I don't see it

This complex and very interesting book spins around a moral and legal issue that I don’t think is an issue at all. So when I am supposed to feel outrage, I'm saying "Huh? Why the fuss?" I can't go into it without spoilers, but what Ms Bear writes about as a perversion and certain illegality seems to me to be completely normal and advantageous.

The scenario is wonderful. I'd love to have Dr. Jens' job and through most of the book I was enthralled. Till the reveal, that is, and then I lost interest and almost didn't finish.

MACHINE is the second book in the White Space series, the first being 2019's ANCESTRAL NIGHT. I will confess to not having read ANCESTRAL NIGHT, but it is sitting in my to be read pile/stack/list/whatever. The good news is that the reader need not have read the first book to enjoy and understand MACHINE. While there are references to the first book (I am given to understand), and a few people and things from that book appear in MACHINE, knowing the intricate details of those things and people is not necessary to the enjoyment of this book.

Doctor Brooklynn Jens is a rescue specialist. If there are entities that are in trouble, she will not hesitate to jump out an open airlock of a spaceship to help those in need. And, in fact, that's how MACHINE starts off. The ship Jens is assigned to is responding to a distress signal. When Sally - Jens' ship - arrives at the signal they discover that the signal is emanating from a ship that is docked (or attached to, take your pick) to an ancient generation star ship that departed Earth hundreds of years earlier, from the time before humans joined an interstellar civilization called the Synarche and before they were able to overcome all the sorts of things our civilization was afflicted with. The process is called "rightminding", and just the name makes be a bit squeamish, although those who are right minded are certainly more civilized than those who aren't. It's quite the complicated issue, and one that still has me thinking about being rightminded. While it may be for humanity's own good, it is somewhat frightening that our future selves would possibly allow themselves to have their minds meddled with in the name of better behavior.

In any event, Jens and her team enter the generation ship first, as that one is friendly to oxygen breathers while the other is not. What they find is that the entire crew is in cryogenic sleep containers, while their creepy caretaker, Helen (whose full name is a take off on Helen O'Loy), is somewhat confused and scary. The job is to get the crew of the generation ship *and* Helon on to the rescue ship and then somehow get the crew of the second ship taken back to the medical station Core General as well.

And that is probably the most straightforward piece of this entirely enthralling space opera. It turns out that Core General itself is the victim of sabotage, and Jens' assignment has changed from dealing with the survivors on the generation ship to finding out exactly what is going on at Core General. The weird thing is that several of Jens' colleagues and superiors are aware of what's going on, but there's nothing they can do about it. And they're the ones that have assigned Jens the job of finding out what's going on,.

While it's clear to many long time readers of sf and space opera that MACHINE owes a lot to James White's Sector General stories, Bear also credits C.J. Cherryh as an inspiration in writing this novel. That inspiration shows as well.

MACHINE is a highly entertaining space opera that has, in Bear's own words, a Rube Goldbergian plot. Just when the reader thinks they have figured out what's going on, Bear sends the story off in yet another direction that keeps that reader entertained until the very end. There have been a lot of space operas that have been written recently, all attempting in their own way to update the sub-genre to make it relevant to the 21st century. Bear has done a terrific job in doing just that. MACHINE is highly recommended. Now I guess I'd better go read ANCESTRAL NIGHT.

Objectively, this is a book I probably would have enjoyed. You can check out my naive review of Ancestral Night, which I read (and loved) last year. Bear writes complex, unabashedly queer, totally unique, adapted-to-space characters. The MC in this one also has hardcore chronic pain, which factors heavily in how and when she does things.

However, I couldn't stop thinking about the horrible things Elizabeth Bear and her now-husband were accused of: grooming, manipulation, gaslighting, emotional abuse, etc etc. And it just turned my stomach every time I thought "oh, that was cool - oh wait" and that flip-flop feeling kept rocketing around my skull over and over as the plot progressed. And I couldn't take it anymore. I had to call it quits.

3/5

So I'm a sucker for 'this ancient thing has reappeared with no signs of activity' sort of mysteries.

