Project Hanuman by Stewart Hotston
I would like to thank Angry Robot for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Angry Robot
Published – Out Now
Price – £9.99 paperback £6.85 ebook
The ship needed to hear voices, to know he was not alone. The pilot thought they were going to fight an enemy, to find someone responsible and mete out justice. The Interlocutor thought they were going to help. The ship only wanted to hear the chaos of life and know he wasn’t alone among the stars.
The Arcology is a pan galactic utopia whose people live entirely online. Tired of paradise, Praveenthi ‘Prab’ Saal had herself printed into the physical world of Sirajah’s Reach, working as an Interlocutor – a go between for the Arcology and the cultures it meets in flesh and blood.One evening after a call with her family - who are pressuring her to abandon her body and rejoin the Arcology, the city stops. Stops completely – nothing electronic works anymore. Terrified that the Arcology has just up and disappeared, she receives a call for help from a ship in dock whose pilot, Kercher, is a prisoner printed into a body to serve out his sentence in the physical world. Between them they discover it’s not just her planet, but the entire Arcology that’s gone missing. If they don’t find out what’s going on it could be the end of everyone and everything that calls the Arcology home.
Their only resource is their living ship, into which all the knowledge and culture of the Arcology has been downloaded. Asked to be a life raft for the Arcology, the ship, a frigate without a name, is dying – slowly being swallowed whole by the literal universe of information it’s been asked to carry.
Featuring worlds made entirely from gold, an enemy who has no consciousness, allies made of lichen and the grand Ring World of Akhanda - the physical heart of the Arcology. Prab and Kercher will need to put aside their dislike of each other and the Arcology if they’re to help their ship and save anything at all. Can they restore the possibility of hope to their lives?
Space opera for me is always going to need a sense of scale. We are so used to immense empires from Bank’s Culture in all its weirdness, the Commonwealth of Hamilton or more recently Leckie’s Radch or Martine’s Teixcalann’s Empire. We get that sense of immense scale, explore the idea of what being human can be and often it is how these civilisations play nicely (or not) with others that gives much of the conflict of a story. Now entering this list Stewart Hotston brings the fascinating Arcology in the excellent and absorbing science fiction novel Project Hanumen where unusually we find an immense empire on its last day as the most powerful force in the galaxy and only three very different characters may allow it to have a chance for rebirth.
The Arcology is vast, covering light years of space, with trillions of inhabitants taking all forms of life and in particular flourishing securely in the knowledge that they are the only group that can use the core parts of the universe to change matter itself – information. A group so vast that for most they live in virtual paradises outside of any physical bodies. There are though exceptions and Preveenthi ‘Prab’ Saal tired of the paradise sought a physical body outside of the dimensions the rest of her family lived. Now one of the Excluded she works as an Interlocutor someone who mediates for people between Arcology and anyone from the countless civilisations that its crosses paths with.
Currently living on the world Sirajah’s Reach Prab is one minute watching drunken hen parties embracing being drunk when notices all the endless communications she gets every day suddenly stop, as does power, as does the endless parade of ships coming in and out of space. Sirahjah’s Reach is for the firs time silent for the millions of people living there. She is also alerted that someone needs her to do her job. She finds from the Arcology a living ship and its pilot Hercher a prisoner of the Arcology now in a body designed for battle and piloting in difficult circumstances. The Arcology is under attack from a force as powerful as it is (possibly more powerful). An attack all around the galaxy in all the dimensions and now this trio may be the only way to save what s left of the Arcology from destruction.
