The Old Lie (3/5)
The Old Lie is two thirds a bad novel, one third a good novel. I figure that at the end of the day, that makes it an average novel. Yes, the math might not quite work out, but screw it, I don't do decimal points, and I only do rankings of ten for movies.
The Old Lie is by the same author as Terra Nullius, and deals with similar themes. The novel is meant to be analogy for the experience of Indigenous Australians in WWII, but "meant to be" is the key phrase here. That said, I have a load of gripes about this book - you might remember with Terra Nullius that I complained, among other things, that the worldbuilding has to contort itself to match the analogy. Here, this problem is alleviated by cutting out worldbuilding entirely, and making analogy on the nose to the point where no-one can miss it. You'll see what I mean about that later.
So, what's the setting of this book? Well, at some point (a point which could easily be the present day), Earth is attacked by an interstellar body called the Conglomeration. We fight good, we fight hard, but we're outmatched by superior technology. However, humanity recovers a downed Conglomeration ship and sets out distress signals in desparation. Turns out those signals are heard by the Conglomeration's enemy, the Federation, which arrives and engages the Conglomeration above Earth, forcing the Conglomeration to withdraw. Earth thus becomes a Federation pseudo-member (nto a full member, more like a protectorate), and humans sign up to fight the good fight. The novel begins eight years after the initial attack on Earth, as we learn that even among the stars, war is hell...and when on the ground, practically identical to WWI for some reason.
If you think this is an interesting setup, don't get too excited, because I've just summed up the majority of the worldbuilding right there. We learn almost nothing about the Federation and Conglomeration, let alone the war between them. Species descriptions are kept intentionally vague (most aliens seem to be humanoid, as when they aren't they're specified), but we learn little about them. Almost all the characters in the book are human, and humans keep to themselves. I don't actually mind this, as it refers to the Federation keeping its species segregated while in battle (cue WWI, with forces of the British Empire being divided by their country of origin), but the difference between this and WWI is that we know how WWI started, why it started, and why it ended. In this, we learn...nothing. It's so weird, Terra Nullius had questionable worldbuilding, but at least it had it. I understood how we got from Point A (all sapient life emerges in the Milky Way at the same time because reasons), to Point B (one side of the galaxy is more densely populated than the other because reasons), to Point C (Earth is invaded), to Point D (the novel), with hints of Point E (hints at a future where things are slightly better for humanity). Old Lie has none of this. If anything, we start the story at Point Y, since over the course of the novel, the Conglomeration loses its homeworld and the war ends. We don't even learn it was the Conglomeration homeworld until after the titular assault. I've just spent two thirds of a novel reading a story about two galactic empires fighting each other for reasons that are never explained.
And look, I know what you're going to say. Federation? Conglomeration? Futility of war? Isn't it possible that the lack of detail is intentional? Isn't it possible that the intent of the novel is to serve as analogy , of humans getting the short end of the stick fighting for a government that's going to discard them as soon as the war is over? Is it possible that I'm looking at this novel the wrong way? Well, Little Jimmy, I can concede that every question I just raised could be answered with the word "yes." However, even if that's the case, I still can't deny that for the first two thirds of the novel I just didn't care about what was going on. The thing about WWI is that even if we agree that it was a waste of human life (and that's certainly the most common position taken by media that depicts it), at the very least, everyone with a half decent education understands the background of WWI, as to why it happened, how it happened, and why what was meant to be a quick war degraded into trench warfare (least within Europe). I'm not saying that every piece of WWI media addresses this, but again, it doesn't have to. The Old Lie, however, is fictional. Even if it's trying to convey its themes through parallels and analogy, I need something, ANYTHING to ground me in the setting. I'm not talking about a lack of technical details (IFTL travel doesn't need lengthy explanation as to how it works for example), I'm talking about the lack of a stable background beyond Earth. Even if I believe that the Federation and Conglomeration have been fighting for so long they don't even know why (this is never stated though), Earth's only been in the fight for eight years. This isn't a Forever War scenario. It isn't even an Ender's Game scenario. Short version is, I can buy the idea that the Federation and Conglomeration are named as such, and are sparsely detailed as such, to convey moral equivalence and the futility of war. I just feel it works to the book's disadvantage. Because I spent two thirds of the book waiting for the point where it would give me these details, and never received them. And you can't tell me that increased details would automatically decrease moral ambiguity. To cite another sci-fi series I've gone back to, The Expanse, there's no shortage of details on the history and structure of Earth, Mars, and the OPA. I challenge you however to nominate the "good" faction.
So, alright then. The worldbuilding is non-existent. But as I've often said, I don't care how detailed your worldbuilding is if the characters inhabiting that world aren't interesting. Well, sorry Little Jimmy, but here, the novel fails as well. We have Rommy (a pilot), Jimmy (refugee, who isn't little), and...honestly, I barely remember. Daniels, I think the third character is, some kind of groundpounder fighting in not!WWI battlefields.I mean, there's other characters, but these are the POV ones, and while I at least remember their names, they aren't interesting enough to salvage the setting they're plopped into. Rommy/Romeo is a fighter pilot, and her sections are basically one space battle after another that gets very old, very quickly - I know, I know, cosntant warfare, war is hell, unceasing conflict, yadda yadda yadda, I still couldn't get engaged with it. Jimmy is a little better, in that he's a refugee trying to get back to Earth, but when you're separated by light years, getting back to Earth is more a case of "hop on a spaceship and hope you end up a few light years closer to Earth than you were before." Actually, to be fair, the Jimmy sections do have more punch than a lot of the other book, in that we see a lot of refugees, conveying that not only are refugees a thing in insterstellar war, but that the Federation and port authorities can be just as cold-hearted as humans can when it comes to sealing borders (or planets). I mean, there's a space station called "New Manus" orbiting Saturn for processing. Gee, subtle. But, credit where credit is due, the Jimmy sections do carry an emotional heft a lot of the book lacks. If it had focused on Jimmy, I might have been more interested. However, there's way too many characters, and the book is constantly jumping between them, with chapters only being a few pages.
So that more or less covers the first two thirds of the novel. If it had ended here, I'd have given it a 2/5, because whatever strengths it had were drowned out by a tidal wave of shortcomings. However, once we get to the third part, that's when things get interesting. You see, in a parallel to Maralinga (this isn't subtle, Maralinga is directly mentioned as a similar example), the Federation has detonated a bomb in Australia that they apparently told no-one about. The bomb is basically described as 'viral radiation.' Like, imagine if you were subjected to nuclear fallout. Only in addition to making you sick, anyone else you'd come into contact with would also be made sick. This 'virus' is transferred through all forms of matter, so unless you meet it with vaccuum, all of Earth is screwed. Basically, think a grey goo scenario. Also, Perth (which was destroyed by the Conglomeration) is going to be turned into a giant retirement village for Federation soldiers. If you think this sounds cheesy, believe me, it actually isn't. When faced with Federation buracrats, people who can't verify human identities because of legalese and cities on Earth no longer technically existing, their anger is palpable. Couldn't help but feel angry too, even though it was fanciful scenario. Though, granted, a scenario that has parallels with reality.
So, that's The Old Lie. Two thirds bad, one third good, thus balances out.