Machine definitely qualifies but to my surprise it was the world building, not the mystery, that carried the day. Machine is an even split between medical drama, space opera, and mystery which is a pretty odd blend of genres but largely it pulls it off. The book was only limited by the conclusion of its mystery which, although adequately explained, left me unsatisfied.
This book an 'in the same universe' rather than a direct sequel to Ancestral Night. There will definitely be some familiar faces from the previous book, but you don't need to have read Ancestral Night to understand this book.

We follow Dr. Jens, a rescue specialist for, well, whatever space emergencies you can throw at her. This particular emergency is both less emergent and way more bizarre than what she usually sees. An ancient generation ship has been found but the crew appear to be in stasis and the only conscious being is a rattled ship AI. Even stranger, the ship of methane breathing life forms (this is normal in this universe) that found the generation ship appears to be afflicted by a very similar problem. Dr. Jens is thrown headfirst into the mystery of the two ships but her search might just lead to bigger revelations than she even anticipated.

The cultural world building absolutely stole the show for this book. The image of the future that Elizabeth Bear develops is so intricate and detail-focused that I felt like I was there myself. The aliens represented here include methane breathing crystal things, giant mantises, a surgeon that looks like a bunch of fronds, and many more. Just the engineering considerations in this book for different environments for both mesophile and extremophile species was fascinating. Not only were the alien cultures interesting, but also the adaptations humans had to make to themselves to fit into this strange multi-species society. Manual control of brain chemistry is commonplace for humans in this world, and it makes them feel altogether different from modern humans. The emphasis on psychology and understanding the impact of your actions on others (for example, emotional labor comes up a few times) lent this scifi take on humans some individual flavor.

I'll also note that this plot takes off at a quick pace and keeps on going from there. I was initially a bit worried that it would drag, but this book is easy to get sucked into.

Unfortunately, the resolution of the central mystery really diminished my overall enjoyment. The book doesn't leave anything unanswered but when the curtains are drawn and the whole mystery is revealed it felt somewhat convoluted. The book has enough going for it can stand despite the unsatisfying mystery resolution, but this was definitely the biggest issue for me.

Overall, Machine is a solid read and is particularly notable for its cultural elements. Good for fans of world building, but don't expect too much out of the mystery.

2.5 stars. It seemed to me that this was going to be a solid enough space opera/mystery. However, the story never did draw me in and I found that I really didn't care enough about the characters. I liked the snarky voice of Dr Jens, but there didn't seem to be much else there.

I was annoyed by some minor issues that perhaps will not be a problem for other readers. One was the complete lack of gender specific pronouns. I found the constant use of "they" instead of he/she to be excessive and jarring. Also why use the word Diar instead of day or millenian instead of millennia - but use standard English for almost everything else?

There were good elements here like cool future tech and lots of interesting lifeforms and AIs. But the mystery was not enough to hold my interest.

Review for publication elsewhere.
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My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC copy of this book available to me.

Highly recommended. This book has a lot of interesting alien species (including some great praying-mantis-like aliens) and fully sentient AI's, as well as a few worthy humans. Set far in the future in a fully integrated civilization of literally thousands of intelligent species, the protagonist is a doctor, medical rescue worker, and detective all rolled into one. The first half of this book is interesting, but it really takes off in the latter half. This is the second book set in the "White Space" universe, but can easily be read all on its own.

I really enjoyed this scifi thriller. The book explored different aspects to the future that I did not consider. It was a compelling novel.

I was given a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Machine is the second book in the White Space series and takes place a few months after the first, Ancestral Night. It follows Dr. Brookllyn Jens on a rescue mission and its aftermath. This book had many of the same things I liked in Ancestral Night. A nuanced main character, interesting AIs, and many many different aliens. Where I think the book lost me was Dr. Jens constant habit of going on tangents which made the main plot grind to a halt quiet often. Even though I didn't love this one as much, if a third book is written I will absolutely continue with the series because the world is so interesting.

