Putting the world in the box

Over the last few days, we finally finished watching Scrapped Princess. Coincidentally, a Hugo plug for Spin over at Making Light, a site I always forget to read regularly, reminded me that I had picked it up in hardback when it first came out. So I read that today.

Oddly, they are both about the world being stuffed in a box.

Scrapped Princess, which runs to 6 discs, is one of those SF stories in the tradition of Pern and Sharon Shinn’s Samaria, where what looks like a bucolic fantasy world is actually science-fictional. In this particular story, the revelation is handled fairly gracefully, with magic spells used clearly being computer programs of some sort as the spell effects are drawn as circular circuitry; unlike the others, you don’t learn the truth because of flying up to the satellite that was left behind to watch the planet.

Now, I really don’t watch much anime; I realize it may not seem that way, but since I can’t stand giant robots that cuts out a lot of stuff right there. I’m looking for good stories, and frankly there’s too many releases and not enough places to go to get opinions on what’s good. In this case, I had seen the disc a few places, and picked it up on a whim based on the description on the back, and I think I got lucky.

The story draws on a number of well-worn tropes: a girl born to the royal family, but who is predicted by prophecy to bring about the end of the world. Left-over technological devices from long ago that can be revived and are treated as magical. Earnest young knights who grow up when they face death. Bitter old soldiers who rediscover their humanity. Tragic queens, pathetic and weak kings, national rivalries, lackadaisical musicians who have unsuspected depths… you name, it’s probably here, and well done to boot. Only a few of the exaggerated traits that often mar anime for Western viewers (overly broad comedy, and yes, giants fighting in the sky) are here, and by and large, they fit.

What is more surprising is that there actually emotional arcs to almost every character (oddly, the protagonist herself is an exception — she remains, as is perhaps part of the point, mostly buffeted about by circumstance. She is the choice others make — her own choices are rarely in doubt and rarely interesting). The story is about choice, really: when to grow up, whether to do the right thing out of habit or out of fresh commitment… I’m trying hard to avoid spoilers here, but suffice it to say that several times I turned to Kristen and commented, “OK, that worked a lot better than it should have,” or “You know, this would have made a really good thick novel.”

If anything, it’s only the storytelling execution that falters a little here; certain scenes that could have been so much more, certain characters that should have burst out with just a little bit more of an attitude at times. But all in all, this was a very pleasant suprise, especially compared to the compeltely lightweight and insigificant stuff that most fantasy anime turns out to be.

It’s easy to confuse Robert Charles Wilson with Robert Anton Wilson, but don’t. This one is the author of the widely-acclaimed Darwinia, which I am sad to say, I didn’t actually enjoy very much.

But I did enjoy Spin even though I wasn’t sure I would. One of the problems with this sort of hard SF is that it often gets caught up in the grandiose awe, the vast movements of galaxies, the cold intelligences of nano-bio-stellar-what-have-yous, that it forgets to actually tell a good story about people.

In this case, it might be reversed: the science-fictional part was to me, a little bit lacking. The core premise, of the world being wrapped in a membrane that slows down the perception of time whilst it proceeds merrily along outside low orbit, is only moderately novel (the “world in a box” thing is not only also in Scrapped Princess but is also in several other SF novels, and even the time thing is a toss-off in one of the Douglas Adams Hitchhiker books). Even the eventual reason, and for that matter the resolution, are somewhat familiar. What captivates is the way the story is told: impeccable writing (though there are several typos in the early chapters of the hardback edition), really well developed characters from a truly yet realistically dysfunctional family, a fairly evenhanded treatment of religion (though not as evenhanded as say, Contact, which I flashed on more than one)… the book just rarely stumbles.

If anything, the back cover blurb tells too much, so I won’t go into too much detail. The book is out in paperback now, so if you have a hankering for good SF that gives a plausible story of how humanity would react if the stars went out, give it a shot.