Review (#13): "Guardians of Twilight" (Alkonyőrzők), a novel by Zsuzsa Bartos (Könyvmolyképző, 2016)

By Péter MARTON

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Definitely a book I can recommend to be translated into English.

The story is set in the far future of 2140. Biotechnology and genome-editing have seen huge advances, just in time to compensate for the effects of a pandemic which made most humans sterile. Designed humans co-inhabit Earth with some of the leftover as well as the ageing populations of the more "traditional" political entities... which are so traditional that successor clones are designed and imported for the wealthy among them -- and these traditional entities need working hands, too, of course, to avoid going extinct. Hybrid servants are designed for the fun of it (lion-human hybrids, for example), as well as hybrid and intelligent pets.

The incel movement wasn't so much on the radar at the time of the writing of the book as it is now, but they have their equivalents in the plot in the "Adamists" who basically want to gang-rape all women they encounter in the hope that they will find a fertile mother for a new humanity. In the meantime, the Fujairah Emirate (one of the actual constituent emirates of the UAE) is ruled by radical man-hating Feminists seeking global revenge on all men for the existence of the Adamist movement. Sounds complicated and interesting? I think it does. Reading the story I was faintly reminded of Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312 at times, with so many oddities and odd characters around.

At stake is the fate of a small girl who was born naturally but hidden (for this very reason) among designed kids by her father. The Fujairah Emirate wants to "save" her without her quite being aware of the need of being saved by them, and of course others want her, too, with different plans in mind. That's how things start out, and some thrilling action folllows, parts of it playing out in a strange, mostly depopulated Transylvania. We also get a bit of a love story towards the end, but fortunately all the metamorphosis occurs to ask some intriguing questions about the essence of humanity and human-ness, and as to what is natural or unnatural. Would parenting work, once parenthood becomes uncharted territory? Is it ethical to breed potentially unhealthy children if the technology exists to guarantee the newborn a healthy life? Is incest still a relevant notion in a world where babies are designed and brothers & sisters do not necessarily grow up in each other's company, and may be clones? What if we age differently, due to different genes, can love then still work between us? This is daring stuff, surely worth reading and considering (hence the recommendation above).

The plot's only weakness I can think of is the weak plausibility of the kind of pandemic that forms part of the premise. Pathogens usually cannot burn through the world's population so comprehensively as it is presented here, for a variety of reasons which I am happy to detail if this is requested in a comment. Otherwise, I saw reviews by some people complaining of finding it hard to put the premise of the book together, to follow the story, but I didn't sense this to be a problem myself -- go figure for yourself if you can, I guess.

Before wrapping up, here's a combined quote from an interview with the author (my translation). I couldn't sympathise more with her approach to writing (note that she is speaking about conditions in Hungary when saying it is impossible to live off writing):

"I am one of those who don't mind that it's impossible to live off writing. I need the capricious arbitrariness of inspiration and that you need to steal time for writing, to get into the mood for creating stories. I am coming from a modest background, from a small town at that, and instead of going to college I had lots of jobs by the age of twenty-two. I tried my luck in many things, to be able to get by. No matter if I was working in the field, waiting for dusk to come, or in the printing press, awaiting dawn, I had characters talking in my head all the time. I couldn't possibly put down all of it on paper, for lack of time. Yet I never dreamed of being a writer for a living. (...) If it stays a hobby, and it isn't money that motivates me, or the market dictating to me, I can maintain my passion and my freedom as a writer. (...) I think this is a blessing, even though the absent-mindedness that comes with it can be dangerous when you're walking the street, and it may make you negligent in your relationships sometimes, as a killer of friendships."

This is the author's personal page.

To close off, Alkonyőrzők came out with two different covers, interestingly. Decide for yourself which one may be better... Here's the alternative one.

Previously reviewed in EUtopias and Other Futures: "Extensa," a novel by Jacek Dukaj