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Harmony
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PHILIP K DICK AWARD
The aliens are here, all around us. They always have been. And now, one by one, they're destroying our cities.
Dodge Mercer deals in identities, which is fine until the day he deals the wrong identity and clan war breaks out. Hope Burren has no identity and no past, but she does have a multitude of voices filling her head.
In a world where nothing is as it seems, where humans are segregated and aliens can sing realities and tear worlds apart, Dodge and Hope lead a ragged band of survivors on a search for sanctuary in what may be the only hope for humankind.
The aliens are here, all around us. They always have been. And now, one by one, they're destroying our cities.
Dodge Mercer deals in identities, which is fine until the day he deals the wrong identity and clan war breaks out. Hope Burren has no identity and no past, but she does have a multitude of voices filling her head.
In a world where nothing is as it seems, where humans are segregated and aliens can sing realities and tear worlds apart, Dodge and Hope lead a ragged band of survivors on a search for sanctuary in what may be the only hope for humankind.
416 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 27, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
June 6, 2013
I started off very intrigued by the idea of this world -- the idea of a world where humans develop into a situation where aliens are already among us. Are, in fact, in control of us.
But really, it's just another fairly typical dystopia, in the execution, and the narration started to drive me up the wall. The short, snappy sentences.
Followed by a new paragraph.
To give impact.
To mimic the way a person thinks.
It really doesn't work for me.
But really, it's just another fairly typical dystopia, in the execution, and the narration started to drive me up the wall. The short, snappy sentences.
Followed by a new paragraph.
To give impact.
To mimic the way a person thinks.
It really doesn't work for me.
August 29, 2019
This is one of those 'What if?' stories which takes a different look at the Fermi Paradox (If the probably that alien life is out there is so high, why haven't we seen them?). However, it largely ignores that premise until right at the end. Instead, it's more of a social commentary dealing with segregation and how humans are viewed as 3th class citizens, or vermin. I liked the more 'alien' aspect of the aliens in that they're not another anthropomorphic stick-a-weird-head-on-a-human-body-and-make-it-wear-a-suit type that a lot of science fiction is guilty of doing. They live in alien structures doing incomprehensible things while the humans live in reservation areas eking out a living. I also like how the humans have a natural alien slant to the way they talk, having adopted the aliens' sub textural click language into their own. Rather than just a slightly irritating gimmick of having each spoken sentence prefixed with a click signifying intent and personal feeling, it does have a plot significance too, which slightly makes up for having to put up with it.
The story itself takes a little while to get going with the first chunk of the book mostly spent learning the local lingo and tech names and uses. We follow a human called Dodge who gives humans illegal identities so they can move about with more freedom than they ordinarily would. He gives the wrong identity to someone and events sort of take the story forward, but not as much as a thing that's going on anyway that's far more significant and... never addressed again. As a character, he's okay, mostly reacting to stuff that happens. There's a big reveal that turns him into a jerk for a bit, but then all is forgiven and that's all right then. The other characters also had potential interest, until they either are revealed to be 'Plot Device' or 'something really awesome - but not going to give further details'. I have questions!
It then turns into a 'the search for the rumoured safe place' story with the usual doubters and trust-in-a-dream tropes. It does have the advantage of showing us a bit more of this Earth, but then decides to not show anything.
The grand finale I would say falls heavily into the Doctor Who trap of pseudo-science mumbo-jumbo with a heavy dose of WTF? and an ending that's ... ‘and then they went home.’
Now it does finally give an interesting answer to the Fermi Paradox but it felt more like a punchline to a long, rambling joke you'd already forgotten the point to.
In all this felt like a really interesting and complex world, but with the lens on Dodger, everything else was out of focus. Far too much happened that wasn't explained or resolved or addressed. It didn't happen, but suppose a meteor crashed down and obliterated a huge chunk of the city, we'd get detail of all that happening, and then what Dodge had for breakfast followed him by making goo-goo eyes at some girl and then possibly going on some errand. There is no further mention of the huge crater or any attempt to rebuild or anything. The book is full of stuff like that, there's an oncoming threat that does last for a significant portion of the book, and then... - nope not going to mention that again, even though it's clearly not finished doing whatever it was doing.
A lot of great ideas, but very little follow-through.
The story itself takes a little while to get going with the first chunk of the book mostly spent learning the local lingo and tech names and uses. We follow a human called Dodge who gives humans illegal identities so they can move about with more freedom than they ordinarily would. He gives the wrong identity to someone and events sort of take the story forward, but not as much as a thing that's going on anyway that's far more significant and... never addressed again. As a character, he's okay, mostly reacting to stuff that happens. There's a big reveal that turns him into a jerk for a bit, but then all is forgiven and that's all right then. The other characters also had potential interest, until they either are revealed to be 'Plot Device' or 'something really awesome - but not going to give further details'. I have questions!
