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Well this is definitely the best novel I’ve read this year. Admittedly it is only March, but it beats most of last year too. As to what sort of book it is, I’m not so definite.
Most people have tried to define this as Science Fiction, and that is probably the closest you will get. It is indeed about science, about new scientific discoveries, and about the resulting changes in peoples lives, but it does not match the stereotypical SF archetype. For a start, most Science Fiction is actually Engineering Fiction. It is not about the scientist who discovers the nature of a time warp, it is about the engineer that makes a time machine. (Actually in most SF, the Scientist and the Engineer are the same person, but it is the time machine that makes the plot, not the time theory itself.)
Bellwether is about the science, and it never reaches the stage at which an engineering application of that science could take place. It does not have to as the science is the plot. And the characters that abound in real research institutions and corporations are the source of the devilish humour. If you have never worked in an area like that you will chuckle all the way through the book. If you have... you’ll be giggling for days.
Another problem for those who like to pigeon hole all books into nice little categories is that the science is not a “hard” science, like physics or genetics, but the “soft” science of human behaviour and the source of fads. I don’t have a problem with that, but some reviewers do.
Some people have even been so desperate to make this into a traditional SF novel that they interpreted it as being set in the future. Wake up! This is now, and if you want to catch up on what life is like at the turn of the century, then there is little better than this novel to bring you up to speed.
Criticisms? It’s too short. Not just in that I wished it could keep going, but also in the sense that more of the themes and areas should have been developed. While not implying that the book was too shallow, (it passes the test of exhibiting more jokes and references that you didn’t get the first time if you read it again), it could have been even deeper and more involving. Probably. Or maybe not. It is possible that the breezy, light nature of the book would have suffered a longer, more involved treatment, with more red herrings and dead ends.
Ideally I think Connie should rewrite the book as a much longer work, with some darker aspects, a more confusing plot, more obscure internal references and a better treatment of the Chaos theory. And then there would be two versions, one for the people who want a light, funny little novel, and one for those who want more.
And the science? Well it’s just possible that Ms Willis has actually described the real basis of human behaviour. Perhaps she should be given a research grant? Order Bellwether
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