The Death I Gave Him By Em X Liu

I would like to thank Jess from Solaris for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Solaris

Published - Out Now

Price - £16.99 hardback £7.99 Kindle eBook

A Twenty-First Century Hamlet.

Hayden Lichfield’s life is ripped apart when he finds his father murdered in their lab, and the camera logs erased. The killer can only have been after one thing: the Sisyphus Formula the two of them developed together, which might one day reverse death itself. Hoping to lure the killer into the open, Hayden steals the research. In the process, he uncovers a recording his father made in the days before his death, and a dying wish: Avenge me…

With the lab on lockdown, Hayden is trapped with four other people—his uncle Charles, lab technician Gabriel Rasmussen, research intern Felicia Xia and their head of security, Felicia’s father Paul—one of whom must be the killer. His only sure ally is the lab’s resident artificial intelligence, Horatio, who has been his dear friend and companion since its creation. With his world collapsing, Hayden must navigate the building’s secrets, uncover his father’s lies, and push the boundaries of sanity in the pursuit of revenge.

Art be it theatre, film or in books has a important and symbiotic relationship with the reader. That’s how we can have so many different reactions when we consume it and when people build on and play with the source material. I never have a problem with a remaking or re-imagining of a tale I just ask that it brings something new to the table. In Em X Liu’s great The Death I Gave Him we have a tense poetical SF thriller that uses Hamlet as inspiration and we have a fascinating set of meditations on the meanings of life and death with compelling characters having a night that will transform their futures.

In 2047 at the mysterious building the locals often mutter about is Elsinore Labs is trying to change the laws of biology. Under the supervisions of the genius Dr Graham Lichfield and his smart yet chaotic son Hayden a experimental technique is looking very successful. But then Hayden finds Dr Lichfield murdered in his own lab. The building’s AI operating system Horatio cannot remember what happened or who last saw Dr Lichfield. The building goes into lockdown as now Hayden swears revenge on his father’s murderer. The suspects are (as well as himself) the scientist Rasmussen, Dr Lichfield’s brother Charles, Hayden’s estranged girlfriend Felicia and her father the security manager Paul. Hayden decides to do whatever hit takes to find the truth and seek revenge, but he will find his own hopes and fears tested to their limits in the process.

You may already spot the parallel with the most famous of Shakespeare’s plays but importantly Liu has made a number of decisions leading to diversions from the play in order to create something startlingly refreshing, powerful and beautiful to read. The tale of power and corruption in a royal court neatly transferred to a tale of corporate greed, obsessions and bad decisions that will have consequ3nces for all. It is delivered with style and Liu uses biological and scientific language as dark poetry always capturing the story’s themes of life and death and how these concepts are two sides of the same coin.

Felicia takes the role of Ophelia but while in the original tale she is just the innocent woman turned mad through what is done to her here Felicia is an active dynamic character in her own right. She is already over Hayden and knows this young man and his obsession with death is a bad thing. She is following her own path of ambition and makes decisions to protect her father and her career. We get felicia telling us her tale looking back on the events the story is about to tell us. A smart device to build tension and give us one character’s perspective on events (another key theme of the tale) Will she be Hayden’s ally or accuser. She is a fascinating character who can be vulnerable and strong at the same time and Liu pays with our sympathies towards her as events transpire. I loved trying to guess what she would do and felt all her conflict as she debated who she can trust.

In the role of Hamlet, we get Hayden, and I loved how Liu keeps the core character’s unknowability throughout the story. In the many versions of the tale Hamley can be mad, super smart, vulnerable or a pain in the neck thanks to their constant lack of decision-making. Liu conveys all of that often at once. What Liu does do brilliantly is show Hayden’s fragility. A young person fearful of failure, desperate for a father’s love and a person for whom death and self-harm offers a dangerous attraction. Hayden is less here the poster-boy for angst but with 21st century eyes someone with depression, deep loneliness and probably the events of his father’s death are pushing him closer to self-destruction. At the same time in the role of Horatio’s who is traditionally hamlet’s friend and confidant we have an AI intelligence. This version is loyal to the Lichfields and via a neural transmitter Hayden attaches to himself Horatio gets to see the person behind the many masks Hayden adopts as he investigates witnesses. This viewpoint I think gets to reveal Hayden’s true self to us as the story unveils but also unusually offers Hayden for the first time someone who understands him and just possibly loves him for who he is. It’s a developing AI/Human relationship I was not expecting and it’s a powerful bond that develops as both offers the other something they did not know they needed.

The central plot does follow standard lines as Dr Lichfield’s death is murdered. Liu does a great task of making everyone a potential suspect and our suspicions are raised that this will not end quite like the original story. What Liu brings is the power of obsession. Dr Lichfield casts a long shadow while dead but everyone is touched and in cases harmed by his lack of caring about anything else. The goal of beating death is a theme of the story. Being afraid of it; turning it into AI, reanimating corpses and more are all explored with a dark biological poetry that makes the tale gleam like a scalpel. That the take is being explored after the events gives us all sorts of near and future history notes which also brings the tale to life. We get to hear that this story sets many things in motion and has implication for everyone left alive. The final results are keeping us on the toes until the memorable final acts.

The Death I Gave Him delivers a powerful mix of compelling characters and brilliant SF ideas combined with a glorious use of language and construction that create a darkly entrancing tale. It respects the core material, builds on it and in places importantly challenges the material and in so doing creates a fresh and absorbing tale even those who have not seen Hamlet should enjoy. I loved it and strongly recommend that you pick it up!