It then turns into a 'the search for the rumoured safe place' story with the usual doubters and trust-in-a-dream tropes. It does have the advantage of showing us a bit more of this Earth, but then decides to not show anything.
The grand finale I would say falls heavily into the Doctor Who trap of pseudo-science mumbo-jumbo with a heavy dose of WTF? and an ending that's ... ‘and then they went home.’
Now it does finally give an interesting answer to the Fermi Paradox but it felt more like a punchline to a long, rambling joke you'd already forgotten the point to.
In all this felt like a really interesting and complex world, but with the lens on Dodger, everything else was out of focus. Far too much happened that wasn't explained or resolved or addressed. It didn't happen, but suppose a meteor crashed down and obliterated a huge chunk of the city, we'd get detail of all that happening, and then what Dodge had for breakfast followed him by making goo-goo eyes at some girl and then possibly going on some errand. There is no further mention of the huge crater or any attempt to rebuild or anything. The book is full of stuff like that, there's an oncoming threat that does last for a significant portion of the book, and then... - nope not going to mention that again, even though it's clearly not finished doing whatever it was doing.
A lot of great ideas, but very little follow-through.
January 23, 2018
Back in the day I used to read a lot of SciFi so when I read the blurb of this book I thought it would be worth giving the author a try so I purchased the ebook. The premise of humans at the bottom of the pecking order in an Earth being ruled by aliens appealed. The book started OK but by the middle section I felt the author had lost his way in the story he was trying to tell. As the book progressed the pace became very plodding. There were far too many flashbacks to fill in the back story on various characters, this would have been far better had the characters evolved their stories as the book went along. The ending was rushed and, I felt, not worth the effort of my plodding through this book
June 6, 2012
INTRODUCTION: A few days ago I was quite surprised to notice that a book that seemed to be called either Alt.Human (love this title) or Harmony by Keith Brooke was published at the end of May. As I quite enjoyed The Accord especially for its wonderful style, I immediately looked for more information and then got the book asap.
"The aliens are here, all around us. They always have been. And now, one by one, they’re destroying our cities.
Dodge Mercer deals in identities, which is fine until the day he deals the wrong identity and clan war breaks out. Hope Burren has no identity and no past, but she does have a multitude of voices filling her head.
In a world where nothing is as it seems, where humans are segregated and aliens can sing realities and tear worlds apart, Dodge and Hope lead a ragged band of survivors on a search for sanctuary in what may be the only hope for humankind."
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: On finishing it, I was a little mixed about Harmony (alt.human in the UK) by Keith Brooke though I generally liked it and I really enjoyed the frantic first person narration and the final twist. However, for large parts of it Harmony had an adolescent feel and as I've seen its themes treated in an adult way much better, it turned out to be a pretty minor sf novel that like an airport thriller (see William Barton's When Heavens Fell for one of the best ever treatments of the themes of Harmony).
Harmony is also a Fermi paradox novel, though in this case instead of "where are they", they (ie the aliens) are everywhere and the humans are sort of serfs/pets restricted to IPP (Indigenous People's Preserves) ghettos where they live at the will of the powerful aliens who may - and do - kill them at their whim.
Dodge, a pid runner - every human has personal identification device nanos in his/her blood stream, who define where the human can go, and the local gangs into which the humans are generally divided found how to fake them - is involved with the saving of four human refugees from a destroyed city and later together with the mysterious girl Hope whom he has also saved earlier, tries to find the rumored last refuge of humanity called Harmony...
Harmony had a lot of possibilities - the sadly short descriptions of alien landscapes and cities on Earth was as good as sf goes, but very short - but the way the author chose to go, precluded them and turned the novel into "fugitive" on steroids. I will quote one long paragraph below which shows the sense of wonder I expect from sf and I wish the book would have tried to develop instead of turning into a generic action-adventure novel:
"Here, in Central, the roads were alive. Place your foot and the surface would arrange itself to your imprint; lift that foot and the surface gave you an extra push – wheeled vehicles got such a push from the road surfaces that they barely needed to propel themselves at all, or so I had been told.
All around, the buildings loomed above me. Buildings with mirrored fronts, moving images blending with what they reflected, so that it looked as if my inverted self was passing through a distorted, surreal landscape. Buildings that were all sharp angles and flat surfaces; buildings that were organically globular, jellied so that beings passed through apparently solid walls, absorbed into the bodies of the buildings. I did not know what was inside them; perhaps you passed through into air, like a normal building, or perhaps you remained in jelly or fluid as you conducted your business. Other buildings were covered in webbed silk nests that were alive with dragonflies and all varieties of flying creatures – the nests could have been the homes of sentient beings or they could have been the nests of parasites and vermin.
