First published in the UK in 2012; published by Open Road Media on August 4, 2015
Finches of Mars is a political novel of the future. North America is dealing with war and terror and a depressed economy. Settlements on Mars, while funded by the United Universities, occupy six politically segregated towers (representing the West, China, other parts of Asia, Russia, Scandinavia, and at least some of the Middle East).
The colonization of Mars has not gone well. Babies are not born alive on Mars, except for the one that came out looking like an uncooked turkey. No colonist expects to return to Earth alive (those who have tried have rarely survived the trip), so finding a way to perpetuate life on Mars has acquired some urgency. The unwillingness of UU to commit additional funding or to provide adequate food supplies is a cause of concern for the new Martians. Debates rage about whether sending the best and the brightest to Mars is a bad idea when Earth needs them more desperately. Some believe that only outcasts are being sent to Mars.
All of this provides an interesting background for a novel that doesn’t have much of a plot. Dull characters experience random conflicts that fail to cohere into anything meaningful. I got the sense that in the novel’s second half, Brian Aldiss literally lost the plot.
Despite the novel’s promising setting, I found it difficult to sustain interest as I worked my way toward the ending. Even when characters are talking about sex (which they do frequently), their discussions are dull. Making sex dull is no easy task, but if this is (as I assume it must be) a novel of ideas, Aldiss managed to take the edge off of a number of ideas that he would have presented in a livelier fashion earlier in his career. The story comes across as a self-indulgent string of thoughts that are written for the author’s own amusement, not to entertain an audience.
The last twenty pages or so manage to recapture the plot in a surprising way. The ending doesn’t quite redeem the novel but it did make me glad that I did not abandon the novel before it concluded. Out of respect for Aldiss’ shining career, I would like to recommend this, but I would recommend instead that readers who are new to Aldiss start with something he wrote in his younger days. Non-Stop is one of my favorites.
NOT RECOMMENDED