New Book Alert: Reality Testing (Sunrise Book #1) by Grant Price; Intricate Science Fiction Novel About The Price Paid For Overabundance of Technology

 

New Book Alert: Reality Testing (Sunrise Book #1) by Grant Price; Intricate Science Fiction Novel About The Price Paid For Overabundance of Technology

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Overabundance of Technology is a common theme in Science Fiction. Usually, authors write about the cost of humanity and what we will turn into when our gadgets control us. Remember Ray Bradbury's short story "The Veldt" when two children who are so addicted to their virtual room that they order lions to attack their parents as they passively watch? Or Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 where the people were so influenced by the wall screens in their house that their intelligence was diminished and they willingly gave up their books to the firemen who burned them? Or Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers where interstellar travel and mobile power suits gave young Earth soldiers the power to wage war on the residents of alien planets? Or the many episodes of Twilight Zone and Outer Limits that show Artificial Intelligence becoming more human and their creators becoming less so? 

A key difference between those works and current science fiction is that those technologies had yet to exist so authors were left to imagine what they could and capture their best and worst qualities. Now, that technology is here and now. Authors don't have to imagine it. It's right here with social media, quantum computing, passenger space travel, smart housing, energy efficient means of travel, and so on. All an author has to do is follow the news and see the next step of where these technologies are going for better or worse. Science Fiction is becoming Science Fact faster than we thought that it would.

One of the current Science Fiction Novels which explores this theme is Reality Testing by Grant Price, the first book in a series that deals with a young woman rebelling against the dystopian future of a world destroyed by corporate greed, environmental catastrophe, and a cabal of governments, corporations, and scientists that use that technology on human guinea pigs. Again these are not new themes, but what makes this book good is the intricate plot and the benefit of using technology we see every day to higher and more frightening levels.

In Reality Testing, our protagonist and potential rebel is Mara Kizing, a mechanic who lives in near future Germany. She is inside a dream tank reliving her apparent murder of a man. As Mara makes her escape from the tank and the building in which this experiment is taking place, she remembers that she signed on for some project to get creds but the details are not yet known. It becomes clearer when she goes to see her wife, Jema and Jema doesn't recognize her. The techs at LINK inserted her mind and consciousness into a completely different body.  

Now Mara is on the run because of the escape and murder. Even though it means separation, Jema (who was already anxious about Mara signing up in the first place) suggests that she hide out in a semizdat settlement with one of the resistance groups like the Vanguard. After a violent encounter, Mara is left alone and seeks redemption by finding the Vanguard.

There are two distinct separate sections that explores the impact of technology so much that it is clearly emphasized in Price's writing. The first section is more technical as Mara stumbles through the city hiding from her pursuers. It is fascinating and horrifying as we look at this new transformed world. Berlin is awash with technology so much that it is omnipresent and suffocates the human elements as much as the dense polluted clouds overhead. The walls speak and sing every advertisement to the point that they become a cacophonous symphony. The "bulls" catch their prey using augmented eyes to scan information like a robot Gestapo. A person is not only killed but their information is erased from records as though they never existed.

The vidlinks are everywhere and give the power to turn anyone from hero to villain as they do for Mara by turning her into a coldblooded killer when she was really just a desperate woman longing to escape. Unemployment is high so people sign on to be test subjects in some of the most bizarre experiments.

Many of the experiments are not purposely completely explained possibly for future volumes, but also because these characters live in this environment and they know what they are. They are familiar and have been exposed to them their whole lives.

 However, Price leaves clues for the Reader to guess. For example, besides Mara's LINK, we are also told about the Seahorse project. We aren't completely given all the details but there are hints.  Volunteers are only men. Women are considered "obsos" or obsolete. A quick study of male seahorses and knowing that they can do what few biological male species can do naturally, well it doesn't leave much to the imagination what the Seahorse project is about. (The next volume should feature a man who has actually been through the Seahorse project to get a more inside view of what it's like.)

Because of the emphasis more on setting and world building, there isn't much on character except between Mara and Jema. They are a couple who are on their last nerve. Mara is a woman so desperate for money that she will put herself through physical torture. Jema is worried and anxious about her, but is tired of the danger, the stress, and is ready to file for divorce for a peace of mind.  It's doubtful that

if things didn't end up the way they did, that Mara and Jema would have had a happily ever after.

In contrast to the Berlin setting, when the plot shifts to the Vanguard we are given more emphasis on character and less on setting. We are shown a cooperative community which lives off of minimal technology. They use solar energy and grow their own food. The members plan acts of rebellion that go from mere pinpricks to major consequences. It's all nothing new but we see strong sense of character in this section that was absent in the previous.

Even before Mara encounters the Vanguard, we get a whole chapter devoted to their founder known as The Abbot. We learn that she was a scientist whose research was used for the Seahorse project. She abandoned her cushiony life and high paying job to fight the system that she had once been a member.

The Vanguard is very secretive. Many of the characters use pseudonyms and put Mara through a variety of tests to prove her loyalty. This is a group that is wary of outsiders almost paranoiac. But as some say just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that someone isn't out to get them.

 The suspicion is a natural reaction to a group that is close to and protective of their members and don't want to see them get hurt or destroyed. They have worked hard for this new way of life and don't want to see it go the way of the old one, especially when they have the chance to rebuild society and start over again and make it better.