(SFF Bingo): Vagabonds, by Hao Jingfang
Dec. 28th, 2022 05:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
primeidealVisiting family for Christmas, I picked up this from the library, not because I expected it to fit one of my remaining bingo squares, but because I had enjoyed Hao's novella "Folding Beijing" and hoped this would feature similarly creative worldbuilding (and hadn't run across it at my local library). Ultimately, I decided that it fits for "Revolutions and Rebellions," because it throws around versions of those two words many, many times compared to most of the other stuff I've read this year, particularly towards the end. You might think that there would then be some serious revolutions in this book. In fact, almost nothing happens in this book. And it's six hundred pages long.
The intro tells us that Mars and Earth have been in a sort of cold war. Five years before the book begins, a group of Martian teenagers went to do "study abroad" on Earth, and they're just now returning, and finding that they don't completely fit in on either planet. "It was the year 2190 on Earth, the year 40 on Mars," the narrator tells us on page 20. The book jacket reports this as the year 2201. You had one job, book jacket.
Earth is very capitalistic; its artistic types are inspired by the public domain on Mars and think "the creative commons should be free for everyone, none of this intellectual property/copyright nonsense." In contrast, Mars is very socialist; housing is provided by the state (but only married couples can have houses, singles are stuck in dorms). You have limited freedom to switch your "atelier" or career track if you don't like it, and although there's no real economy to worry about, different research labs compete for funding and when there are accidents, there's a tendency towards covering one's rear to minimize the scale of punishment.
Each generation winds up, in a sense, "rebelling" against its predecessors. Spoilers for stuff that happens well before the book begins but isn't revealed until later on: generations ago, a woman who had just given birth in a remote cavern on Mars died because they couldn't send a rescue ship for her, because the Earth companies were paranoid about their technology being stolen. Her husband became a symbolic leader of the freedom fighters who wanted Martian independence. Their son inherited a leadership role from his father, and ruled as unchallenged consul for many years. His son and daughter-in-law were at a protest demanding change to the housing system; the protest caused accidental deaths (life is precarious when all your air is inside a dome), so he had to exile them to a mining colony where they died. (But then the government eventually adopted their housing proposal anyway.) Their daughter, Luoying, is one of the exchange students who doesn't feel like she fits in on either Mars or Earth anymore.
Now the government is debating the next stage of terraforming--will they stay in a domed city like the one they have, or try a more audacious open-air proposal? Luoying's grandfather, Hans, is partial to the domed city, in part because one of his founder friends designed it, but wants to remain neutral. Her brother, Rudy, favors the alternate plan, in part because he wants to make a name for himself instead of living under a system where the elders' achievements dominate everything.
So the students put on a play about how stifling Mars life is and how they want change. Then Rudy encourages their protest movements, in order to gain political influence for his faction. Luoying doesn't really have strong feelings, she just wants to be part of something and feel caught up in the energy of youth.
There are some intriguing worldbuilding takes: a visitor from Earth is at first like "they have literal glass houses, wow, no privacy whatsoever" and is then told "yeah, sand is the one raw material we have plenty of on Mars, of course we build from glass, you can change the opacity if you want." "Oh duh, that's a good point, good thing I didn't jump to conclusions." And the idea of moving Ceres to become a third moon in order to eventually get its water was neat.
But overall, there's a lot of people verbosely talking about their feelings (or tedious love triangles), and the plot points don't really seem to have lasting consequences. Luoying wants to find out about her family's history--were the exchange students hostages? Was her selection related to her grandfather's position?--and then when she gets answers, it's just like "eh, whatever." Rudy tries to "help" Luoying in a dance recital, winds up making the situation worse, and...no consequences. Towards the end there's a realization of "in order to get the resources needed to do the more large-scale terraforming, we might have to have another hot war with Earth" "oh that'd be terrible, we need to do whatever we can to prevent that!" and that was interesting, it was just not enough to carry 600 pages worth.
Bingo: Standalone, Family Matters, No Ifs Ands Or Buts, Author of Color, Award Finalist but Non-Winner...and like I said it's by far the most "revolutionary"/"rebellious" so far, so I'm counting it.
The intro tells us that Mars and Earth have been in a sort of cold war. Five years before the book begins, a group of Martian teenagers went to do "study abroad" on Earth, and they're just now returning, and finding that they don't completely fit in on either planet. "It was the year 2190 on Earth, the year 40 on Mars," the narrator tells us on page 20. The book jacket reports this as the year 2201. You had one job, book jacket.
Earth is very capitalistic; its artistic types are inspired by the public domain on Mars and think "the creative commons should be free for everyone, none of this intellectual property/copyright nonsense." In contrast, Mars is very socialist; housing is provided by the state (but only married couples can have houses, singles are stuck in dorms). You have limited freedom to switch your "atelier" or career track if you don't like it, and although there's no real economy to worry about, different research labs compete for funding and when there are accidents, there's a tendency towards covering one's rear to minimize the scale of punishment.
Each generation winds up, in a sense, "rebelling" against its predecessors. Spoilers for stuff that happens well before the book begins but isn't revealed until later on: generations ago, a woman who had just given birth in a remote cavern on Mars died because they couldn't send a rescue ship for her, because the Earth companies were paranoid about their technology being stolen. Her husband became a symbolic leader of the freedom fighters who wanted Martian independence. Their son inherited a leadership role from his father, and ruled as unchallenged consul for many years. His son and daughter-in-law were at a protest demanding change to the housing system; the protest caused accidental deaths (life is precarious when all your air is inside a dome), so he had to exile them to a mining colony where they died. (But then the government eventually adopted their housing proposal anyway.) Their daughter, Luoying, is one of the exchange students who doesn't feel like she fits in on either Mars or Earth anymore.
Now the government is debating the next stage of terraforming--will they stay in a domed city like the one they have, or try a more audacious open-air proposal? Luoying's grandfather, Hans, is partial to the domed city, in part because one of his founder friends designed it, but wants to remain neutral. Her brother, Rudy, favors the alternate plan, in part because he wants to make a name for himself instead of living under a system where the elders' achievements dominate everything.
So the students put on a play about how stifling Mars life is and how they want change. Then Rudy encourages their protest movements, in order to gain political influence for his faction. Luoying doesn't really have strong feelings, she just wants to be part of something and feel caught up in the energy of youth.
There are some intriguing worldbuilding takes: a visitor from Earth is at first like "they have literal glass houses, wow, no privacy whatsoever" and is then told "yeah, sand is the one raw material we have plenty of on Mars, of course we build from glass, you can change the opacity if you want." "Oh duh, that's a good point, good thing I didn't jump to conclusions." And the idea of moving Ceres to become a third moon in order to eventually get its water was neat.
But overall, there's a lot of people verbosely talking about their feelings (or tedious love triangles), and the plot points don't really seem to have lasting consequences. Luoying wants to find out about her family's history--were the exchange students hostages? Was her selection related to her grandfather's position?--and then when she gets answers, it's just like "eh, whatever." Rudy tries to "help" Luoying in a dance recital, winds up making the situation worse, and...no consequences. Towards the end there's a realization of "in order to get the resources needed to do the more large-scale terraforming, we might have to have another hot war with Earth" "oh that'd be terrible, we need to do whatever we can to prevent that!" and that was interesting, it was just not enough to carry 600 pages worth.
Bingo: Standalone, Family Matters, No Ifs Ands Or Buts, Author of Color, Award Finalist but Non-Winner...and like I said it's by far the most "revolutionary"/"rebellious" so far, so I'm counting it.
