Book: By Light Alone by Adam Roberts

A Few Thoughts

Before I begin properly let me state that my father hated science fiction. He was a scientist and there was no science in science fiction. In honor of my father I henceforth declare the novel By Light Alone to be a fantasy novel. There, now I feel better.

This fantasy novel is set in a world eerily like our own but ostensibly in the future. The basic premise is the optional genetic manipulation of humans so hair can provide sustenance by photosynthesis. Babies can imbibe the mutation through their mother's milk. This procedure was invented with the best of intentions and indeed the world now is free from hunger. And as with so many good intentions we shortly find ourselves in hell.

Class divisions have gone more wildly berserk with the extreme poor having nothing; now they reduced to begging for water. They must get minerals and protein by eating bugs and dirt from time to time. The wealthy meanwhile struggle with ennui and constantly seek sensation. They ostentatiously shave their heads (although they do not have the magical plant-like hair) and dine on carefully crafted delicacies, after skiing on ice cream covered slopes.

The book is really two books. One is a bleak satire on over-consumption and living life in denial of pain and difficulty. Needless to say the characters in this section are not terribly likeable. Unfortunately they are recognizable. The humor makes the underlying despair bearable.

The second book is a call to action on the side of the light eaters. A view into their grim existence, which again, seems disturbingly familiar. Mr. Roberts has few real answers to the problem of how to bridge the gaps between the haves and the have-nots, however while giving away as little as possible there are two moments in the book which seem to provide possibility. They both involve characters in flight, choosing connection. The choice of connection is not based on logic or ideology. It is based on passion, emotion and acknowledgement of biological connection, an acknowledgement of the possibility of love.

As I was pondering the book the following words came to me:

Cold hearted orb that rules the night,
removes the colours from our sight.
Red is grey, and yellow, white,
but we decide which is right,
and which is an illusion.

~ Graeme Edge (Moody Blues)

This book celebrates humanity as much as it deplores where we end up in our humanity. We have enormous inventiveness and creativity. Where we end up depends largely on our vision as we go along. When we create something, what world is envisioned by that creation. Are we creating a fantastic bauble for only a few? Are we creating something "for someone else's good", while allowing the supposed beneficiaries no input into what good they desire? In the end, we decide. It may still turn up pear-shaped, but we do decide.