Looking up: the undersides of the mushroom towers were lit up with rhythmic traceries of light, all supported by implausibly slender central stalks. Flying vehicles darted and twisted; flying beings cut through the flow.
And all about, a seething, chaotic throng of bodies. Aliens of all varieties mixed with humans and trogs. The humans and nearly-men here were business-like, some of them half-mech, others cauled in alien webbing, controlled, not human at all.
The aliens walked on two legs, three, four or more; they floated on personal transports; they sat in self-contained personal environments, sealed off from the world. They strode, rolled, flitted, hopped, skittered, flew, ran... They travelled in all directions, yet appeared to know when to give way and when to plough on. They chattered, clicked, shrieked and yammered; they rumbled and groaned and whooped and roared. They smelled of urea and dung and decay, of perfumed flowers and sharp spices, of raw meat and chlorine.
There must be a billion cities like this on a million worlds. More. I couldn’t grasp the scale of the universe, couldn’t hold it in my head. Perhaps this was why we humans hid in our Ipps: we really were the hangers-on, unable to take the pace of being full members of such a diverse, galaxy-spanning community."
I read this "humans as serfs and pets of superior alien races" theme for the first time when I was about 10 in a Romanian sf magazine short story (a little bit surprisingly as the communist regime usually asked its writers for uplifting stories and downers were generally not allowed) and it impressed me a lot and stamped my love of sf, but that was 33 years ago and today I expect more sophistication which Keith Brooke amply demonstrated in his wonderful The Accord or in the paragraph above.
So overall, Harmony turned out to be a pretty engaging but ultimately minor sf.
"The aliens are here, all around us. They always have been. And now, one by one, they’re destroying our cities.
Dodge Mercer deals in identities, which is fine until the day he deals the wrong identity and clan war breaks out. Hope Burren has no identity and no past, but she does have a multitude of voices filling her head.
In a world where nothing is as it seems, where humans are segregated and aliens can sing realities and tear worlds apart, Dodge and Hope lead a ragged band of survivors on a search for sanctuary in what may be the only hope for humankind."
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: On finishing it, I was a little mixed about Harmony (alt.human in the UK) by Keith Brooke though I generally liked it and I really enjoyed the frantic first person narration and the final twist. However, for large parts of it Harmony had an adolescent feel and as I've seen its themes treated in an adult way much better, it turned out to be a pretty minor sf novel that like an airport thriller (see William Barton's When Heavens Fell for one of the best ever treatments of the themes of Harmony).
Harmony is also a Fermi paradox novel, though in this case instead of "where are they", they (ie the aliens) are everywhere and the humans are sort of serfs/pets restricted to IPP (Indigenous People's Preserves) ghettos where they live at the will of the powerful aliens who may - and do - kill them at their whim.
Dodge, a pid runner - every human has personal identification device nanos in his/her blood stream, who define where the human can go, and the local gangs into which the humans are generally divided found how to fake them - is involved with the saving of four human refugees from a destroyed city and later together with the mysterious girl Hope whom he has also saved earlier, tries to find the rumored last refuge of humanity called Harmony...
Harmony had a lot of possibilities - the sadly short descriptions of alien landscapes and cities on Earth was as good as sf goes, but very short - but the way the author chose to go, precluded them and turned the novel into "fugitive" on steroids. I will quote one long paragraph below which shows the sense of wonder I expect from sf and I wish the book would have tried to develop instead of turning into a generic action-adventure novel:
"Here, in Central, the roads were alive. Place your foot and the surface would arrange itself to your imprint; lift that foot and the surface gave you an extra push – wheeled vehicles got such a push from the road surfaces that they barely needed to propel themselves at all, or so I had been told.
All around, the buildings loomed above me. Buildings with mirrored fronts, moving images blending with what they reflected, so that it looked as if my inverted self was passing through a distorted, surreal landscape. Buildings that were all sharp angles and flat surfaces; buildings that were organically globular, jellied so that beings passed through apparently solid walls, absorbed into the bodies of the buildings. I did not know what was inside them; perhaps you passed through into air, like a normal building, or perhaps you remained in jelly or fluid as you conducted your business. Other buildings were covered in webbed silk nests that were alive with dragonflies and all varieties of flying creatures – the nests could have been the homes of sentient beings or they could have been the nests of parasites and vermin.