When the Core General ambulance ship, I Race To Seek the Living, arrives at the centuries-old STL colony ship Big Rock Candy Mountain, they find the crew of thousands in cryo, weird Tinkertoy bots everywhere, and a golden fembot named Hellen Alloy watching over them. The distress call had come from another ship, one full of methane breathers that shouldn't have had any interest in docking with anything with an oxygen environment, and that ship is silent as a tomb as well.

Dr. Jen is used to weird situations. Boarding ships full of sick or injured people/aliens is what she does for a living, but...

"There was so much about this situation that wasn’t quite right. Most heavy rescue situations are extremely straightforward. They are scary. There are often fires, or blown vessels, or explosions, or terrible collisions to deal with. There will nearly always be people screaming, if there is any atmosphere for them to scream into. There’s rarely a creepy, echoing silence and a dearth of anybody to rescue. Especially not on two ships, at the same time." - Machine by Elizabeth Bear

...and that's pretty much the beginning.

Machine is the second book in Bear's White Space universe and focuses on a new cast of characters than her 2019 novel, Ancestral Space. There's a lot of classic sf DNA here, from the Ian Banks approved ship names to the James White Sector General sensibility.

Recommnded

I received an advance copy of Elizabeth Bear's space opera MACHINE from Netgalley, in return for writing this review. The novel is set in the same cosmos as Bear's previous book ANCESTRAL NIGHT, but it is not a sequel -- the two novels can be read separately. In both books, Bear gives us a galaxy-spanning future civilization, containing many sentient and sapient species from many planets and star systems, all living more or less in harmony. The Synarche (as the galactic confederation is called) is far from a utopia, but it is much more cosmopolitan, and permits much more individual flourishing (of human beings and of numerous other species) than is the case for any actually-existing society on Earth today. It isn't as egalitarian as one might like, but everyone gets more-than-basic subsistence, and working is not backbreakingly oppressive. There is a wide choice of jobs and careers, and there are machines to do the most obnoxious tasks. Sentient/sapient AIs have the same rights as organic intelligences do. To link the numerous star systems together, Alcubierre-White drives allow for a certain degree of FTL travel without violating relativity. Bear gives us one of those rare space operas that is not organized according to a military or colonialist paradigm.
The main socio-technological innovation that allows the Synarche to function is called rightminding. This is a chip implanted in everyone's brain (called a "fox") that works to dial down aggression and other dysfunctional emotions. It allows you to regulate and tune your own nonconscious bodily-emotive-intellectual processes, by regulating levels of hormones and neurotransmitters, as well as autonomic responses. In Bear's account, being able to do such things (I decide to dial down my anger, suppress pain, suppress or enhance sexual feelings, and so on) is not paradoxical, but works as a self-aware feedback loop (the logic behind it is circular, but it is a virtuous circle rather than a vicious one). Being able to regulate oneself is a state of greater freedom, ultimately, then always doing what you think you want, but being at the mercy of your own raging emotions and your own social conditioning.
However, rightminding is a social rather than just an individual process. And it is tied up both with health and medicine, and with surveillance and policing. Other entities, and especially AIs, are able to access your fox, and tweak your settings, if you permit them to do so. Social rules are generated by consensus, which is ascertained via massive computation; and there are rules and norms that you aren't allowed to violate. The regulation is soft rather than harsh, but it still exists. Cops are major characters in both novels. (Especially endearing, if that is the right word, is Goodlaw Cheeirilaq -- "goodlaw" being used instead of "officer" -- who is basically a sentient/sapient 8-foot-tall insect, somewhat like an enormous preying mantis, and who appears in both novels). If you break the rules (commit a crime), you are not punished in any of the ways that we are familiar with today; but you basically get a choice between exile or confinement, on the one hand, or allowing the authorities to tweak your fox settings so that you will not do it again, on the other.
