Anyone
by
Charles Soule
This is a book about identity and technology – but that is only part of it. It’s an interesting and circumspect book that tries to consider many aspects of the human condition and what we do to ourselves and each other and do it through the prism of fiction and to me that is what the best sci-fi and speculative fiction do.
This is a story that follows two parallel narratives:
First is the story in our present(ish) time and it’s about a brilliant neuroscientist named Gabrielle White who accidentally invents a technology, while trying to cure Alzheimers disease, that will fundamentally shift the course of humanity; Second is a story that dives into the world of several decades after the birth of the technology known as “the flash” and follows the revenge journey of a young woman named Annami as she tries to uncover the dark secrets at the heart of the company NeOne and what they have done to humanity. And Annami has a dark secret of her own that she dares not let be uncovered!
There is body-hopping, morality plays, action and violence, touching human moments, some dark villainy and even some amusing moments in there. And none of it felt forced, for the most part I found it to feel true to the moment I was reading.
Charles Soule is a very effective writer – something I’ve learned from his many comics – and this is his first novel in my library and I’m glad to have read it. He has created a truly impressive gallery of characters here and from first to last, they are all interesting and that applies regardless of whether you love them or hate them. The second big challenge in a book like this is the handling of the technology itself, something that Mr. Soule does with a fine and nimble hand as we get a very nice and deep look at certain parts of the (fictional) science that draws from real-world neuroscience and creates a believable enough picture while pushing into the fantastic. He also lets the tale unfold at a very brisk speed and at no point can I remember feeling sluggish or as though anything was dragging its feet.
Frankly, the only part I was not as happy about as the story progressed, was that the future-story protagonist Annami, read to me more like an anti-hero than a hero and though Soule did try to present her situation as sympathetic – and believe me there are moments when it absolutely is! – but she didn’t start of as the most likeable and her motivation was straight out revenge, thereby making her more The Punisher and less Spider-Man. She was willing to cut corners and sacrifice things and even her actions as the story hurtled across the finish line somehow didn’t resonate for me and I almost wished there had been another choice. Perhaps I wanted a happy ending, but that’s just me – I’ve read enough dystopic tales and the like to know that some stories do not end happily ever after and some just end with chaos. This is more one kind than the other. The story of Dr. White on the other hand is more understandeable and she is someone I felt more empathy for, despite occassionally feeling she was perhaps a tad too arrogant, but that is often a flaw in the highly intelligent who believe they know better because of their intellect alone.
I read this book in two sittings and it was crafted well enough that it was able to not just draw me into the world and story, but it was genuinely intriguing. Mr. Soule knows how to tell an excellent and gripping story and the fact that he is able to generate such an engaging cast of characters who play so well between each other, including villains who feel like real proper villains, is a testament to his skills. Definitely a very enjoyable piece of science/speculative fiction that I would recommend reading.
One Happy Monk 
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