Brain Plague
Joan Slonczewski's Brain Plague is an entertaining read with plenty of interesting developments; however, after reading, teaching, and loving Slonczewski's A Door Into Ocean, which is a careful examination of nonviolence and gender, philosophically interesting as well as carried along by an interesting plot, Brain Plague falls short.
The central character, Chrysoberyl, is an artist who chooses to become a carrier of the "brain plague" (really not a disease but a colony of "micropeople" who live in the brain and communicate with the carrier) in order to help her art. This is a cool premise, one that seems to promise an exploration of what it means to be human, what counts as the self (and the self's creation) when the self is inhabited by other beings, especially if those beings are intelligent and communicative.
But this isn't really what we get in this book. Instead of an exploration of those issues/questions, or even a continuation of the question of the micropeople's intelligence, humanity, or individual rights, a question that was first raised in the previous book of this series (The Children Star), we get an adventure story about Chrys's attempts to survive the transition to being a carrier, her struggle to survive the prejudices of the rest of the world against carriers (seen as plague-ridden and dangerous), and the politics of power among carriers (who tests the others, who carries the dangerous microbes, who is trying to subvert the system, etc.). We also get a bit of romance toward the end, but this doesn't make up for the dearth of philosophical or political insight.
This is not at all a bad book, just, I suppose, not what I had expected. If you have not already read it, I highly recommend Joan Slonczewski's earlier novel set in this universe, A Door Into Ocean. I would also recommend Daughter of Elysium, her second book in this series. The latter two, however, The Children Star and Brain Plague, I could take or leave.
The central character, Chrysoberyl, is an artist who chooses to become a carrier of the "brain plague" (really not a disease but a colony of "micropeople" who live in the brain and communicate with the carrier) in order to help her art. This is a cool premise, one that seems to promise an exploration of what it means to be human, what counts as the self (and the self's creation) when the self is inhabited by other beings, especially if those beings are intelligent and communicative.
But this isn't really what we get in this book. Instead of an exploration of those issues/questions, or even a continuation of the question of the micropeople's intelligence, humanity, or individual rights, a question that was first raised in the previous book of this series (The Children Star), we get an adventure story about Chrys's attempts to survive the transition to being a carrier, her struggle to survive the prejudices of the rest of the world against carriers (seen as plague-ridden and dangerous), and the politics of power among carriers (who tests the others, who carries the dangerous microbes, who is trying to subvert the system, etc.). We also get a bit of romance toward the end, but this doesn't make up for the dearth of philosophical or political insight.
This is not at all a bad book, just, I suppose, not what I had expected. If you have not already read it, I highly recommend Joan Slonczewski's earlier novel set in this universe, A Door Into Ocean. I would also recommend Daughter of Elysium, her second book in this series. The latter two, however, The Children Star and Brain Plague, I could take or leave.