This system might sound a bit creepy and oppressive -- especially to the sorts of people (Americans in particular) who think that being obliged to wear a mask in public places when a pandemic is raging all about them is a violation of their fundamental rights. Bear takes this sort of worry seriously, but the books argue against it, and in favor of the Synarche system. In ANCESTRAL NIGHT, the main antagonist is a sexy and alluring libertarian pirate, who categorically rejects rightminding as a form of enslavement. The protagonist is powerfully seduced by the pirate, but ends up rejecting libertarianism and reasserting her allegiance to the rightminding system. (Is it worth mentioning that both protagonist and antagonist are women?). In a libertarian society, nobody has their mind manipulated, but massive oppression exists in the form of economic inequality, servitude enforced by contracts, and an overall social environment whose perverse incentives encourage the flourishing of violent sociopathy. You are nominally free, but you have no chance of being able to exercise your freedoms unless you are a degenerate scumbag (a term which I am using here in its strict technical sense, as defined in the Urban Dictionary). All in all, Bear's volumes are unique for the way that she makes this kind of argument explicitly and at length, rather than just preassuming it (or rejecting it as is so often the case in works of hard science fiction with a libertarian bent).
MACHINE is also a work of medical science fiction; it takes place mainly in an enormous, multispecies hospital near the center of the galaxy. Bear mentions, in her acknowledgments, her debt to the Sector General series of science fiction medical dramas by James White (which I have not yet read, but which are high on my reading list). I will not try to summarize the plot here, in order to avoid spoilers. But I need to note that Bear juggles all the pieces and puts them together at the end quite nicely and convincingly.
The female human protagonist, Dr. Brookllyn Jens, is a doctor who used to be a cop. Both professions are highly relevant to the action of the novel. She now works as a rescue specialist; her job mostly involves trying to save people (of whatever species) who have had accidents in deep space. Dr Jens is not without problems of her own; she suffers from chronic pain which even the advance medicine of her far-future society is not able to cure. This means that she is thorougly cyborgian: she can't do anything without her "exoskeleton" that provides support for her body, and integrates with her self-regulation of bodily states via her fox. She is also a bit neurotic in a way that I found all-too-recognizable and relatable. As one of her crewmates tells her, "You’re not detached. You’re dissociated." Brookllyn finds herself having to confess that he might well be right:
what I thought of as a professional reserve, professional detachment . . . was really more like floating a centimeter outside the world, never really engaging with it. (ellipsis in original text)
Brookllyn is also, throughout the book, frequently having to put on "hardsuits" and other devices to protect her from the vacuum of outer space, or from atmospheres in which other sentient species live, but which are inimical to human life. All in all, the book is brilliant and powerful in the way it conveys a sense of interdependency. The point is that I am dependent upon otherse even when I am alone, even when I am at my most individualistic and most stubbornly anti-social, and even when my entire life strategy consists in dissociating myself from the world, so as not to have to engage with it too distressingly. Even at such times, my very existence depends upon a vast web of prosthetic technologies, not to mention built environments (however naturalized they may feel) and contributions by other people. As Brookllyn puts it at one point:
We cannot isolate ourselves from systems, have no impact, change nothing as we pass. We alter the world by observing it. The best we can do is not pretend that we don’t belong to a system; it’s to accept that we do, and try to be fair about using it. To keep it from exploiting the weakest.
The plot of the novel involves violations of social trust on the part both of insiders at the heart of the system, and of rebels against the injustices of the system. MACHINE works through a delicate balancing act, as Brookllyn finds her faith and trust in the Synarche and its institutions deeply troubled, yet still ultimately finds herself needing to affirm it and to save it from destruction -- the alternative is violence and oppression on an unimaginable scale. Yet I am not sure I am expressing this quite right -- it is not a conservative novel urging obedience in order to avoid anarchy, but a radical one in the way that it argues for a common that goes beyond individualism, and that indeed finds its only basis and justification in the way that it supports individual flourishing better than any other social arrangement would be able to. Brookllyn must learn, in the course of the novel, to recognize the dangers of overidealization, but without lapsing into a resentful nihilism in response. The book is ultimately about trust. This really is, as I already said, an emotional and cognitive exploration that I deeply relate to.
And oh yes, MACHINE also has an exciting, suspenseful plot involving various forms of derangement, physical dangers, malignant computer code, and twisted psychological reactions, all the fun stuff.