Looking up: the undersides of the mushroom towers were lit up with rhythmic traceries of light, all supported by implausibly slender central stalks. Flying vehicles darted and twisted; flying beings cut through the flow.
And all about, a seething, chaotic throng of bodies. Aliens of all varieties mixed with humans and trogs. The humans and nearly-men here were business-like, some of them half-mech, others cauled in alien webbing, controlled, not human at all.
The aliens walked on two legs, three, four or more; they floated on personal transports; they sat in self-contained personal environments, sealed off from the world. They strode, rolled, flitted, hopped, skittered, flew, ran... They travelled in all directions, yet appeared to know when to give way and when to plough on. They chattered, clicked, shrieked and yammered; they rumbled and groaned and whooped and roared. They smelled of urea and dung and decay, of perfumed flowers and sharp spices, of raw meat and chlorine.
There must be a billion cities like this on a million worlds. More. I couldn’t grasp the scale of the universe, couldn’t hold it in my head. Perhaps this was why we humans hid in our Ipps: we really were the hangers-on, unable to take the pace of being full members of such a diverse, galaxy-spanning community."
I read this "humans as serfs and pets of superior alien races" theme for the first time when I was about 10 in a Romanian sf magazine short story (a little bit surprisingly as the communist regime usually asked its writers for uplifting stories and downers were generally not allowed) and it impressed me a lot and stamped my love of sf, but that was 33 years ago and today I expect more sophistication which Keith Brooke amply demonstrated in his wonderful The Accord or in the paragraph above.
So overall, Harmony turned out to be a pretty engaging but ultimately minor sf.
June 25, 2022
I don’t know what to make of this book. I had never seen it before so when I saw it in a charity shop it seemed it would be “right up my street” I struggled to get into it and I had to force myself to carry on with it at one point, but then it got really good, then not so good, and then quite good again. The narrative is hard to follow at points. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it.
May 9, 2017
I really liked this book, it's well written and and it's a pretty original story. Parts of it were a little confusing, but you can still grasp what's going on. The ending kind of sucked, with no real closure for the 3 characters.
August 20, 2012
Abstract:
Some interesting ideas marred by old writing techniques and a plodding pacing. Not recommended except, maybe for those who want a new world created for them at the expense of plot and characterisation.
Full Review:
I bought Alt. Human on a whim, needing a new book for a long journey and fancying a bit of modern Science Fiction. Despite this, I have fairly strong expectations of the genre. With Science Fiction I look for an aspect or aspects of the Human Condition/known world abstracted and placed into a new environment/world that highlights these features and helps us understand them in the real world. Not a simple task, I'll grant you, and possibly not what every one looks for in SF.
Alt. Human certainly satisfies some of this desire. It is full of ideas and its central postulate is interesting. It has some quasi-philosophical ideas that are well worth a novel exploring and are interesting enough to be enjoyed simply as a picture of another universe.
So why, if it covers what I expect from an SF novel, do I feel exceptionally unsatisfied by this book?
Unfortunately, the interesting ideas and central theme are plagued by poor execution. I constantly felt like I was being told how characters were feeling, rather than seeing it. The first person narrator had a nasty habit of just telling me not only how he was feeling, but how he expected others were feeling. There were rarely any times when the reader was left to discover the characters themselves and surmise why they were reacting to situations in certain ways. This kept a constant distance between me and the characters and heavily reduced any emotional attachment I had for them.
There were also a large amount of repetitions. I felt like we were told the most simple of things about this new universe over and over again, while other aspects were left vague and hazy. This gave the the novel a young adult feeling, or possibly even younger, which then caused some of the stronger language to jar and once again drag the reader away from the story. I found myself getting increasingly frustrated half way through the book, as I became bored of the characters and yet kept getting told the same thing over and over again.
So this brings me on to the pacing. The start of the story was fairly brisk but once I got to the middle third, the narrative started to drag and feel more like filler than story progression. Even the dramatic action through these aspects were relegated to three or so lines of exposition that sapped any excitement from the prose. It felt like the author was desperate to skim this part of the story and get towards his 'big' finale.
Throughout the story there was also an excessive use of flashbacks, giving back story to the characters that, I felt, would have been far more interesting for the reader to discover through the central narrative rather than having these pauses in the adventure to fill us in on the details. I don't have a problem with some flashbacks, sometimes they are necessary, but there were far too many for my liking and this further affected the pacing and made the middle third of this book a real struggle to finish.
