Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I would like to thank Head of Zeus for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Head of Zeus
Published – Out Now
Price - £14.99 Hardcover ££5.59 Kindle eBook
WELCOME TO HELL CITY, MARS
Jimmy Martin has a sore head.
He's used to smuggling illegal data in his headspace. But this is the first time it has started talking to him.
The data claims to be a distinguished academic, author and civil rights activist.
It also claims to be a bear.
A bear named Honey.
Jimmy has nothing against bioforms – he's one himself, albeit one engineered out of human stock – and works with them everyday in Hell City, building the future, staking mankind's claim to a new world: Mars.
The problem is that humanity isn't the only entity with designs on the Red Planet. Out in the airless desert there is another presence. A novel intelligence, elusive, unknowable and potentially lethal.
And Honey is here to make contact with it, whether Jimmy likes it or not.
Publishing many people will tell you is slow. The books we see out this week were written often over a year ago or even more. Every now and then though a book can land by the strange way of the universe at a perfect time. Last year Paul Tremblay’s tale of a pandemic plague destroying America landed right in the middle of Covid’s first wave. Sometimes a book captures zeitgeist and helps you explore this moment. Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Bear Head is science fiction that does what great SF should - help us explore what is happening in the world in front od us but at the same time gives us some chilling ideas of where AI and the ability to control behaviour could take us.
In the future the concept of intelligent bio-forms – enhanced animals with human-like intelligence, emotional capacity (as well as increased strength) has been accepted for many years following the events of Dogs of War has meant that the world is now used to enhanced animals taking roles in society. But the pendulum of opinion has swung (or been nudged) backwards and people fear of getting their jobs replaced, Collaring (specific AI controls on behaviour) is increasingly talked about and behind all of this using the events for their own ends is the soon to be World Senator Thompson a feared operator not afraid to get his hands dirty while also creating mobs to do what he wants. Off Earth a new Martian colony is in the process of being built and Jimmy an enhanced human able to survive the Martian landscape was hoping more to afford to buy his next recreational drug score but instead finds himself downloaded with an AI that appears to claim it was a Bear called Honey and something is very very wrong.
Of course, I would never usually pun (halo shines) but Bear Head is a very different beast to Dogs of War. If that was a action focused tale which also explored char acters fighting for their rights this tale is much more an SF political thriller but one with a key point to make about our own recent politics and of course how some populists get so powerful. The high point is Tchaikovsky’s take on Thompson - a politician that seems all Id, eternally angry, unpredictable, uses others to do his dirty work and everything serves him including in a horrible scene where he has used AI technology to collar an female employee for compliance including for his sexual urges. Its fair to say Trump and a few others we can think of are being examined and I really liked how this story questions how such people can both flout society and yet be run by it. Tchaikovsky’s raises a fascinating question about human societies get taken over by such characters. It felt this week a very telling peace of analysis but in the novel Thomspon becomes this ever-felt slimy presence even when not in a scene he dominates the discussions and plot making him a truly compelling antagonist not quite our standard world dominating villain but something different and yet probably one of the evilest characters we’ve seen in a while with a master plan both egotistically low key and yet horribly brilliant.
The counterbalance to Thompson’s rise to power is split between Mars and Earth and focuses on Jimmy and his AI download which we find is Honey – who appeared in the first novel, but these days is a elderly but semi respected academic. Often consulted on Bioform rights but rarely allowed on panels to talk about any other subject she is familiar with. The story has a pointed look at tolerance in society and how people can be pushed into some good decisions such as the self sacrifices we saw in Dogs of War but once people feel economically threatened they’ll start putting dividing lines back in place. For those of us who have felt the last decade has swung away from the virtuous path again this will feel a familiar road and a reminder progress isn’t all one way. In powerful scenes we witness how Honey got herself into Jimmy’s head and the way we see Honey as an eloquent, funny, and good-hearted character will make those scenes harder to read. This story has some dark moments, but I felt well-handled and Jimmy and Honey having to work together in one head manages to be funny and yet often also poignant as both need to try to understand each other.
Adding a new dimension though is Mars and in particular Jimmy’s working-class not at all heroic character. We get to see a new spin on off world colonies and seeing humanity start to enhance themselves for other worlds is fascinating; yet at the same time we also see human’s bad habits continue. Drug dealing, black markets and treachery all lie in wait even on Mars. Despite that Jimmy while we see quite a desperately unhappy character manages even as he constantly complains to us in his chapters to have a more complex outlook on life than we expect. As Thompson’s plans finally reaches him, we see a battle for the best and worst parts of humanity in front of our eyes and adjacent the future of Bioforms who also need to decide who they want to aid.
This was a tremendously powerful read and I really appreciated how different the directions it went in from it’s predecessor which was also a great tale. It feels less than an ongoing story and more a particular SF universe being used to tell different stories (similar to Emma Newman’s Planetfall tales). We may or may not see another chapter in this universe I wouldn’t say no but I think it would again be very different based on some potential clues in the story. But I strongly recommend you read this story to help explore the world we currently live in and for me that’s the key to great science fiction. This one will stay in your mind talking to you long after you close the final pages.