I will post this on my blog, <http://www.shaviro.com/Blog> in October when the novel is published.

MACHINE by Elizabeth Bear is a space opera and the second book in the White Space series. It is also the first book that I have read by this author. While reading book one in the series might provide more background, this read well as a standalone novel. Dr. Jens is a trauma doctor and rescue specialist. She is of the crew on an ambulance ship answering a distress signal. Two ships, one centuries old, and another one that is contemporary are connected and no one is responding so Dr. Jens and Tsosie, the ambulance’s commander and senior trauma specialist are going to enter the vessels.

Dr. Jens is a likeable main character and definitely someone you can root for. She felt three-dimensional with a lot of depth, believable motivations and appropriate emotions. Details of her family situation and some of her work history were shared through her reflections. The secondary characters were not as well developed, but the relationships between the characters felt believable and not contrived. The story line was intense and complex. The world-building was vivid and gave a clear sense of time and place. Occasionally the dialogue wound go on too long and did not seem to move the story along. The science is well-integrated and the mystery was compelling.

Overall, this was a tense read that had high stakes, an investigation and some unusual plot twists. If you are a fan of both space operas and mysteries, then you may want to check this one out. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series as well as checking out other books by this author.

Gallery Books – Saga Press and Elizabeth Bear provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review and opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.

I will not be reviewing this book because of the recent allegations of abuse and grooming against this author. I am not comfortable supporting an author who has done these things and not tried to make reparations. It's unfair to rate this because of a personal objection to the author than the book content, but I cannot in good conscious review or promote this author in any way shape or form at this time. I look forward to reviewing other titles in this genre.

Most of my queue has been thriller and horror lately, but I was really in the mood for a space read, so I was thrilled to be approved for Machine by Elizabeth Bear. With an eerie cover and even spookier blurb, I couldn't wait to dive in.

Dr. Jens and an experienced team are tasked with a recovery mission when a distress call is sent from an archaic Terran ship. Once on board, however, she finds a primitive shipmind AI named Helen, a crew suffering from a mysterious illness, and a Frankenstein-ed meme entity Helen calls the Machine. On a separate ship that initially investigated, they find much the same, except an added, unknown machine. As she dives into recovery, Dr. Jens learns that nothing about this assignment is as it seems.

I liked this book.

Dr. Jens is an interesting, complex, extremely-well developed character. We learn intimate details about her upbringing, her experience, her family, and fears. In a way, we're given the same access the shipminds are given, and I really enjoyed that aspect. Her steadfast love of her career provided honest insight into a world where she felt at odds with stereotypical maternal goals, and I especially appreciated the moments we got her reflection on motherhood. The difference between harboring guilt and knowing you're not doing a good job being a mother to your child, but rather utilizing the set of skills where you excel--this brought another level of relatability to her I think many readers will enjoy.

The plot, too, is super interesting and taut with a wonderful blend of terror, dread, and intrigue. Bear doesn't skimp on the world building. Her descriptions are vivid and involved. Here is where my attention faltered a bit. I love when world-building is concise and elaborate, but I felt some of the narrative ran tangential. Dr. Jens gets distracted and tells stories about the past in a non-linear way, interweaving current events with historical moments, cultural facts, or personal thoughts. Yes, this is how people converse for the most part, but the tangents sometimes spanned pages, and because of that, the read was pretty dense. I think a reader more prone to intricacies will love this, but as a matter of personal preference, I would've liked if the details had been pared down or integrated more.

Overall, Machine is an intriguing story with elaborate world building, nuanced characters, and existential terror you'll feel in your bones.

Big thanks to Gallery/Saga and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

Review of eGalley

Assigned to the Synarche Medical Vessel “I Race To Seek the Living,” trauma doctor Brookllyn Jens is the rescue coordination specialist on the ambulance spaceship they call Sally. Answering a distress call from the centuries-old Terran generation ship “Big Rock Candy Mountain,” the rescuers discover the body of the long-dead captain, a cargo bay filled with cryogenic chambers, a memory-damaged artificial intelligence named Helen, and the modern “I Bring Tidings From Afar” docked with the ancient ship.

