Eskridge, Kelley: Solitaire
Solitaire (2002)
Written by: Kelley Eskridge
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 341 (Trade Paperback)
Disclaimer: free copy from publisher
Why I Read It: Don't hold me to this, but I think I first heard of this book when I was doing a little post-read research for Nicola Griffith's Slow River. I learned that Griffith's partner was Kelley Eskridge and that Eskridge was a writer, most notably for Solitaire. I thought, "That's nice." I also saw it pop up on the Nebula ballot for 2002 (where it was up against Gaiman's American Gods, which won, and Le Guin's The Other Wind (which I need to read) and Miéville's Perdido Street Station (which is epic in and of itself), so that's tough competition!). Every time I saw a copy of the book, it was used, so I didn't give it much thought until I heard that Small Beer Press was re-releasing it, and then lo and behold, LibraryThing had copies for review in their Early Reviewers program. I snagged a copy and read it as soon as I could.
The premise: ganked from publisher's website: Jackal Segura is a Hope: born to responsibility and privilege as a symbol of a fledgling world government. Soon she’ll become part of the global administration, sponsored by the huge corporation that houses, feeds, employs, and protects her and everyone she loves. Then, just as she discovers that everything she knows is a lie, she becomes a pariah, a murderer: a person with no community and no future. Grief-stricken and alone, she is put into an experimental program designed to inflict the experience of years of solitary confinement in a few short months: virtual confinement in a sealed cell within her own mind. Afterward, branded and despised, she returns to a world she no longer knows. Struggling to make her way, she has a chance to rediscover her life, her love, and her soul-in a strange place of shattered hopes and new beginnings called Solitaire.
Spoilers, yay or nay?: Nay. This is a quiet read that doesn't allow much in terms of spoilers anyway, at least not what's beyond the backcover blurb, which is the premise shown above.
Thumbs Up: It's not often that a book sucks me in within the span of a few pages and captivates me. I'd barely finished the second chapter when I emailed a writer friend of mine and told her she needed to get her hands on this book. I can't put my finger on why I was so captivated, mind you, other than the story unfolds from a single point, the appearance of Jackal, and from that point on, we're fed all kinds of little details about who she is, and with that, we learn all kinds of little details of how the world works and why. It fascinated me. I always forget what good, solid, soft SF can do for me as a reader, but when I sit down with something like this, it's amazing that I ever forgot to begin with.
The world-building caught my interest right away: Jackal's status as a Hope and what that meant to the world economy, the fact the world has united under EarthGov, and from there, just so many little details. This is the kind of SF that keeps my social intellect happy, the kind of SF that just shows us people living in the futuristic world they've been born to, the kind of SF that doesn't worry about punching us hard with big bang actions scenes to keep our attention. This kind of fiction relies on character and prose, and if neither interest you, you need to put the book down.
But I was fascinated with both. Here's a passage with a sentence in it that I fell in love with.
"You're strong," Jackal said, impressed.
"Not really. She is mostly bones and sadness, and those don't weigh so much." (p. 312)
Also, the last painting of Estar's that we see? Totally love the imagery.
Jackal is a character I found a huge amount of sympathy for: she's intelligent but lacking in confidence, and watching the process of discovering who and what she is is both beautiful and heartbreaking, the latter because I think, at least until the end, Jackal is always, unintentionally, a fake no matter what crowd she's a part of.
In truth, this is a hard book to discuss, just because so much of this I enjoyed on a deep level, that it's hard for me to articulate all the little things I loved and all the little things the book is doing. It's something I internalized, if that makes sense. I will say this, though, about stuff I noticed that I thought was cool. This book has this odd little tiny theme of body language and what people say to others without saying anything at all. This isn't the usual garbage either, but a real focus on the overall body frame, which I found fascinating. However, if this sounds weird to you, maybe it's just a me thing. Still, I loved how body language was a part of this story without being a major plot point or a major cultural indicator. It's normal, every day stuff, and I was impressed with it.
Thumbs Down: OMG! The italics!!!!!
Don't get me wrong, I tend to like italics. While some readers/writers might think it juvenile, I like it when thoughts or flashbacks are set off in italics because it gives the reader a visual clue for the upcoming gearshift.
What I don't like is when I have italicized passages that are not only half a paragraph, but stop in the middle of a sentence, and CLEARLY DO NOT NEED TO BE ITALICIZED. It started around page 163, and it just kept happening through-out the book. Again, these are passages that are clearly meant to be NORMAL text, and these are GLARING errors. I hope that in the next print run, Small Beer Press catches these rogue italics and sets them straight (literally) because it makes the book look very sloppy. Worse, it makes me wonder whether or not I'm supposed to be seeing Jackal's reality short-circuit or something, so I was preparing for an epic big twist that never happened.
Please, for the love of everything pure and good, FIX THE ROGUE ITALICS.
There were other little nitpicks in the prose. A section where Sawyer, who's been referred to as Sawyer since we met him, starts getting referred to as Jeremy, and then I finally realize it wasn't a search and replace gone wrong on the name, but rather the character's full name: Jeremy Sawyer. Ow, my eyes. If you're going to so that to the reader, don't use two first names that'll confuse the bejeezus out of us. Give us a fighting chance to figure out you're shifting to the first name now! :)
I also had a teeny problem believing that while Jackal was in virtual confinement, her muscles would be electro-stimulated every two real-days. I had trouble with that because when I was in the hospital for gallbladder surgery, they kept the leg wraps on me that constantly vibrating to keep blood-clots from forming because I wasn't very mobile. Maybe blood flow and muscle simulation are different things (okay, no maybe, they ARE), but it just seems odd that her muscles wouldn't be stimulated for at least part of a single day, every day. Then again, I'm no doctor.
My Rating
Must Read: Really, there's not a lot I can say about this because I think it'd take a second read to really get to point where I could look at it critically. It's a beautiful, quiet soft science fiction novel that's all character-centric. I was hooked before the first chapter was over, and I inhaled all of the little details about the character and the world. The book isn't perfect--my edition has some serious problems with rogue underlining, and the act that lands Jackal is prison is a little tough to swallow, but the scene captivated me nonetheless. So not only is this a book I'd recommend to SF fans looking for women writers in the genre, but I'd also recommend this book as an excellent example of a non-white heroine as well as one who's a lesbian. And those two items is just icing on the cake: the story, the writing, it's all about Jackal herself and what she has to go through to find some small measure of peace. It's a satisfying book, and I'm glad I got my hands on it.
Buy or Borrow: It depends on how much you enjoy reading soft SF. Fans of the sub-genre really don't want to miss this, whereas people who have trouble with character-driven stories in SF that have little to no big action may want to sample this before investing their cash in it. Normally, I pass on free copies that I get from the publisher, but I'm keeping this one, and may one day try to buy copies for people I know who will like them. :)
Cover Commentary: I'm torn. On one hand, great job selecting the model, as she reminded me of a friend of mine, and I kept imagining my friend as Jackal. I'm not totally fond of the background and the choice of fonts: it looks a little too self-published for my taste; however, given what VC is supposed to be for Jackal and everyone else, the gray background makes all the sense in the world. It's an elegant cover, I will give it that. I just wish it had a little more oomph. :)
Next up: The Executioness by Tobias S. Buckell