[fantasyfan]

Science Fiction +

“In Ascension” by Martin MacInnes was the lone science fiction novel that reached the Booker Prize Long List for 2023. It is a remarkable challenging work and not a typical example of the genre.

Science fiction is sometimes thought as idea-oriented with less focus on characterisation. The typical literary worlds created tend to focus on scientific problems which generate extrapolation and experimentation. Causation is clearly defined and the characters exist within these constraints. This is especially true with “Hard” science fiction and Space Opera but character depth isn’t a major focus in many works in the genre.

“In Ascension” is certainly science fiction. The main character, Leigh, is a brilliant scientist with an obsession with her field. She is involved with a problem that must be solved scientifically; she works in a scientific environment; and the book is set in an ambiguous future in which climate change is a major factor. Further she is part of a program focused on interplanetary exploration in a spaceship.There are also, deftly presented, those expository sections so common in science fiction.

What makes this novel stand out in its genre is the brilliant intense character development. Leigh is the main narrative voice in the book. We get a great deal of her back story and relationships with her parents and sister. These—especially with her parents—have a crucial bearing on the kind of person she becomes. She has some astonishing visions and insights brilliantly described which are unforgettable and which do have a powerful bearing on her progress through the novel and on the philosophical undercurrent which reaches a brilliant conclusion. Helena, the younger sister, is a secondary narrator and her vision is as important as Leigh’s particularly in the final section. Even the side characters are not stereotypes and have definite personalities with significant narrative functions.
All this give the novel an astonishing reality—a narrative world with characters who are as interesting as the ideas the author explores.

I recommend it to all readers. It’s one of the best new science fiction books I have read.