Summary:
Set in a near-future Southwest U.S. where global
warming and international wars have taken their toll on both people and the
environment, Proxies is a fast-paced cyber-thriller full of political intrigue,
fascinating technology and complex interpersonal relationships. It is told from
the point of view of three very different people: Pablo, Daniel and Carli.
Both Pablo and Daniel are “proxy” pilots. Proxies are
robotic waldo bodies that look like humans but are enhanced (super strong,
super fast and indestructible). Proxy pilots are humans who are able to “link”
their consciousness to their waldo bodies through complicated software and an
implanted jack in their skulls. Pablo and Daniel are very, very different,
though: Pablo has spent nearly all his life in various proxies and is never “in corpus”, whereas Daniel has trained
for piloting since becoming an adult, and is used to going back and forth
between his own flesh and his proxy. Though both of them work for secret
government projects that are experimenting with waldo technology, they are in
different groups and have very different approaches to reality and relationships.
As the book begins, Pablo is playing secret spy for “Mother”, the head of his
project, and Daniel is attempting to track down a “renegade” proxy. I won’t say
too much more so as not to spoil the plot, but I will say that we soon discover
that Pablo is more than he appears at first, and though he and Daniel do cross
paths, Daniel never really knows it.
Carli is the character at the heart of the novel, a bridge
of sorts between Pablo and Daniel. She is a brilliant, recently divorced
professor and scientist who early in her career discovered an instantaneous
communication technology. But that communication technology was stolen from her
and appropriated by a giant corporation, and due to their legal gag order, she
has never been able to go any farther with her work. She is also the daughter
of a powerful, wealthy senator, who is involved in the secret government waldo
technology projects. As the book begins, Carli is packing up her university
office and moving her things to her new office downtown, where she and a
colleague have created a new research company. But things start to unravel when
she meets Daniel, who has been sent to watch over her in case the renegade
tries to harm her. Daniel is forced to tell her about the renegade; Carli doesn’t
believe him and threatens him at gunpoint to leave her alone.
The plot thickens as Daniel continues to shadow Carli and we
learn more about the renegade, not to mention the grandiose secret plan that
Pablo’s “Mother” has for hijacking a spaceship. Then Carli gets kidnapped and
the stakes get higher and the action more exciting right up until the end of
the book, where Carli has to make an important decision about her own destiny.
What I liked:
For the most part, all the characters in this
book were real and nuanced, and it was easy to be sympathetic to their widely
varying motives. I especially liked Carli, and really identified with her
motives and choices. The near-future world that Mixon imagined was fascinating,
and definitely provided that “goshasensawunda” that good SF or Fantasy should. I
especially liked the way she imagined the ways that human civilization,
especially in an already hot and dry place like the U.S. Southwest, would have
to change and adapt due to global warming aftereffects. The politics of the
time and the alternate history (e.g. the global wars over Antarctica) that she
touched on lightly here and there felt real to me also. Though most of the
actual science and technology parts went right over my head and I sort of
skim-read whenever things got too detailed (disclaimer: I’m not one of those
who reads SF for the actual science, but rather for the overall
“goshasensawunda” stuff), the science and technology bits certainly had the
feel of authenticity and were consistently presented. The idea of “proxies” and
how they affected the people who piloted them was an interesting one to me, and
I liked how Mixon explored those issues throughout the story. I would have
liked even more exploration of those bits.
There were some great, page-turner climactic action
sequences involving the hijacking of the spaceship and the attempted rescue of
Carli towards the end of the book that I won’t spoil but I will say were really
well done. J
What didn’t work for me:
My main difficulty with this book
was that it was one of those spec fic reads that thrusts the reader immediately
into a very different world, multiple points-of-view, and a whole lot of
intrigue and action, and it took me probably the first 100 pages or so before I
really felt like I’d sorted out what was happening, whom to care about, and
what all these strange new words and technologies referred to. Luckily, there
was enough general “ooo shiny” ideas and interesting people/action to keep me
going, but it was a tough slog at first, and my brain felt very stretched
trying to comprehend it all at once. Some people really like that total
immersion and having to puzzle out what’s going on, and they may see this book
as an enjoyable challenge and fun mystery to unravel, so I’m not necessarily
saying this wasn’t well done, just that it was a little bit more than I wanted.
YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).
There were a lot of secondary characters in this book, and
it took awhile for me to figure out each of their places in the book as a whole,
and how much I needed to remember or care about each of them. Though all of
them were interestingly drawn (Mixon has a gift for characterization), I think
what was already a fairly complex and initially difficult-to-get-into book
could have been considerably simplified for the reader with the subtraction of
a few unnecessary characters/conflicts (e.g. Carli’s nephew Paint’s
ex-girlfriend Tania, or Carli’s mom’s spiritual advisor, or Daniel’s co-workers
Scott James and Leanne, or some of the scientists that worked with Pablo and
Mother).
I also think (and remember my disclaimer above, so YMMV)
that it would have been a simpler, more enticing and memorable read for me if
Mixon hadn’t put quite so much exploration of various kinds of futuristic technology
and science ideas in the book, but rather restrained herself to those that were
germane to the plot. For example, at one point Carli was “floating”
(experiencing by proxy) a probe mission to the sun, and that was certainly
interesting and cool, but wound up having relatively little to do with the
overall plot.
Overall reaction:
This was a book I had to really work at in
the beginning, but eventually I got into it and I was invested in finding out
what happened, and when I finished I wanted to read it again because I finally
understood it and I wanted to pick up the nuances I’d missed while I was
struggling with immersion into the world and characters.
If you like near-future, technologically and scientifically imaginative,
“hard” SF that also has well-drawn, complex characters and human relations,
you’ll like this book.
Chick Points:
[We award "chick points" from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) for each book we read. Point awards are of course totally subjective, but we hope they at least give a flavor of where a book stands on specific feminist subjects.]
Chick Points:
[We award "chick points" from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) for each book we read. Point awards are of course totally subjective, but we hope they at least give a flavor of where a book stands on specific feminist subjects.]
Strong Female Characters: @@@@@ (5 points out of 5)
I thought that Carli was a great character, and Mother was a
great believable creepy villain.
Treatment of Women in the Book: @@@@@ (5 points out of 5)
Women were definitely treated as full, complex human beings
in this book. Some were heroes, some were villains, but all were a good mix of
flaws and admirable qualities, and all of them had clear, reasonable
motivations. The other characters all treated women reasonably as well.
Appearance of Women in the Cover Art: @@@@@ (5 points out of
5)
The cover on the edition I read was pretty abstract, so
nothing to complain about here.
