Sister Alice by Robert Reed
01/05/2003 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 

Pub: Orbit/Time Warner. 408 page paperback. Price: £ 6.99(UK). ISBN: 1-84149-125-X.

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This book is not a follow-up to last year’s ‘Marrow’ novel. Whatever author Robert Reed is writing right now, it isn’t this one. The five original stories of ‘Sister Alice’ were published in the US ‘Asimov’s SF’ magazine from 1993-2000.

Considering the poor distribution of said mag in the UK, this does present an interesting opportunity to see the complete work. They are also fortunate to be a reasonably coherent read considering the spread.

Set about ten million years into our future, mankind and several other alien races are thriving in the galaxy. We don’t really see much of them to draw any comparison to how we’ve evolved.

Instead, we focus on a few families who have god-like ‘talents’ or abilities who on maturity travel the cosmos creating new worlds.

They also procreate by cloning. The Chamberlain Family receives back one of the originals, Alice, who later confesses to a heinous crime and is stripped of her powers - no one says quite how that’s achieved - and imprisoned for a millennia. One of the later off-spring, Ord, is befriended by her and over the course of the novel, out to prove her innocence and complete her job.

This has to be a very peculiar balancing act. We’re essentially dealing with godlike beings who still have somewhat 20th century foibles so we can understand what they’re about and doing.

In many respects, in ten million years, you’d have thought we’d have learnt something better by then. Author Reed doesn’t dwell on how such beings can be stripped of their powers and, I suspect, doesn’t see that as essential to the story.

In many ways, this is almost like a countryboy version of the future. The families live in an apparent rural area, fighting amongst themselves, being tortured and seemingly dying in fights and being resurrected to hone their abilities. It’s only when they leave Earth to contribute to the universe that we see something of their true nature but that’s not always explicit.

Although author Reed keeps some things vague, one can’t fault his interesting characters. [Mind you, considering Asimov’s SF mag’s guidelines indicates they are interested in character-orientated stories, this shouldn’t be a surprise.]

The story is readable but I couldn’t help wishing he could have been a bit more precise with the more SF aspect of their abilities. As Robert Reed is one of the new authors that has to be watched, seeing some of his earlier work now must be considered a must.

GF Willmetts