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This is my seventh entry for SFF bingo this year and already I have two baseball dystopias, so clearly this is a hot subgenre. ;)
In this future, genetic/biological experimentation and cybernetics have become rampant, at least among those with the ability to pay. The narrator, Kobo, has a bionic arm, and was a player in the short-lived Cyber League; his adoptive brother, JJ Zunz, plays for the Monsanto Mets in the Future League (which features lots of drugs and modifications, but no mechanized prosthetics). Kobo tries to scout both players and scientists who will give his clients a technological edge, to pay off his rampant medical debts from past upgrades. When Zunz dies in suspicious circumstances during the playoffs, Kobo naturally wants to investigate to get revenge for his brother/longtime friend, and then different people start trying to collaborate with or complicate the investigations. Of course, everyone is in it for themselves, and the incentives aren't always what they seem. Meanwhile, the Mets are still in the World Series, so that's going on as background noise--but again, who wins or loses the baseball games isn't really the point.
"The Resisters" focused on climate refugees in floating cities and other new constructions; "The Body Scout," while it also features similar worldbuilding elements (including a significantly altered US and similar future-dystopias elsewhere in the world), is more grounded in New York, both of the characters' past and future. I found this tension--every era is someone's nostalgic "good old days"--to be effective!
Like "The Resisters," there are groups that protest the entire way of life and want to bring down the system, but this isn't really about them, either. Kobo and his friends seem to conclude that creating real change is impractical--some corruption is too endemic to root out, and the rift between Kobo and JJ had been growing well before JJ's death. But you might at least be able to find a few people you care about and want to protect, so maybe that's good enough.
Again, someone like me is going to ask: why baseball? As a critique of the "nation" it's supposed to be the "national pastime" of? Towards the end the characters make the point that steroids had once been illegal, but once teams realized there was more money to be made in promoting and relying on them, things rapidly changed--so it's useless to appeal to tradition or arbitrary ideas of what is or isn't "fair." But then, those history shoutouts seem to be saying "look, I love baseball too, I enjoy this tradition." It kind of feels like "spit in your readers' cake and serve it too," but I recognize that could be sour grapes.
Overall: this is more fast-paced and action-packed than "The Resisters," but draws on similar themes of family and sports as identity even in a fractured world. Again, I'm not really a dystopia person myself, but I want to show the world that there's an audience for weird baseball SF!
Bingo: Standalone for sure. Beyond that...? "Family Ties" is a stretch, "Revolutions and Rebellions" doesn't quite fit either. Kobo is arguably an antihero in that a lot of his motivation is just "getting out of debt and getting the loan sharks off my case," but "my best friend/adopted brother died, I think it was murder, let's set this right' is more of a stock hero mold. I'm probably going to just leave it as "Standalone," which means (at only 7 books in) I'm going to need to be a bit more selective if I want to make this a deliberate goal.
In this future, genetic/biological experimentation and cybernetics have become rampant, at least among those with the ability to pay. The narrator, Kobo, has a bionic arm, and was a player in the short-lived Cyber League; his adoptive brother, JJ Zunz, plays for the Monsanto Mets in the Future League (which features lots of drugs and modifications, but no mechanized prosthetics). Kobo tries to scout both players and scientists who will give his clients a technological edge, to pay off his rampant medical debts from past upgrades. When Zunz dies in suspicious circumstances during the playoffs, Kobo naturally wants to investigate to get revenge for his brother/longtime friend, and then different people start trying to collaborate with or complicate the investigations. Of course, everyone is in it for themselves, and the incentives aren't always what they seem. Meanwhile, the Mets are still in the World Series, so that's going on as background noise--but again, who wins or loses the baseball games isn't really the point.
"The Resisters" focused on climate refugees in floating cities and other new constructions; "The Body Scout," while it also features similar worldbuilding elements (including a significantly altered US and similar future-dystopias elsewhere in the world), is more grounded in New York, both of the characters' past and future. I found this tension--every era is someone's nostalgic "good old days"--to be effective!
"Mets manager Gil Stengel hasn't commented on how this will affect the starting lineup when the game resumes tomorrow night. No matter what we learn, this is a sad day for baseball and a tragic loss for the Monsanto Mets."
"It was a busker dressed as JJ Zunz, a human statue on an injection pad. His sign scrolled R.I.P. to a New York Hero. Ya Gotta Bereave!
"The walls were covered with posters of old New York baseball stars: Derek Jeter, Mike Piazza, Aaron Judge, Barack O'Neil, Colton Diaz, and Matt Haddock. Heroes from back when the game was pure."
As the name might suggest, the book features "Gideon the Ninth" levels of gross-out body horror; lots of drugs and violence, and occasional episodes of sex made disturbing by technology and capitalism. The diverse range of characters and viewpoints means it's not too preachy or didactic on the overall costs and benefits of technology. On one hand, vat-grown meat could be a more humane alternative to factory-farming! On another, there are Deaf people who want to keep their language and culture alive rather than opt in for anything that might grant them "typical" hearing. On a third...hey, look, this mutated creature has three hands now, huh. Some of the antagonist characters reach cartoonish levels of villainy, but it's hard to criticize that as unrealistic when you've recently experienced a cartoon villain head of state."It was a busker dressed as JJ Zunz, a human statue on an injection pad. His sign scrolled R.I.P. to a New York Hero. Ya Gotta Bereave!
"The walls were covered with posters of old New York baseball stars: Derek Jeter, Mike Piazza, Aaron Judge, Barack O'Neil, Colton Diaz, and Matt Haddock. Heroes from back when the game was pure."
Like "The Resisters," there are groups that protest the entire way of life and want to bring down the system, but this isn't really about them, either. Kobo and his friends seem to conclude that creating real change is impractical--some corruption is too endemic to root out, and the rift between Kobo and JJ had been growing well before JJ's death. But you might at least be able to find a few people you care about and want to protect, so maybe that's good enough.
Again, someone like me is going to ask: why baseball? As a critique of the "nation" it's supposed to be the "national pastime" of? Towards the end the characters make the point that steroids had once been illegal, but once teams realized there was more money to be made in promoting and relying on them, things rapidly changed--so it's useless to appeal to tradition or arbitrary ideas of what is or isn't "fair." But then, those history shoutouts seem to be saying "look, I love baseball too, I enjoy this tradition." It kind of feels like "spit in your readers' cake and serve it too," but I recognize that could be sour grapes.
Overall: this is more fast-paced and action-packed than "The Resisters," but draws on similar themes of family and sports as identity even in a fractured world. Again, I'm not really a dystopia person myself, but I want to show the world that there's an audience for weird baseball SF!
Bingo: Standalone for sure. Beyond that...? "Family Ties" is a stretch, "Revolutions and Rebellions" doesn't quite fit either. Kobo is arguably an antihero in that a lot of his motivation is just "getting out of debt and getting the loan sharks off my case," but "my best friend/adopted brother died, I think it was murder, let's set this right' is more of a stock hero mold. I'm probably going to just leave it as "Standalone," which means (at only 7 books in) I'm going to need to be a bit more selective if I want to make this a deliberate goal.