Oddly enough too, often it felt like the ideas of the story, the central point of it, were getting in the way of the narrative. It felt like they were two novels battling each other out on the pages. One was a crazy SF story with lots of weird quasi-philosophical thoughts and a bustling, brightly coloured world, the other was a more basic adventure romp (possibly adventure romance). The fighting between these two different narratives disrupted both of them, and while the adventure romp seemed to win out, leaving the quasi-philosophical thoughts to be a mere post script, the reader was (or at least I was) left feeling frustrated, unsatisfied, and frankly a little bit annoyed.
One last comment too. The world was no where near busy enough. The author seemed to want us to feel the bustle of a universe full of aliens, a whole world happening behind the central characters minor exploits. A whole bubbling pot of unknowable creatures and technology that we couldn't hope to understand. Yet, it felt rather 2D and thus rather bland. I remember how, with a few simple lines, Fahrenheit 451 made me feel that a whole, darker and scarier world was happening behind the central plot. It made the main characters plight, and his wife’s separation from reality, all the more poignant and threatening. Alt. Human, with vastly more words, was unable to create this lingering threat or tension behind the central story.
So, while Alt. Human (Harmony) had a bag full of ideas, is execution weakened those ideas, kept me distant from the characters and left me feeling frustrated. I'm sure the ending and some of the ideas may stick with readers, I don't think the story earned them. Any profundity of the idea was lost because the idea was not entwined into the narrative we were being told. It was in the world, but the world should be the window dressing of a strong narrative, not the main point shielded by an adventure romp.
Some interesting ideas marred by old writing techniques and a plodding pacing. Not recommended except, maybe for those who want a new world created for them at the expense of plot and characterisation.
Full Review:
I bought Alt. Human on a whim, needing a new book for a long journey and fancying a bit of modern Science Fiction. Despite this, I have fairly strong expectations of the genre. With Science Fiction I look for an aspect or aspects of the Human Condition/known world abstracted and placed into a new environment/world that highlights these features and helps us understand them in the real world. Not a simple task, I'll grant you, and possibly not what every one looks for in SF.
Alt. Human certainly satisfies some of this desire. It is full of ideas and its central postulate is interesting. It has some quasi-philosophical ideas that are well worth a novel exploring and are interesting enough to be enjoyed simply as a picture of another universe.
So why, if it covers what I expect from an SF novel, do I feel exceptionally unsatisfied by this book?
Unfortunately, the interesting ideas and central theme are plagued by poor execution. I constantly felt like I was being told how characters were feeling, rather than seeing it. The first person narrator had a nasty habit of just telling me not only how he was feeling, but how he expected others were feeling. There were rarely any times when the reader was left to discover the characters themselves and surmise why they were reacting to situations in certain ways. This kept a constant distance between me and the characters and heavily reduced any emotional attachment I had for them.
There were also a large amount of repetitions. I felt like we were told the most simple of things about this new universe over and over again, while other aspects were left vague and hazy. This gave the the novel a young adult feeling, or possibly even younger, which then caused some of the stronger language to jar and once again drag the reader away from the story. I found myself getting increasingly frustrated half way through the book, as I became bored of the characters and yet kept getting told the same thing over and over again.
So this brings me on to the pacing. The start of the story was fairly brisk but once I got to the middle third, the narrative started to drag and feel more like filler than story progression. Even the dramatic action through these aspects were relegated to three or so lines of exposition that sapped any excitement from the prose. It felt like the author was desperate to skim this part of the story and get towards his 'big' finale.
Throughout the story there was also an excessive use of flashbacks, giving back story to the characters that, I felt, would have been far more interesting for the reader to discover through the central narrative rather than having these pauses in the adventure to fill us in on the details. I don't have a problem with some flashbacks, sometimes they are necessary, but there were far too many for my liking and this further affected the pacing and made the middle third of this book a real struggle to finish.
Oddly enough too, often it felt like the ideas of the story, the central point of it, were getting in the way of the narrative. It felt like they were two novels battling each other out on the pages. One was a crazy SF story with lots of weird quasi-philosophical thoughts and a bustling, brightly coloured world, the other was a more basic adventure romp (possibly adventure romance). The fighting between these two different narratives disrupted both of them, and while the adventure romp seemed to win out, leaving the quasi-philosophical thoughts to be a mere post script, the reader was (or at least I was) left feeling frustrated, unsatisfied, and frankly a little bit annoyed.
One last comment too. The world was no where near busy enough. The author seemed to want us to feel the bustle of a universe full of aliens, a whole world happening behind the central characters minor exploits. A whole bubbling pot of unknowable creatures and technology that we couldn't hope to understand. Yet, it felt rather 2D and thus rather bland. I remember how, with a few simple lines, Fahrenheit 451 made me feel that a whole, darker and scarier world was happening behind the central plot. It made the main characters plight, and his wife’s separation from reality, all the more poignant and threatening. Alt. Human, with vastly more words, was unable to create this lingering threat or tension behind the central story.