Space Opera for me is often great at the spectacle and pyrotechnics but often can forget the human emotions and Hotson has a brilliant blend of making you feel the stakes. As an early example of this we meet Prab, get a nice summary of what the Arcology is and then we see the world suddenly stop. As she meets Kercher and the ship we are all set for no doubt adventures to begin but then it is revealed that no matter what happens next Sirajah’s World and all its inhabitants are now doomed with Arcology technology no longer working this planet’s environment will destroy life on it. It’s a brilliantly delivered punch to the stomach and that sets the scene for the book’s early chapters. We are so used to apocalypses as SFX we sometimes forget this means death on vast scales and this book makes us feel that shock which for me is quite unusual in the genre
We’re coming in on the last day of a galactic empire, and we see epic ringworlds, amazing spaceships and its all not enough. The invaders we meet are relentless, strange and we see just as strong as the Arcology was. It’s a shock to know your lovely way of life is about o stop forever and we feel that reverberate in our characters that its finally over. What I also then liked is a lot of the story is about how if you were once the most powerful force around don’t be surprised if everyone else around you is not entirely sad to see you fail.
Our main plot without too many reveals involves our trio going out with the sole remnant of the Arcology. A device now part of the living ship, consuming it but also honouring him with the name Hanuman. Prab, Kercher and Hanuman are now all that is left of the Arcology and are running desperately across the gaily pursued by the enemy trying to find safety while Hanauman’s processing powers weaken and the ship increasingly loses the ability to translate across space. What this section of the novel allows for is a smorgasbord of alien cultures from bacterial empires to spaceports where all sorts of groups work. There is definitely some schadenfreude going on as our trio realise there is often little love for an empire that has a perfect life, rarely shares its technology but interferes when it feels like (a similarity with western empires I am sure is pure coincidence!). Each alien race we meet is its own creation, its own framework of living and we get a sense of how big Hotson’s universe is and its getting on without the Arcology not rushing to save it.
That’s not just at a alien life level but also the locations. With ships being able to translate across the galaxy we visit gas giants, quasars, the emptiest possible part of space to bustling star systems and the way Hotston paints these pictures really worked for me. The writing style has great explanations of the science, pictures of wonder and when needed just a little touch of humour to prick the ego of the situation. This feels a universe constantly alive and bustling. That the Arcology is no longer around is more an opportunity for others to progress rather than a sadness, and that means our trio find allies short and potential people wanting that Arcology technology for themselves a lot. Space battles and negotiations are both delivered really well as set pieces and in the novel’s finale we see the deeps seated issues of the galaxy and the Arcology raise big questions as to what could happen next.
All of which would be an immensely satisfying read but I’ll finish that I loved the three core characters as they’re not quite what we are used to seeing. Yes, we are used to rebels becoming heroes but our three characters don’t quite fit the usual template. With Prab and Kercher we have people with fundamental issues with the Arcology. Prab hates the idea of a place that tells us what to do, Kercher has a really interesting backstory as to why they disagree with the unlimited power those in the Arcology have and then we have Hanuman a ship realising it can be far more than just a ship. Prab’s diplomacy skills neatly match Kercher’s body-programmed desire for battle at any opportunity and yet we see neither fully comfortable in those roles and they slowly learn to respect one another. Hanuman too as perhaps the sole true member of the Arcology has to learn to adapt to these two and it’s a shorthand for how the Arcology as we increasingly see for a utopia still was not perfect. The emotional journey these characters are on really pulls the book along and for me that’s something special. The links to Indian mythology will as the story progresses also underline these themes of power and responsibility.
Project Hanuman does something pretty special for me as the way it drops us into this mighty cataclysm so slyly means I was hooked very quickly. It really is one of those stories paced so well with changes of pace from space battles to more metaphysical ones in other dimensions that you’re never quite sure where we will end up next. That sense of wonder and vastness is polished and it’s a story that knows to not get too bogged down into side quests and mini adventures. That leanness really works well for the story, propelling us along and the adventure happens over a short space of time and yet the emotional toll on the characters is for me the real draw and the moral issues they face up to are the real stakes. By the end I was immensely satisfied but I would not at all be disappointed if Hotston revisited this changed universe again sometime however I think this underlines that Hotston is one of the most interesting U science fiction writers emerging on the scene and I very strongly recommend you grab hold of this!
