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Merari by Mari AthertonTraditional science fiction as it used to be written
Mari Atherton's second novel is unashamedly solid, traditional science-fiction and displays a lightness of touch reminiscent of Connie Willis' screwball comedies.
Mari Atherton is a Texan whose first novel -- The Dreamer’s Way – was published by Swimming Kangaroo Books in early 2006. Her second novel – Merari -- followed soon afterwards, and she is working on a third, “though not as quickly as my publisher would like,” she writes. Merari is set on the exotic world of Mariantha, settled centuries earlier by genetically engineered humans, who now live symbiotically alongside the Synthesis, a giant telepathic fungus that eats waste products, including metal and plastic, and provides in return nutritionally targeted food for the humans. Aviv Gerbo, interplanetary salesman, and his AI, Albert E are passing through the Marianthan system. When his craft malfunctions, Aviv sends a mayday and is forced to abandon ship. Mariantha is screened from the hundreds human-settled worlds by a force shield that cloaks the planet from sensors. But not all of Marianthan society is happy with the status quo, and a member of a dissident group called Unity allows the screens to drop for a moment, permitting the escape pod to pass through. On crashlanding, Aviv is nearly captured by a Secure, one of the Marianthan security forces, but he manages to escape and blunders into Merari, a beautiful surrogate, genetically engineered to carry babies for members of Marianthan society. Merari herself is a misfit and agrees to help him hide. But Merari finds herself in danger when her mother miscarries, and when she learns the truth must make a stark choice – whether to stay with Aviv, and doom her people, or abandon him and return with the information that will save them? In the early chapters especially, Atherton displays a lightness of touch reminiscent of Connie Willis’ screwball comedies, but the tone gradually darkens as the novel progresses. Interestingly for an American, both Merari and The Dreamer’s Way show a preoccupation with class – both are set in rigidly hierarchical societies – as if Atherton is concerned that American society is polarizing into haves and have-nots. The society of Mariantha seems a little too stratified to be truly sustainable for the several centuries that the planet has been isolated, and if Atherton’s villains especially are comparatively one-dimensional, seeming to exist solely to be villainous and to oppose the heroes and heroines, and her dialogue is occasionally a little too folksy to be truly interplanetary, (“they don’t have a brain between them” and “It’s no big deal” are two examples that spring to mind) this is offset by a plot that fairly rattles along, and plenty of invention, as well as engaging protagonists. This is unashamedly solid, traditional science-fiction as it used to be written, and which is already winning Atherton a following. Her third novel should be interesting, when it finally appears.
The copyright of the article Merari by Mari Atherton in Modern American Fiction is owned by Colin Harvey. Permission to republish Merari by Mari Atherton in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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