So, while Alt. Human (Harmony) had a bag full of ideas, is execution weakened those ideas, kept me distant from the characters and left me feeling frustrated. I'm sure the ending and some of the ideas may stick with readers, I don't think the story earned them. Any profundity of the idea was lost because the idea was not entwined into the narrative we were being told. It was in the world, but the world should be the window dressing of a strong narrative, not the main point shielded by an adventure romp.
November 23, 2017
Oh GAWWWDDD, what a boring book. Jeezus CHRIST. I can't remember if I even finished it or gave up halfway through, I just remember feeling foolish for having made myself endure this...
June 29, 2012
A depressing grim-dark-meathook future, but not in the SF-traditional moralist way. Humans didn't do anything so-didactically *wrong* in this book; the aliens have just moved in and taken over. Lots and lots of aliens. They're nearly all incomprehensible aliens, with incomprehensible technology, and they've remade most of the planet into an unending array of what is, from our point of view, nightmare.
It's a depressing book because the human characters are convinced (correctly, and convincingly) that this is normal. They have some leverage (our protagonist hacks RFID microbes so that his friends can circumvent a few rules) but they don't think of themselves as an "alien resistance movement"; they're just humans who have avoided being killed (or mind-controlled, or randomly cyborged, or melted or whatever). They speak an alien-punctuated argot. They don't even think of Earth as their planet. They know they are "indigenes", but to most of them it's just a word, generally found in sentences like "You are not cleared to be outside the Indigenous Population Preserve after curfew."
So after all this is introduced, their terrible life gets worse; some faction of aliens has gone from violent indifference to plain old violence, and flying saucers are razing the human IPPs. Behold! Rumors of a far-off place where humans live in safety! The scrabbulous petty gangs of the city attempt to join up and migrate. In the meantime, a mysterious stranger is the destined...
This is about where the story goes off the rails. Phrases like "destined" and "mysterious quality of the human soul" start popping up. We eventually learn a *little* more about this world's history, but it anti-explains things; the book gets less plausible the farther it goes. The ultimate gimmick (there is an ultimate gimmick) is cute; I mean, I liked the idea and I see why the author wanted to write a book underneath it. I would probably have been impressed, way back when I was a teenager trying to find obscure Ann Maxwell novels. At this point, however, the grim-dark squalor is not shocking and the metaphysical gallimaufrey is not convincing, so I did not buy into the plot. This is a pity because it's *really* well-written.
It's a depressing book because the human characters are convinced (correctly, and convincingly) that this is normal. They have some leverage (our protagonist hacks RFID microbes so that his friends can circumvent a few rules) but they don't think of themselves as an "alien resistance movement"; they're just humans who have avoided being killed (or mind-controlled, or randomly cyborged, or melted or whatever). They speak an alien-punctuated argot. They don't even think of Earth as their planet. They know they are "indigenes", but to most of them it's just a word, generally found in sentences like "You are not cleared to be outside the Indigenous Population Preserve after curfew."
So after all this is introduced, their terrible life gets worse; some faction of aliens has gone from violent indifference to plain old violence, and flying saucers are razing the human IPPs. Behold! Rumors of a far-off place where humans live in safety! The scrabbulous petty gangs of the city attempt to join up and migrate. In the meantime, a mysterious stranger is the destined...
This is about where the story goes off the rails. Phrases like "destined" and "mysterious quality of the human soul" start popping up. We eventually learn a *little* more about this world's history, but it anti-explains things; the book gets less plausible the farther it goes. The ultimate gimmick (there is an ultimate gimmick) is cute; I mean, I liked the idea and I see why the author wanted to write a book underneath it. I would probably have been impressed, way back when I was a teenager trying to find obscure Ann Maxwell novels. At this point, however, the grim-dark squalor is not shocking and the metaphysical gallimaufrey is not convincing, so I did not buy into the plot. This is a pity because it's *really* well-written.
January 19, 2013
This book started okay and finished okay. I was taken in by the blurb, "What if we were never alone?"
What might that mean? It had so much potential, and it took so long to get past what I wanted to read to what I was actually reading. It had moments of steampunk, which I don't like, but what really bothered me was the narrative. Dodge narrated it mostly in first person, but there were sections that he narrated in third person, recounting Hope's experiences before they met. In my opinion the third person narration was the best, until we discovered that it was Dodge. He knew too much about what she was thinking and feeling.
It just didn't work the further into the story we went.
