Searching the internet to find older science fiction these days is tough. Endless lists with the same books, Goodreads constantly in a state of disrepair, and endless highly specific threads on Reddit make the search feel futile. I honestly don’t even know how I stumbled upon this book, but however I did, I’m glad I did. Originally published in 1998, This Alien Shore by C. S. Friedman is a novel that tries to find the alien within the human and does so with panache.
A young girl survives a terrorist attack on her space station and is on the run with a secret that slowly starts to reveal itself to her. Her mind isn’t just hers, it’s a place for several others as well. And many different factions want to know what is going on in her head. Elsewhere, a new virus is spreading through the outernet. While quiet for the most part, it has finally claimed its first victim, an outpilot for the Guild. Considering they are the ones who connect all of humanity, the Guild is a little worried and contracts the premier cyber defense professor to track down the problem and its source. But all is not well within the Guild as several players are about to make their ambition known.
This Alien Shore is a true delight from start to finish. Friedman immediately sets the stakes in the opening chapters, thrusting you into her far future vision of a humanity splintered. The various players in the ensuing drama are brought out in a well-paced manner giving the reader time to download the incredible library of information Friedman has conjured. It’s a testament to Friedman’s abilities that the complexities of her world are so renderable. She utilizes her various characters in different ways to move the story along and flesh out the bits that matter to them. She has characters from different walks of life enter into the scenario to ask the questions that the reader needs to know, in natural ways that avoids too much information dumping. She makes it look easy too as the story keeps flowing, things keep happening, and characters’ paths are inevitably aligned.
The characters showcase the various ways that humanity has changed based on where they grew up. The new branches each have their own mutations that have been cultivated over the periods of isolation. Some of these changes are physical, as exhibited in the medusae, who have extrasensory glands in their snake-like hair that can pick up on the chemical changes in someone’s emotional state. A majority of the changes, however, are in the mind. With the high visibility of neurodivergence in contemporary culture, This Alien Shore feels highly predictive, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily what Friedman was looking to do here. Instead, she seems to focus on how society would have to change in order to be more accepting, and how it would even prosper due to the talents exhibited by the infinite ways people can think. No one is hindered by their mind state.
Friedman pulls it off with excellent writing. She puts you in the mental state of the characters, and how they think through problems. Sometimes it’s shown through vocabulary, and other times it’s what they notice about the world. It gives each individual a vibrancy and depth that is rare in stories with such scope. It allows the reader to see why certain plans would be implemented and make the problem of the virus so much more palpable. People’s lives are set to be ruined, and the relatively balanced state of humanity (despite the isolationist Earth’s misgivings) feels like something that actually should be saved this time around. There is a place for everyone and the goal is connection so that we can all thrive. That this is accomplished through character first and foremost is one of my favorite features of This Alien Shore.
The deep political intrigue that Friedman engages in is one for the books. The virus is meant to upend the established order, a monopoly on all travel and trade through the singular Guild. And while I think it’s probably easy to write a book in favor of the existing system, I think it’s hard to write a persuasive argument for it, even if it’s about human connection. I also have the added bias of “tear it down,” in most scenarios I encounter. Friedman knocks it out of the park though. She shows the inner machinations of the individuals who try to profit from the status quo. She shows the dysfunction that can clog the machine while showing the folks who are trying to ferret out and work out the kinks. The Guild is not perfect, but the Guild’s reigning sin at the moment is that it’s a monopoly. Its history has been tumultuous but focused on finding the marooned bits of humanity and connecting the web. Its leaders are a devious bunch, with their own visions of what the Guild can be. Ambition is still a nasty bug that humanity has yet to kick, but it can also be a tool. The push and pull of the system makes the political intrigue all that more engaging because I often felt myself going back and forth on what would actually be good for society as it exists. It made the final moments of the book so bombastic, reflective, and a little haunting.
Lastly, and I feel like I buried the lede on this one, but This Alien Shore is a true genre-bender. It has elements of cyberpunk, biopunk, and space opera. I’m sure there are many other sub-genres you can throw at this that would stick, but those are the three big ones. They are seamlessly blended that I hesitate to even include this section, but I needed to point it out. There are also elements of horror that creep their way into the pages. There is one specifically haunting scene involving travel through the Ainniq that will live with me until the day I die. It was absolutely stunning and makes so much FTL travel look silly in comparison.
This Alien Shore was the kind of book I needed at the time I read it. It has a density that opens itself to flight as you proceed through the book. It’s a vast world that explores the possibility of the human mind, and the people who fight for it. It asks the reader to look at the world and not only appreciate the differences but to confront oneself and accept the various identities that make us human. I will definitely be picking up more of Friedman’s work.
Rating: This Alien Shore – Set Sail
-Alex
