Our reading list this month is eclectic, to say the least, from literary SciFi to mystery thriller, all marked by impressive world-building and storytelling Set in an alternative steampunk 1899, this novel is, at its core, an adventure saga that takes place primarily on a 20-car train—the Trans Siberian Express. Traveling from Beijing to Moscow over some 15 days, and across the Wastelands, the Express represents both luxury and danger. The Wastelands in this fictitious version is a Siberia teeming with unusual wildlife, with phantasmagorical phenomena, and strange bizarre occurrences, such that there’s something called the Wastelands sickness, which easily afflicts passengers on the Express, if they aren’t careful and vigilant.
A diverse cast of characters join the journey, each with an intriguing back story as to why they’ve boarded the train. There’s Zhang Weiwei, 16, whose whole life has been on board the train, where her Mother died in childbirth, and she’s been “adopted” by the train’s Captain. The new set of passengers on this specific fateful journey include Marya Petrovna who, traveling under a false name, is out to find justice for her late father who ran a glassworks company in Beijing.
Then there’s disgraced naturalist Henry Grey, seeking redemption via scientific specimens from the Wastelands, as well as the stowaway Elena, who’s discovered by Weiwei as a shadowy figure sympathetic to the wildness happening outside the train. As a debut novel, this allegorical tale about the natural world, about capitalism and empire, is brimming with confidence. It neatly balances the otherworldly with the events on the train.
Set in 1975, the novel opens with Barbara Van Laar going missing at a summer camp that’s located on the family estate. She’s 13 years old, daughter of the owner of the property surrounding the camp, and it’s reported how 14 years earlier, her elder brother Bear also disappeared. Nestled at the foot of the Adirondack in upstate New York, the novel hinges on multiple narrators or perspectives, in order to paint an engrossing portrait of the community its dynamics.
At one level, it’s about this rich, moneyed family and their circle who drive up from Manhattan, and the blue-collar workers of the family estate and summer camp. Then there’s the family tragedy and misfortune hounding the Van Laars. There’s extremely effective storytelling that jumps back and forth in time, going back to 1961 and Bear’s disappearance, and even the courtship of Peter and Alice, parents of Bear and Barbara.
Judyta, one of the investigators when Barbara vanishes, has chapters of her own, and it’s through her eyes that we come to understand the attitude of the local populace toward the Van Laar family through history. They’re interlopers, but bring money and jobs. They wield power and influence, and we’re ready to place the blame for Bear’s “abduction” at the feet of a local, who most felt was innocent of the charge.
The novel becomes a fascinating study of conflicting social circles, of deep and dark family secrets, of inheritance and second chances. By recounting a family tragedy, or two, we have this literary mystery thriller. For the first half of this novel, it would seem that Tchaikovsky has hit the motherlode, with a humor-filled, deadpan exposition of the existential life of a service android.
Charles is the Valet Unit of a recluse millionaire, rendering service along with a host of other specific task-oriented robots in his mansion. It’s what happens when Charles is shaving his master and accidentally slits his throat. What now is his purpose in this world? With no master, is his very existence negated, and what’s to become of him? What follows is a picaresque, quixotic search for new purpose in a world where humans are now a scarce commodity, and Charles just keeps running into other robots.
A commentary and satire on artificial labor and service, this novel is still another example of the wonderful world-building that’s become a Tchaikovsky trademark. It’s all written in such a tongue in cheek, emotionless manner, that we can’t help but laugh at the “serious absurdity.” While an intelligent AI, Charles is so street dumb he has to rely on another robot named Monk to go below the surface of what’s being said to him.
There is a robot ecosystem that’s just as hierarchical and crazy as what humans have constructed over history. And when Charles runs away from Central Diagnostics, we are treated to a road trip that explores this post-dystopian world, visiting a Central Library, a community of human Luddites, a robot “God,” and the lesson humanity had to learn the hard way..
