publications Pty. Ltd.) The latter story begins: "Every Saturday night," said Aunt Tansy, her eyes wide and blue and honest, "there's a corpse in my bath." The main plot of Godplayers starts out remarkably true to this sweet juvenile short story: August Seebeck comes home from some time-out in outback Australia and his Aunt Tansy (who's looked after him since his parents went down in a plane crash over Thailand) tells him he can't have a bath because of this inconvenient fact. August is a little perturbed by this, but while Tansy is a bit odd (she's a remarkably effective psychic) she's very down-to-earth, so August decides to camp out in the bathroom and see what happens. What happens is that a beautiful woman climbs in through the impossibly high window, carrying a corpse, followed by another woman. And so the adventure begins. When I first read "The Disposal (of) Man" I thought of it as a piece in the vein of Philip K Dick or early Heinlein, but from reading the novel's afterword it may be that Roger Zelazny and Fritz Leiber were more direct influences. In any case, neither of the Broderick source stories are credited in the novel, which is a shame. The afterword does list a considerable number of influences, however, including cutting-edge science galore. The story zooms through alternate worlds, and August finds out he's a member of a very powerful world-striding family participating in a world-spanning Contest, the details of which remain fuzzy. In fact, a lot remains fuzzy and for much of the time August irritates the reader by storming out of the room or interrupting characters' attempted explanations, wanting nothing more than to jump back home and make sure Tansy's alright. Fortunately he's head-over-heels in love with the beautif

Godplayers is an extremely energetic and engaging novel, one in which the author is obviously having fun, and just as obviously a work by a writer who knows and loves the SF field. The main action of the novel follows a young man from Australia named August Seebeck. His parents disappeared, presumed dead, when he was a boy, and he was raised by relatives, in particular his Aunt Miriam and later his Great-Aunt Tansy. He comes home to Tansy's house after herding cattle in the outback, to find that she claims dead bodies have been showing up in her bathtub. She's a bit dotty, and works as a psychic, so he tends to discount this, and goes to wash up. And naturally a dead body shows up soon after, carried through the mirror by two women, one of whom, Lune, is sufficiently beautiful that August is drastically smitten despite the unfortunate circumstances of their meeting. Especially when he notices that she has the same curious metallic design in her foot that he has. But Lune and her companion inform him that they will have to wipe his memory, and out comes the "green ray"... Mysteriously, the memory wipe doesn't stick. Quickly August is involved in some very strange doings indeed. He tries to follow the mysterious women through the mirror, and in very rapid order indeed he is jumping from universe to universe. It soon comes clear that August is part of a family he has not suspected (the other members have significant names like Maybelline, and Juni, and Marchmain... see the pattern?), and that the family is engaged in something called the Contest of Worlds. And so the novel goes, recomplicating again and again, as August desperately tries to make sense of things, to find his Aunt Tansy, and to learn the secret behind his new family and his parents' disappearance. He's also trying to forge a relationship with the beautiful Lune (one that develops perhaps just a bit implausibly quickly). In the process we visit numerous parallel worlds, and several different "levels" of the universe -- mostly based on real (if perhaps not precisely mainstream) physical theories. It's all great fun, very fast moving, clever stuff. The afterword mentions as influences Fritz Leiber and Roger Zelazny. "Destiny Times Three" is the Leiber story Broderick mentions, while the obvious Zelazny parallel is Amber. And indeed the novel recalls those writers a bit, as well as perhaps Charles Stross' new series that has also been compared to Amber, The Merchant Princes. But Broderick's work is not simply hommage, nor is it derivative -- it is original SF that happily nods to its precursors. And it is, put simply, purely fun, and at the same time intriguing speculative SF.

I don't have to understand every single scientific principal in an SF novel, and I certainly didn't understand the ones in Godplayers! Still, it was an enjoyable, fast-paced read, with likable, if somewhat shallow, superbeings trying to save the world. The book is very challenging--don't skim! pay attention!--but it is a refreshing change from dumb books about space travelers and aliens. Don't get me wrong; those elements are in this book too, but presented in a much more imaginative way. I actually enjoyed bouncing around with the childish lead character; when HE was confused, well, so was I. A sense of humor, and a brain will help you enjoy this book. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Several reviewers have commented that Godplayers would be improved by additional backstory, explanation, and so forth. In March, 2006, Thunder's Mouth Press will be releasing the sequel, K-Machines, Book 2 in Players in the Contest of Worlds. You can check my website about Broderick's work for more info. (damienbroderick.com)

I love books where someone discovers that they are way more important than they have ever imagined. I suppose that says something about me yet I'd rather not dwell on it. Anyway, this book is great, funny, fresh. Many of the sci-fi concepts in this book have been used by others before, and he brings them into use again. The note from the author at the end basically says it's a shame we throw away these little chestnuts of sci-fi ideas. Despite the sense of humor and adventure, and what feels like a rather intellectually staisfying journey, it starts to feel like the author is simply beginning to create a big list of concepts from other books he liked and throw them at the main character. At the end of the book, neither the reader or the main character has a clear idea what is going on. An evil race of machines, the K-Machines, is constantly referred to but rarely encountered, without a big showdown. Perhaps this book will have a sequel, and the author doesn't want to reveal the complexities of the world he has created for the hero. Or perhaps this book is a patchwork of other books and there isn't a deeper level than that. Whatever the case, I enjoyed following the bewildered hero through a wacky mutliverse, and this book is leaps and bounds better than its current "Zelanzy inspired" competitor on the new bookshelf, "The Family Trade".