Reflection's Edge

Book Review: Scardown, by Elizabeth Bear

Reviewer: Romie Stott

When the Canadian military needs spaceship pilots, there's a catch - to be fast enough for hyperspace, they need neural augmentation and a drug called "the Hammer." Master Warrant Officer Jenny Casey, a cyborged war veteran who swore she'd never work for the military again, finds herself back in uniform, piloting the starship Montreal and training teenagers to deal with their implants. As old enemies reappear and old grudges resurface, Casey must fight to protect her adopted family from a morass of intrigue and deception, some of it deadly. With the help of a brilliant AI physicist, a steel-jawed gangster, and a Chinese poet, she races to answer two questions: why is the government in such a hurry to get people off planet, and why did anonymous aliens provide the technology they need to do it?

Scardown is the sequel to Hammered. (Read RE's review here.)

Scardown is something rare in books of any genre: it's the center of a true trilogy. Although it picks up immediately after Hammered, and follows the same characters, a reader could skip Hammered without penalty - and like Hammered, Scardown ends with a satisfying resolution: an interesting new conflict has been revealed, but the problems from the beginning of the book have reached closure.

Scardown is the perfect example of how to write intrigue well. Bear lets a complex system grow out of simple parts, and the plot is closely tied to character decisions. Scardown's cast is huge; the point of view changes every few pages, and sometimes multiple times within a page - and yet a reader will never have trouble orienting herself. Each character is distinct without being a caricature, and their routines and locations are so different it would be hard to mistake one for another. Information is revealed exactly when it is needed, and only when it is needed. If Bear says something - anything - the reader can be sure it's important, and will affect the story immediately; there is no wasted time, no extraneous description.

Bear grounds the constant point-of-view changes by letting Casey, the main character, use first-person narration; it gives the reader something intimate to hold on to, and keeps the story centered. We always know the story will come back to Casey; always know to root for her; and always have a clear timeline to follow. Moreover, Bear never creates artificial tension with pointless characters or witheld information, which allows for true suspense; if there's a bomb under the table, the reader knows it (even if a character doesn't), and if a character disappears for 30 pages, it's because he's not doing anything important.

Scardown's emotional relationships are handled as well as its action and intrigue. Although there are some younger characters, most are middle-aged, with the attendant understanding of compromise. This leads to realistic, nuanced adult relationships, and the kinds of interactions that can only happen between people old enough to know who they are. In particular, there is a beautifully-handled three-way romance, with all the real-world problems of jealousy and simple logistics, but with characters determined to make it work.

Scardown's gaffes are so few that I can list them all here: there's a pun that will not make sense unless you know some Latin, and if you don't get it instantly, it will pull you out of the story for a second. Some of the dialogue is in French; it's not essential to the plot, but it will still frustrate readers who don't speak French, and it can't always be understood from context. The saying is "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades," not "almost." Hitler did not have only one testicle; that's Russian propaganda, based on an autopsy after his body had been in an explosion. Finally, toward the end of the book, just about every character is willing to sacrifice him- or herself heroically to save the world, and they all try to do it at the same time; although this is realistic, it will seem incredibly silly instead of noble and tragic if one is in the wrong mood. (Which doesn't mean it's not still enjoyable.)

All in all, Scardown is a wonderfully-written book, and should be a prerequisite for anyone who wants to write intrigue. Although it doesn't reinvent the cyberpunk genre with radically new science or philosophy, it uses the established conventions to tell a thoroughly engaging story, and tell it with a high degree of skill. It's engaging brain candy with surprising emotional insights - and some cool gun fights - and you won't be able to put it down.

To buy a copy of Scardown, click here.

If you liked this book, you may also enjoy:

Hammered, by Elizabeth Bear

The Postman, by David Brin

Startide Rising, by David Brin

Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson



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