Mask, by Kerry Nietz

Kerry Nietz, author of the fantastic DarkTrench series (see my reviews here, here, and here) is back with a new vision of a near-future earth in his new novel Mask.  It's the not-too-distant future, and through some combination of human conflict and natural disasters, many parts of the world have become uninhabitable, and those that are still populated are isolated from other regions.  In PacNorth, masked Collectors round up people who have been voted inconvenient by their peers.  It's a great system, in a way.  Everyone is always on their best behavior, for fear of being voted down, and the population stays under control.

That is, until Radial begins to have second thoughts. . . . Grill cook by day, Collector by night, Radial is one of the best of the Collectors, but on the spur of the moment decides that a little girl he's collected deserves a chance to live.  Together Radial and Darcy seek to discover the truth about the collection and bring down the system.

Mask is a brisk, fast-paced story, which leaves plenty to be explained.  How did PacNorth become isolated?  What's going on in the rest of the world?  How did the collection system get its start?  Nietz hints at the answers, but chooses to focus on the action of the story rather than on the exposition of this future history.  He also raises interesting questions about the nature of democracy, as the whole society is built around the tyranny of the majority.  Is mob rule really the next logical developmental stage of democracy?  And with God having been voted out as inconvenient, Nietz hints about pockets of Christian faith that remain.  While the story of Mask wraps up nicely, these questions cry out for answers.  There is plenty of material for a sequel.  (I hope you're working on it, Kerry!)

Mask does not have the epic scale and theological weight of the DarkTrench saga, but does showcase Nietz's story-telling skill.  I didn't want to put it down, as evidenced by the fact that I am writing this review at 1:30 a.m., having stayed up way too late finishing the book!



If you haven't read the DarkTrench saga, do!

The Superlative Stream, by Kerry Nietz

I recently read Kerry Nietz's first novel, A Star Curiously Singing, loved it, and was delighted to see that the adventures of Sandfly continue in a sequel, The Superlative Stream.  In ASCS, we meet Sandfly, a debugger who is sent to investigate the self-destruction of a robot on the space ship DarkTrench.  In the course of the investigation, he discovers a possible cause: curious singing from a distant star.  TSS picks up where ASCS leaves off.  Sandfly and his fellow debugger HardCandy take DarkTrench to search for the source of the singing, the superlative stream.

Nietz clearly matured as a writer with TSS.  As good as ASCS is, TSS adds a higher level of depth and complexity to his engaging style.  Utilizing flashbacks to their lives on Earth, we get to know Sandfly and HardCandy better and see how circumstances have brought them together.  We also gain insight into the Muslim culture of their world.  Nietz will not win friends in the Muslim community, as he takes certain elements of Sharia law to their logical, painful conclusions.

A subplot in both books deal with Sandfly's implant.  As a result of his encounter with the superlative stream, his stops are removed, so, if he wishes to, he can sin with impunity.  For the first time in his adult life, he experiences free will unencumbered by the programmed controls of the implant (and this right at the time time he embarks on an interstellar voyage, alone, with a beautiful woman!).  Given the Islamic theology of good works, he struggles with the realization that his good works can never tip the scale in his favor; his sinful nature will continually pull him toward 50.1% bad works.

Sandfly's understanding will no doubt continue to develop as he gets to know the source of the stream, whom he knows now only as "(A~A)³."  (That's A not A cubed, A being the shorthand for Allah, who is not named in the novel. )  Nietz skillfully weaves basic, thoughtful ideas like this throughout the story without preaching or distracting from the overall plot.

Much of the story takes place on a planet in the Betelguese system.  There the humans encounter a whole new civilization, technically far ahead of human civilization.  This part of the story will feel very familiar to any reader of sci-fi or viewer of sci-fi movies and TV shows: an idyllic, communal society, where there is no evident material need, where everyone seems happy, yet everyone sort of looks and dresses alike.  Nietz kept me going for quite a while, trying to decide if this were some sort of angelic community, or if there were something more ominous under the surface.  I'll leave that discovery to you when you read it. . . .

Nietz shows his skill as a bona fide sci-fi writer with his use of hard science as a driver in the story combined with plenty of realistic scientific and technological speculation.  Combining that with his use of hard theology, exploring theological questions from a refreshing outside perspective, he gives us a thoroughly entertaining and satisfying read.  And here's the good news: the Dark Trench saga will continue!  An e-mail from Nietz confirmed that he has completed book 3.  It's in the hands of the publisher now, so we should see it in the coming months.  Keep an eye out at Marcher Lord Press for the release.

A Star Curiously Singing, by Kerry Nietz

I have long been a fan of sci-fi, but have been skeptical of Christian sci-fi as a genre.  Several years ago, I read some novels by Jeff Gerke (under the pen name Jefferson Scott) in the sci-fi/tech/suspense genre.  I enjoyed them, and wondered what happened to him.  Lo and behold, he has started a publishing house dedicated exclusively to Christian sci-fi and fantasy titles, Marcher Lord Press.  Of course, titles from this small, new publisher are not available at my local library, so I went against my reading glutton, cheapskate tendencies and actually bought a few titles from Marcher Lord Press.

I was more than pleasantly surprised by Kerry Nietz's first novel, A Star Curiously Singing.  This is not a second-rate, knock-off imitation sci-fi novel, but the real deal. Nietz creates a believable, if a little scary, near-future earth, incorporates creative technological ideas, and introduces likable characters in an engaging story.  I was reminded of some of Asimov's stories; like Asimov, Nietz weaves a detective story into a future setting, letting the technology and cultural commentary provide a rich background while giving primary attention to an engaging plot.  Sandfly, the narrator and central character, is a debugger whose owner sends him to check out a robot who self-destructed during a deep-space mission.  That sentence alone requires a large amount of explanation, immersed as it is in the context of the book.  Nietz takes the reader directly into that world, so it may take a few pages for you to feel comfortable, but he does so artfully, quickly drawing you in.

Without giving away the story, I'll highlight a couple of story elements that set A Star Curiously Singing apart.  First, the cultural context.  In the world of the novel, everyone, I mean everyone, is now Muslim.  Sharia law is the law, and it's zealously enforced.  Nietz doesn't go into much detail about how that transition came to pass, but he does off-handedly imply that the Muslim takeover occurred primarily due to birth rates.  It's a little on the extreme side, of course (Catholics have high birth rates, too.), but it stands as a warning to us Western Christians who have small families and whose children tend not to embrace their parents' faith.  And before you write off the possibility of world-wide sharia law, keep in mind that there are heads of state in the Middle East whose stated goal is just that, and they have, or will soon have, nuclear weapons.

As a debugger, Sandfly has an implant which not only gives his owner a means of control (think of a training device like you might have for your dog, only implanted in the brain.  Ouch!), but the implant also controls his actions when he's alone.  Tell a lie.  Zap!  Steal.  Zap!  Blaspheme A (The full name of the deity is not spelled out here.).  Zap!  Yet free will and the sin nature survive.  Using this device, Nietz explores human nature and our sin nature in a unique way.

The core of the novel, the singing of the star, makes the story.  In a world where Christianity has been successfully quashed, where all reference to it has been eliminated, no witness to God remains on Earth.  But, as Jesus said, if we keep silent, the stones will cry out!  Why not the stars, too!  I love this depiction of God's calling out to his children, even when his children have cut off all communication.  I hope and pray we don't come to a place where the whole world rejects God, but if it ever comes to that, Nietz reminds us that creation will not keep silent.

I heartily recommend this book, and encourage you to check out Marcher Lord Press, as well.