A couple of posts ago I wrote about Solar Express, by L.E. Modesitt Jnr., and mentioned that I have Of Tangible Ghosts and The Ghost of the Revelator by this
author, but could recall nothing about them. I have now read them, and soon
realised why I couldn't recall them – I hadn't actually read them before! At
some point, they must accidentally have been put on the wrong shelf.
These are alternative universe stories, but of an unusual
kind. The setting is vaguely similar to the present day, but there are many
differences. The USA does not exist in its present form; instead there is the
smaller country of Columbia (very much dominated by its Dutch heritage) which
includes part of Canada (the remainder being French Quebec); New France
occupies most of the southern states, and Maximilian controls Mexico. Further
afield, the Austro-Hungarian Empire under Ferdinand VII dominates Europe (one
ironic touch: their ambassador to Columbia is called Schicklgruber), while
Japan and Chung Kuo have divided up eastern Asia.
Other minor differences: Babbage mechanical computers and
Stanley steam cars feature, and the histories of some well-known people are
rather different: e.g. Mozart obviously lives much longer, as music from his
"later period" is mentioned.
These differences are never directly explained, readers
having to glean what happened from odd comments (e.g. concerning "William
the Unfortunate" who invaded England). However, it gradually becomes
obvious that the political differences exist because major international
conflicts have been smaller and less frequent; in particular, the colossal
disruption of the two World Wars of the 20th century never took
place. The reason for this is down to one key factor: ghosts are real and
wander round for a while after death, being visible and even being able to
communicate with the living. The human population is uncomfortable with this,
so the existence of many ghosts (as results from warfare) devalues the areas
they haunt. So warfare, and in
particular mass destruction, has been restricted. Futhermore, the technology
had recently been developed to to create ghosts (by a mysterious process) by
separating them from their bodies; the uninhabited bodies, known as zombies, can
carry out simple manual work so this is used as a severe method of punishment.
Despite all of this, these stories are not really about an alternative universe, the plot
just happens to be set in one. The only specific reference to this is the
well-worn trope of the principal character finding an alternative world novel
in which there were no ghosts, and a much bigger Columbia was known as the
United States. Nothing much is made of this, however.
So to the story in Of
Tangible Ghosts: the principal character is Johan Eschbach, a former agent
of the Spazi (the Columbian internal security service) and previously a
government minister, who for political reasons has been retired to a lecturing
position in a provincial college. He has a considerable back history which is
revealed only gradually and obliquely, but it becomes clear that his wife and
child had died as a result of his previous roles. He becomes involved in
investigating the murder of another member of the college staff, and realises
that he is being set up by his political enemies in the government. He will
need every ounce of his considerable ingenuity to survive.
The author makes the reader work quite hard: it requires
concentration to keep up with the complex plot or to work out what might happen
next.
The Ghost of the
Revelator picks up Eschbach's story about a year later. During this time,
he has married the French soprano Llysette duBoise, his occasional girlfriend
in the first story. She takes on a much larger role because of her battle to
re-establish her singing reputation after arriving in Columbia as a refugee
from Austro-Hungarian persecution. She
is invited to perform in Deseret, effectively the Mormon Utah, which is a
separate country in this world. It becomes obvious to Eschbach that there is a
lot of complex plotting going on, including various attempts on their lives,
and once again his ingenuity is tested in saving them both. As before, it is
his specialist knowledge of ghost technology – for both creating and destroying
them – which is key to the plot.
The second novel is as unusual and creative as the first,
though it has some curious aspects. In particular, the author really goes
overboard in stressing duBoise's superlative singing ability, time after time (I
felt that he seemed to be falling in love with his own creation). After all of
the complexity leading up to the climax, Eschbach's final success seemed to be
surprisingly straightforward.
These stories are very different in style as well as content
to Solar Express, not too surprising
as they were written some 15-20 years earlier, but are equally worth
reading. Given the vast and varied output
of this author, I think I shall try sampling some of his other types of work.
