The Transcendent Tide completes Doug Johnston’s Enceladons trilogy, which started with the excellent The Space Between Us and continued with The Collapsing Wave—novels that use alien first contact to explore the very best and very worst of humanity. The Transcendent Tide moves the action to Greenland and is no less powerful on the subjects of power, greed, and ecological destruction.
Being in the third book in a trilogy, you should not start here. Go back and read The Space Between Us. You will not regret it! There are mild spoilers for the first two books from here on.
What Is The Transcendent Tide?
Eighteen months have passed since the Enceladons escaped Scotland and the US military. They now live in the Arctic Circle. When Ava’s daughter falls ill with a brain tumor, Ava, Lennox, and Vonnie travel to Greenland in the hope that Sandy can help Chloe.
They’re taken there by a concerned internet billionaire, who has become fascinated by the Enceladons and wants to learn more about them. Fully aware that billionaires don’t usually become billionaires due to their altruism, Lennox and Vonnie are mistrustful of Karl Jenson. They cannot divine his intentions. Why is he so interested in Sandy and the Enelcadons’ ability to communicate telepathically?
Why Read The Transendent Tide?
Switching the action to Greenland gives this final instalment a different angle from the previous two books. One of the novel’s key characters is Niviaq, an Inuit, who has returned to Greenland after several years studying abroad. She has a foot in two worlds. Through her, we learn about Inuit culture, particularly their attitudes toward the food cycle and the treatment of animals. The Inuit way of life matches the philosophy of the Enceladons in a way that Western commercial culture never could.
Counterpoint to this is the huge multimedia conglomerate with a billionaire at its helm. This sets up the central conflict in the novel, one that acts as a mirror to real-world politics. The destruction of the planet for profit and the unstoppable juggernaut of corporate greed.
Once again, Johnstone offers us the heroics of those who care about the planet and understand the interconnectedness of humans and nature. This is an unashamed novel about the importance of being kind, accepting of alternative cultures, and the short-sightedness of putting money over everything. It’s a rallying cry against the “might is right” attitude that seems to be coursing through our current political discourse.
While this new book espouses much the same message as the first two novels, much has changed since I read The Space Between Us, two short years ago. Then, I found myself full of hope that perhaps we could move towards life exemplified by the Encedalons. Now, The Transcendent Tide feels hopelessly idealistic; a novel shouting into a hurricane of willful ignorance. Doug Johnstone and Sandy haven’t changed, but the world has become an uglier, more desperate place in a very short space of time.
The Transcedent Tide offers a fitting conclusion to the trilogy. I particularly like the addition of Niviaq and the exploration of Inuit culture. We also learn what happened to the humans who travelled with Sandy when they left Scotland. Their evolution and experiences add another layer of interest to the story. As a trio, the books make a fascinating first-contact story, told using wonderful characters. Well worth a look for some gentle thought-provoking science fiction, even if the books might ultimately make you despair about the world in which we live.
If you would like to pick up a copy of The Transcendent Tide, you can do so here in the US (Released 18th November) and here, in the UK. (Affiliate Links)
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I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.
Fonte: GeekDad - Leia mais