The story itself: again, it wasn't what I expected, which was humans watched by aliens. Instead, we got humans in an alien world. The premise didn't really make sense either. Humans are so special because ...
Yeah, right. Everyone wants to get rid of them, but they need them to get rid of something else. Yes, right.
Aside from that, the story had a nice build up, but you knew that something was going to go wrong. At the end, it goes wrong and right in a spectacular way, but then it ends without explanation. It just ENDS! The story doesn't leave much in the way of a sequel, so why not tell us what happened?
Disappointing.
What might that mean? It had so much potential, and it took so long to get past what I wanted to read to what I was actually reading. It had moments of steampunk, which I don't like, but what really bothered me was the narrative. Dodge narrated it mostly in first person, but there were sections that he narrated in third person, recounting Hope's experiences before they met. In my opinion the third person narration was the best, until we discovered that it was Dodge. He knew too much about what she was thinking and feeling.
It just didn't work the further into the story we went.
The story itself: again, it wasn't what I expected, which was humans watched by aliens. Instead, we got humans in an alien world. The premise didn't really make sense either. Humans are so special because ...
Yeah, right. Everyone wants to get rid of them, but they need them to get rid of something else. Yes, right.
Aside from that, the story had a nice build up, but you knew that something was going to go wrong. At the end, it goes wrong and right in a spectacular way, but then it ends without explanation. It just ENDS! The story doesn't leave much in the way of a sequel, so why not tell us what happened?
Disappointing.
January 30, 2015
I'm really pretty up in the air about this novel. One the one hand, I love a story that is really a long thought experiment. In this case, what if humanity emerged as a species only to find the earth already colonized by aliens. Aliens, that thought of us as pets, or slaves. Things to be used, discarded, and wiped out if we got in their way.
Now that's an interesting idea. And I loved it. It was that concept that made me get this book. I'd be tempted to give it five stars on the concept alone.
The reason that I only liked it, and didn't love it, was that while the story was well written, it wasn't as engaging as I would have liked. There was a lot of weirdness, and as many great ideas that were in there, it took a pretty long time for me to grasp the larger story.
So, I'd recommend it to anyone that wants to be challenged as reader. There aren't much by way of info dumps, and it would be easy to get lost trying to figure out what is going on. But if you can stick it out, I think its a worthwhile read. I get the feeling that even though I didn't enjoy it as much as a lot of other stories I've read recently, I'll remember this one long after the memories of many other tales begin to fade.
Now that's an interesting idea. And I loved it. It was that concept that made me get this book. I'd be tempted to give it five stars on the concept alone.
The reason that I only liked it, and didn't love it, was that while the story was well written, it wasn't as engaging as I would have liked. There was a lot of weirdness, and as many great ideas that were in there, it took a pretty long time for me to grasp the larger story.
So, I'd recommend it to anyone that wants to be challenged as reader. There aren't much by way of info dumps, and it would be easy to get lost trying to figure out what is going on. But if you can stick it out, I think its a worthwhile read. I get the feeling that even though I didn't enjoy it as much as a lot of other stories I've read recently, I'll remember this one long after the memories of many other tales begin to fade.
March 31, 2020
This novel had a great premise: humanity degraded to the bottom of the pecking order by aliens invaders. I thought it was interesting to see “raw” humans – without any culture or history. Unfortunately, we learned absolutely nothing about the aliens in this story, which was something which would have given the setting much more depth.
That being said, I enjoyed reading Harmony. The pace was solid and there was a lot of action. The characters acted reasonably, for the most part. Frankhay had a bit more depth than most, though we really only get to know three characters out of the lot; everyone else is just kind of there. Saneth intrigued me, but we learned nothing at all about them! Why were they helping the humans? What planet were they from? This leads back to the novel’s aforementioned biggest problem - no exposition.
I also disliked the cliff-hanger endings, which were distracting and took away from the tension rather than built it up.
What I liked the most out of the whole novel was the emotive speech, or "click".
It was an entertaining sci-fi novel, but it lacked the world-building that would have made it shine.
That being said, I enjoyed reading Harmony. The pace was solid and there was a lot of action. The characters acted reasonably, for the most part. Frankhay had a bit more depth than most, though we really only get to know three characters out of the lot; everyone else is just kind of there. Saneth intrigued me, but we learned nothing at all about them! Why were they helping the humans? What planet were they from? This leads back to the novel’s aforementioned biggest problem - no exposition.
I also disliked the cliff-hanger endings, which were distracting and took away from the tension rather than built it up.
What I liked the most out of the whole novel was the emotive speech, or "click".
It was an entertaining sci-fi novel, but it lacked the world-building that would have made it shine.
