Bridge 108 by Anne Charnock

Published by 47North on February 18, 2020

Anne Charnock always brings a fresh, intelligent approach to her science fiction. Bridge 108 takes place in a dystopian future, but Charnock's focus is not on the panicked reaction of a disintegrating society to chaotic events. Rather, in calm but forceful prose, she addresses the political and personal implications of refugees who flee to England from southern Europe to escape drought and wildfires. Her story is a nuanced look at different perspectives of human trafficking and exploitation of refugees.

Caleb and his mother were walking to England from Spain. His mother planned to bring him to a reception center, where he would receive an inoculation against addictions, a way of controlling crime and compulsions. Along the way, however, Caleb’s mother succumbed to mental illness and abandoned him. Caleb hopes to find his father, who set off ahead of them.

A young woman named Skylark found Caleb in northern France. She warned Caleb that the reception center would assign him to a work camp where he would have to serve a period of indentured labor before earning an uncertain opportunity to live an independent life. Misbehavior or a failure to learn English and the names of all the British kings could result in his deportation, while the inoculations might make him “lose his spark.” Caleb agrees to let Skylark smuggle him into England, bypassing the reception center.

As the story begins, Caleb is twelve and working for Ma Lexie. Ma Lexie is part of an extended family that has cornered the recycling business in the enclave. She depends on illegal labor for her rooftop business, which consists of sewing and repairing recycled clothing that she sells at a market. Caleb works on the rooftop, where he has proven himself adept not just at sewing but at fashion design.

Caleb takes a shine to a girl on a neighboring rooftop. They communicate by throwing messages in plastic bottles back and forth. Eventually Caleb must make a choice between staying with Ma Lexie or joining the girl on a perilous journey.

Shifting perspectives give the reader different ways of understanding the society in which Caleb lives. To an immigration agent, Caleb is a victim of human trafficking, Skylark is evil because she smuggled him into England to work as a slave, and Ma Lexie's family is evil because they exploit refugees. When we see the world from the perspective of Skylark or Ma Lexie, however, they do not seem to be people of malicious intent.

A look at the government labor camps suggests that if refugees are exploited by people like Ma Lexie, they are more viciously exploited by the government. They do miserable work in fish farms, hoping that after ten years they might be given permission to pursue legal employment — a hope that is ruthlessly quashed when the government decides it is time to reduce the ranks of migrants by making arbitrary decisions to send some back home.

Caleb is a sympathetic character who embodies the hopes and fears of most refugees. He wants a simple but decent life, a chance to work for himself and to live with dignity. The immigration agent who first encounters Caleb seems well-intentioned if a bit shifty in his approach to the truth. Skylark, despite being labeled as a human trafficker, and Ma Lexie, despite being labeled as a person who exploits slave labor, both come across as caring individuals who sincerely want to help Caleb, even if they might be helping themselves at the same time.

Charnock thus advances a subtle understanding of illegal immigration. She illustrates how people who are condemned for breaking the law, including undocumented migrants and those who help or employ them, might be offering more benefit to society than the governments who condemn them. Like the best dystopian fiction, Bridge 108 imagines the future we might become based on the direction we are headed. The novel works as a cautionary tale but it also works as a well-told story about a young man who is trying to survive on his own terms.

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A Calculated Life by Anne Charnock

Published by 47North on September 24, 2013

What does it mean to live a "normal" life? Anne Charnock sheds light on human existence by looking at "normal" humans from the perspective of a genetically engineered human -- one who is designed to function without emotions or a sense of wonder.

Jayna is an analyst living in a near future England. She looks for correlations: crime and wind direction, a company's use of nautical metaphors and its stock performance, hydrogen consumption and anything. She is a biological simulant, more advanced than earlier models, more personable, more empathic, better able to fit in with organic workers. She studies stick insects as a hobby and spends her weekends in conversation (mostly about statistics) with the other simulants who share her segregated residential building.

In an effort to improve her analytic ability (as much a function of intuition as mathematics), Jayna decides to broaden her life experience by introducing random activities into her invariable daily routine. She must exercise caution because unpredictable behavior may cause the Constructors to reboot her. That happened to another simulant who decided to enter a new restaurant simply to taste the flavor of food he had not experienced. Even more shocking was the simulant who developed a sex drive. Jayna reasons that turning on the sense of smell in the new generation of simulants may be responsible for these undesirable traits.

By watching children at play and organic co-workers in their home environments, and by conducting small experiments, Jayna develops some theories about organic human behavior, although she has more questions than theories. Why do children incorporate stealing from each other into a game that involves negotiation and trading? How are children able to fight and then quickly become best friends again? Why do adults at a barbeque spend so much time talking about food? Why is vandalism so satisfying? Do humans evolve and devolve in a way that mimics stick insects?

A Calculated Life isn't necessarily a dystopian novel -- this is a future in which everyone has food and shelter and crime rates are low -- but the society it depicts is far from ideal. People are pigeonholed by a controlling government, channeled into careers they might find unsatisfying. Individuality is not valued, in organics or in simulants. Most organic humans have implants that make them behave sensibly, never losing their tempers, assuring a long productive life in middle management. It is this background, presented with a minimum of exposition, that makes A Calculated Life an intriguing novel.

The "robot yearning to be free" plot is conventional in science fiction but Charnock makes it seem fresh. A Calculated Life is a novel of observation rather than action, a quiet novel that leads to a contemplative resolution. Yet Charnock manages to build tension over the course of this short novel as Jayna experiences a growing sense of desperation while blossoming with the realization of human potential. There is a degree of elegance in the uncluttered prose that Charnock wields to introduce optimism into a pessimistic view of the future. The novel's message -- humans can be oppressed but human nature cannot be suppressed -- resonates in this skillfully told tale.

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