A strange, Tinkertoy-like structure fills the corridors of “Big Rock Candy Mountain” and the cargo bay of “Afar” holds an enormous space-crab-robot machine. The crew decides to take both ships, the cryo containers, a portion of the Tinkertoy structure, and Helen back to the immense space station hospital Core General along with the nonresponsive yet living crew of “Afar” and the strange craboid machine.

After their return to Core General, the rescue crew learns of critical sabotage incidents at the hospital and Llyn finds herself investigating them, unaware that what she discovers will change everything she knows and believes.

The detailed and impressive world-building will draw readers into the story from the outset. Both humans and aliens are well-drawn, interesting, and believable in a world where shipminds, artificial intelligence, and rightminding are all givens.

Brookllyn, suffering from an incurable combination of inflammation and polyarthralgia, relies on an exoskeleton to keep her mobile. Cynicism is her forte and puns abound, making the telling of the tale difficult to set aside. [The reference to the hospital administrator, a sentient tree, as the Administree, is perfect.]

The science is both inventive and credible while the mystery is compelling and flawlessly executed as the unfolding narrative takes some surprising twists and turns. Weaving the sabotage story together with artificial intelligence, sentient aliens, personality adjustments, cloning, personal rights, and a machine that is also an idea creates a masterful tapestry and an unputdownable tale.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Gallery Books / Saga Press and NetGalley
#Machine #NetGalley

When I read the author’s note for this book I found it was an homage to the old Sector General stories by White. I don’t know if I read quite all of those but I really enjoyed all the ones I did read. It’s a human trauma doctor’s take on events when a generation ship full of cryogenic capsules is found and a secondary crisis threatens the multi species hospital/giant space station at the core of the story.
This is the second book written in this universe but like Ancestral Night it stands alone very well as a self contained story. I’d cheerfully recommend both of them but if the description of one or the other of them sounds better to you as a reader either one can be enjoyed alone!

This is a complicated book to review. I definitely enjoyed the POV in the book, as the sarcasm is excellently played out. I also liked the premise of renegade AI acting in people's "best interest". There was some moral commentary on the present, but it did not take over the storyline as it would have in Star Trek a generation ago.

The biggest challenge I had with the story is the protagonist's belief that with just the right amount of education, that all bad actions can be corrected. While I am not advocating a future of harsh punishments, the main character seems surprised that evil turns in the hearts of men and machines. Perhaps this is an intentional flaw with the character's personality, and not the perspective of the author. The character does not seem self aware of this oversight, but we often are blind to our own shortcomings, are we not?

Thank you to Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.
I really didn’t expect this book to be five stars. I knew it would be good, but I was ready for more of a 4 star read and instead I was thoroughly blown away by what this book had to offer me. I loved the premise. I LOVED the characters. The writing was beautifully cinematic, to the point where it felt like I was WATCHING this book more than I was reading it. I thought the way that this book handled artificial intelligence was so fascinating to read and I want more. I understand this book is a companion novel, and I have not read the novel which it is a companion to. I will be picking it up VERY soon. I don’t have any complaints about this book, other than it got just a little slow in the middle, but not enough to really bother me. I love how painfully real all of Dr. Jens’ feelings are. The idea of struggling to accept that something you believe in isn’t actually WORTH believing in? CRUSHED ME. It was so relatable and fascinating and took hold of my heart and brain and refused to let go. I’m amazed, I’m blown away, and I’m so happy that this book made me feel like this.

This author never disappoints! Highly suggest for sci-fi genre fans and those wishing to expand their genre choices. Purchasing for library.

Elizabeth Bear once again delivers! This fantastic space opera addresses disability issues in a unique way through its disabled protagonist. I found that viewpoint refreshing as I hadn't seen it addressed this way in sci-fi before. A very thought provoking and enjoyable read.