Mockeymen by Ian Watson

Published by Golden Gryphon Press on October 1, 2003

A prolific writer in the last quarter of the Twentieth Century, Ian Watson pushed the boundaries of science fiction while bringing literary style to the genre. Mockymen is his most recent novel not written with a collaborator (his first sf novel, The Embedding, was published in 1973). Mockeymen is a brilliantly written story that deserves a wider audience.

Mockeymen is divided into two parts, past and present (with a glimpse of the future at the end). In the story that takes place in the (recent) past, Chrissy Clarke and Steve Bryant manufacture custom jigsaw puzzles. Knut Alver commissions them to take nude photographs of themselves embracing sculptures in Oslo's Vinegard Park at midnight and to create puzzles from those pictures. Soon after accomplishing that task, they begin having nightmares. They become convinced that Alver had been involved in a Norwegian atrocity during World War II. Tormented by her nightmares, Chrissy returns to Oslo to discover the sinister purpose behind the photographs. This part of the novel works nicely as a stand-alone horror story with a really, really creepy ending.

What begins as a tale of the supernatural morphs into a science fiction story in the second (and longer) part of the novel. Set in the present (although the novel's present is our near future), the story involves aliens who arrived on Earth just in time to save the human race from famine and chaos. In exchange for food factories and fusion reactors, the aliens have provided a drug called Bliss to which humans seeking escape from reality flock. A small percentage of Bliss users enter into a permanent coma, and their bodies are provided to the aliens (known as Mockeymen) who use them to conduct trade or engage in sightseeing. Anne Sharman works for an intelligence agency that monitors the activities of the Mockeymen. When she begins to suspect that the aliens have an unspoken and unwelcome motive for occupying human bodies, she encounters a Bliss user who seems to have made an impossible recovery from his coma (sans alien). That character links the past and present stories. Sharman goes on to have an adventure of the sort that only Watson could conceive.

Mockeymen, while a bit more conventional than some of Watson's earlier efforts, is so beautifully written that it should appeal not just to sf fans but to all open minded readers who enjoy a well told tale. Apart from delivering an entertaining story, the novel considers some interesting philosophical questions about the relationship between mind and body. True, the questions aren't new -- as the novel points out, they've been posed since Descartes -- but science fiction has the power to illuminate difficult questions in ways that other forms of literature cannot. Science fiction fans who are bored with sagas of interstellar war and "world building" novels should find Mockeymen an enjoyable departure from the norm. The sharp writing, the skillfully-concocted characters, and the offbeat story combine to make Mockeymen a worthwhile read.

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Deathhunter by Ian Watson

First published in 1981

In Ian Watson's 1981 novel Deathhunter, western nations have ended war and violence by embracing death rather than fearing it. When it is time to die (as determined by disease or the census office), the designated decedents-to-be report to a House of Death where a death counselor guides them to a peaceful end. Jim Todhunter is a death counselor who is transferred to a new location just before a ceremony will be held to honor the poet who is largely responsible for the public's welcoming acceptance of voluntary death. The poet is scheduled to die but his death does not occur as planned (there's nothing peaceful about it). Todhunter must deal with the aftermath of the poet's death.

Deathhunter is an unfortunate title, conveying a pulpish feel that doesn't do justice to the novel's philosophical and literary ambition. The story jets off in unexpected directions involving out-of-body experiences and the destination of souls. Lest you think that its use of souls makes this a religious tract rather than a novel, be assured that a satisfying twist at the end calls into question everything that transpires earlier in the story. The novel is creative, offbeat, funny (the schmaltzy poetry that the public adores is hilarious) and smart.

When so many science fiction novelists produce epic sagas of interstellar conflict and are busy building worlds and universes, it's worth revisiting the writers who exercised their powerful imaginations on a smaller scale. Watson expanded the genre's boundaries with unconventional novels in the 1970's and 1980's. Deathhunter is one of his more successful efforts.

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