Existence by David Brin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
(2 and a half stars out of five)
Existence is the first book by David Brin that I have read. It is a curious blend of a novel of first contact, a tour through a near future earth, conspiracy theory and an almost seven hundred page primer on the Fermi Paradox. I came to the book with an open mind in light of the mixed reviews on Goodreads and other places. There were times while reading Existence where I felt very close to giving up. I slogged through, but it was a close run thing.
This is an idea driven as opposed to character or plot driven work of fiction. We are introduced to a number of characters, but as the book progresses, it becomes very difficult to keep track, or indeed to care much about most of the characters. In the very first chapter, we are introduced to a space “garbage collector” astronaut and his pet / helper cappuchin monkey. The astronaut character, Gerald Livingstone, stays with us till the very end, but he never really progresses much from being a simple plot device in the beginning of the book to ending up being an obvious mouth piece for the author by the end. Characters come and go, some pop up again towards the end of the book for no particular reason. Some turn up and dump huge amounts of information, and then go away. Some do so in extremely aggravating manners (including a “rastafarian” space scientist who has “aromatic smoke” coming out of his dreadlocks – really?).
So, if you are looking for plot driven science fiction, stay well away. If you are looking for characters that you can relate to, or who have a sense of humour, or who you may care about just a smidgen – this book is not for you. If, however, you love hard science fiction and have spent any time at all trying to figure out “Are we really alone out here?”, you are in for a treat.
The book starts with our space garbage collecting astronaut hero and his pet monkey picking out an alient artifact from Earth orbit. The first half of the book deals with the fallout. The book alternates between plot driven, character POV chapters, and, for want of a better description, information dumps – wrapped as excerpts from real and future fiction. Some of these chapters do feature our aromatic smoke spewing “rastafarian” as a talking head. With the author we get to explore various theories on the Fermi paradox (why has no-one said “hello” yet?), as well as the traps and pitfalls that may face an civilisation like ours as it reaches for the stars. Some of these segments are enlightening, some are entertaining and a few are rather dull.
Existence also gives us tentalising glimpes of near future with climate change, societal strife, and interesting political issues. To the book’s detriment, most end up being undeveloped plot dead ends. We also get to meet a number of aliens, but most are disappointingly human, yet quite devoid of humour. There is an entire subplot involving super-intelligent Dolphins which also peters out. We have re-incarnated Neanderthals, AI “citizens”, smart-mobs, and a number of other plot points that come and go without really moving the plot forward or adding anything to the overall narrative of the book.
Mr. Brin is clearly a man of ideas, his book positively overflows with them! I just wish he had sacrificed a few of these ideas and focused more on a coherent plot. This is an engaging read for those who enjoy hard science fiction and books on first contact.