Songs Of Chaos

by S.N. Lewitt

The stunning new novel from the acclaimed author of Cybernetic Jungle. On an Earth where everyone is scientifically designed to be perfect, Dante is a genetic misfit kept in a government-run complex. When a suspicious fire kills everyone but him, Dante becomes the final target in a plan to rid the planet of all misfits.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

228 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 1993

About the author

Alternate Known Names:

Shariann Lewitt

Shariann N. Lewitt

S.N. Lewitt

Gordon Kendall - pseudonym also for Susan Shwartz

Reviews

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

On a future Earth where everyone is genetically designed to be perfect Dante McCall is a misfit. Viral treatments to cure his asthma didn’t take but instead warped his perceptions so that he was unfit for Normal interaction. He escapes a fire in the home where he lived and boards a spaceship about to launch. That ship is picked up by a rogue trader, the Mangueira. On board Mangueira, Dante, being Italian and knowing Spanish, can just about make out the language used aboard, Brazilian Portuguese due to the origin of its large crew. Its occupants are known to the rest of humanity as Malandros. Their ship-board life is dominated by samba dancing and singing. ‘Dancing changes body and brain chemistry and makes us more receptive, more reactive.’ Dante is at first as much of a misfit here as he was on Earth.
Lewitt makes no concessions to the reader at this point. Life on board is presented as it is and the reader has to decipher it along with Dante. As he does, so do we.
A feature of Mangueira is the prevalence of birds, especially hyacinth macaws, which can speak and turn out to be the repository of the Malandros’ history. “All together they form the memory and central processing unit of Mangueira.”
Further plot intrudes when Veronica, a spy from another Trader ship, boards. Her father was Malandro but she can’t remember much of what he told her. As time goes by she gradually assimilates to life on Mangueira and goes native.
There is a lot going on here. The idea of a space faring group making a virtue of singing and dancing, continuing the Brazilian tradition of Carnival, that songs are the records and contributions of a ship’s people, is beguiling. However, we also have genetic manipulation. Malandros were manufactured, like the birds. Altered with a virus so that their genetic structure included bioactive interface chips - invented and made illegal before the first emigrés left Earth. It is bred into them, to go down through the generations. A man called Jorge Almovardo had created the living machine and was later burned for it in a Charismatic Revival.
Dante too has been (illegally) manipulated, subject to perception of time-shift, with which he can change his own past, “all the reality he had ever lived.”
Songs of Chaos is a good, solid piece of Science Fiction all the better for its unusual setting and background.

[Stephen Poltz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dante McCall, the main character of this book, gets into a situation where he doesn’t know what the hell is going on. For the first half of this book, I could really relate to him because I couldn’t figure out what was going on either. I was just longing for something, even obnoxious exposition, to let me in on the secret to understanding. Finally, in the second half of the book, things come together, and with very little exposition. I have to hand it to Lewitt, she did a good job of esoteric world-building, throwing the reader into it full on, and then slowly revealing what it’s all about.

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[Johanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brazilian space-pirates do Carnaval. But not a *silly* book. You really need to concentrate for this - I did feel like I was running to keep up with the various revelations about how things actually work aboard the ship. Touches on some interesting philosophical concepts and moral dilemmas. Nice warm feeling at the end.

[Althea Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have liked Shariann Lewitt ever since I met her at a signing years and years ago - she was just an AWESOME person.
Songs of Chaos is a fun, easy read - though not without its darkness. It's notable for it's colorful unusual influence - Brazilian Carnevale.
Dante McCall is a misfit on a future Earth where everyone is genetically engineered to be 'normal.' But when everyone - except him - from his halfway house dies in a suspicious fire, events lead him to escape off-planet with a plan to join the interplanetary Traders. But an encounter with the pirate/scavenger Malendros change that plan. His life saved by the girl Fatima - a misfit among her own people - he's adopted into this space tribe: the descendants of Brazilian samba students (?) who are seemingly obsessed with nothing but their preparations for their festive parties and Parades, and, oddly, the colorful parrots that have free rein on their spaceship. But there may be more going on here than meets the eye...

The book is short, and not that 'deep' - there were several elements that could have been more thought out, delved into, or just expounded on further... but overall, this was a very entertaining book.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly unique tale of Dante, a young man who doesn't really fit in among the Normals in the Eurostates because he has asthma and special over-developed senses.

He hides on a trader ship and eventually finds himself living in a very strange environment of Portuguese space traders that the rest of the Eurostates consider to be pirates. Inthis society, dance and musical/artistic talent is highly prized, and Dante struggles but finds himself more and more at home in this place.

More about culture than outer space, but a highly unusual and vivid tale of a possible future.

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's nothing new here, still an entertaining and enjoyable read. Well worth the time.