New Sci Fi: Osiris by E. J. Swift

I've been reading three recently published science fiction works. Each presents a different view of the future of humanity and the authors masterfully create those fictional worlds that are so important to the success of science-fiction novels.  Osiris by E. J. Swift presents a post-ecological-disaster Earth. The action takes place in the eponymous city of Osiris, near Patagonia, where the inhabitants believe that they are the last remnants of mankind. Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312 presents a robust, technologically-advanced solar system 300 years in the future with genetically-engineered humans and artificial intelligences at work terraforming and colonizing the planets, moons, and asteroids. When the Blue Shift Comes is a far-future two-part novella by Robert Silverberg and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro . As can be gleaned from its name, this story is about a collapsing universe at the far reaches of time. In Blue Shift, humanity has expanded far beyond our own galaxy and evolved far beyond our current body form over the course of millions (or perhaps billions) of years.

The characters in these three works are memorable - from Osiris' jaded, rebellious socialite Adelaide and firebrand activist Vikram from the wrong side of the city wall, to 2312's genetically altered Swan Er Hong, Inspector Genette (a “small”) and Fitz Wahram (a “Titan”) to the near-immortal Hanosz Prime and Kaivilda Kreidge of When the Blue Shift Comes.

 

Osiris is E. J. Swift's first novel although she has previously written shorter works of science fiction and fantasy. As she describes the book on her website, the novel is “set in a far future ocean metropolis, a failed utopia whose inhabitants believe they live on the last city on earth.”

Osiris is the name of the ancient Egyptian god who ruled the afterlife - the god of the underworld and the dead. The city Osiris in E. J. Swift's novel represents something of an afterlife also. Osiris is populated by the descendants of survivors of a great storm that flooded and destroyed the land masses on Earth. Since there have been no communications from the outside for 50 years, the inhabitants believe that their floating city contains the last human beings alive.

The city Osiris is forceably divided into two parts - the well-to-do society of the East and the “have nots” of the West. Social inequality and oppression are the order of the day - an early scene in the book is the public execution of one of Vikram's friends. 

Adelaide Rechnov and Vikram Bai are two of the more complex sci-fi characters that I've encountered. Osiris unfolds by alternating between their two points of view. Adelaide's obsessive concern is the disappearance of her mentally unstable twin, Axel. She is the only daughter of a prominent ruling family. Her grandfather, The Architect, was one of the city's founders. Estranged from her parents and brothers, Adelaide is the only one in her family who believes that her brother is still alive. Vikram is an activist who hopes for a peaceful improvement in the conditions of the West. Their paths cross when one of Adelaide's brothers offers Vikram an invitation to one of her infamous parties. After some false starts and conflicts, Vikram agrees to help Adelaide search for her brother and she agrees to help convince the governing council to aid the West. As their professional and personal relationship develops, Vikram and Adelaide are caught between sadistic, Gestapo-like “city guards” in the East and desperate revolutionaries in the West. Their fate is uncertain by the end of this first book and the Osiris Project promises to be an ambitious trilogy.  

 

[Next review: Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312]