July 8, 2015
From the very first page Harmony gripped me, and held me until the very last sentence. An unforgettable, total-immersion experience. I loved the expansive plot full of color and mind bending ideas.
Humanity is reduced to a limited existence eeked out on small reservations. This earth is dominated by aliens. Dozens of different aliens, all above humanity in status, which is barely tolerated.
Some of the more memorable aliens included almost god-like Starsingers, grunt like orphids, and something called a sidedog, which can literally wrap up other beings--including humans--under it's flesh, safely concealing them while they experience shared senses.
I also thought the characters were very well defined, particularly Dodge, Hope, Skids, and the alien, Saneth.
So far, one of my top reads of the year, if not my top. It definitely makes my recommended SF list
Humanity is reduced to a limited existence eeked out on small reservations. This earth is dominated by aliens. Dozens of different aliens, all above humanity in status, which is barely tolerated.
Some of the more memorable aliens included almost god-like Starsingers, grunt like orphids, and something called a sidedog, which can literally wrap up other beings--including humans--under it's flesh, safely concealing them while they experience shared senses.
I also thought the characters were very well defined, particularly Dodge, Hope, Skids, and the alien, Saneth.
So far, one of my top reads of the year, if not my top. It definitely makes my recommended SF list
November 7, 2013
This book disappointed me a lot. I wasn't as put off by the writing style as some may be, once you get used to it, it's not a big deal.
What really upset me about this book was the fact that there was so much that could have been done with the story that simply was not. There was SO much material that the author had but never branched off of. There could have been so much more detail and story but instead I felt that after about halfway through, the author seemed rushed to end it.
I think that had the author had any interest in the story at all, it could have been made into an epic, long book or broken up into two books. I think the story, the setting and the characters had real potential and the author dropped the ball and what could have been a great book/series.
What really upset me about this book was the fact that there was so much that could have been done with the story that simply was not. There was SO much material that the author had but never branched off of. There could have been so much more detail and story but instead I felt that after about halfway through, the author seemed rushed to end it.
I think that had the author had any interest in the story at all, it could have been made into an epic, long book or broken up into two books. I think the story, the setting and the characters had real potential and the author dropped the ball and what could have been a great book/series.
December 17, 2017
My first book by Keith Brooke to read. I read most of it laying on the beach in San Juan, PR. Previously I had only read a couple of long stories that he and Eric Brown wrote. In fact, it was Eric Brown who recommended I read Harmony as well as Brooke's The Accord which I will read sometime. I enjoyed this book a lot. The pace was just right and I felt for the main characters. My only complaint would be that it would have been nice to have more description laid out about the various humanoid and non-humanoid beings when they first appeared in the plot. By the end of the novel I was still confused about who these different beings were, but that still did not ruin the book for me at all. I will read more by Brooke in the future.
September 15, 2012
This was an odd choice for me. I don't normally go for alien stories, I find them hard to picture and relate to, even the human characters in them. And I especially tend to avoid mean aliens... but that's just because there's only a certain amount of feeling generally unpleasant that I can take. So, odd choice. This looked intriguing from the back cover, though, and so I gave it a shot. The creepy things are appropriately creepy (I think - I'm clearly no expert on the subject). It was a bit more grim than I prefer. Parts of the story were straightforward, but I spent a lot of time trying to figure out things that were supposed to be understood, and what most of it was supposed to mean.
August 19, 2017
Very interesting book. I haven't read such thought and ideas before. It seems like a new idea in SciFi. A new addition to the ones what are always used in SciFi books.
I hope the writer's other books are as good as this one. Even half as good are enough for my taste. :)
Väga huvitav ja sisukas raamat. Iga lehekülg oli täis tegevust ning see lugu pani päris palju mõtlema. Vähemalt mulle tundub, et see autor on suutnud luua ulmes juurde uusi ideid, mitte kasutada neid midagi kümmet, mis kõikides ulmeraamatutes olema pidid ühel või teisel kujul. Kui selle autori muud raamatud on pooltki nii head, siis olen ma nüüdsest selle autori fänn.
I hope the writer's other books are as good as this one. Even half as good are enough for my taste. :)
Väga huvitav ja sisukas raamat. Iga lehekülg oli täis tegevust ning see lugu pani päris palju mõtlema. Vähemalt mulle tundub, et see autor on suutnud luua ulmes juurde uusi ideid, mitte kasutada neid midagi kümmet, mis kõikides ulmeraamatutes olema pidid ühel või teisel kujul. Kui selle autori muud raamatud on pooltki nii head, siis olen ma nüüdsest selle autori fänn.
February 10, 2013
Three and a half stars would be more accurate. There's a lot of fascinating worldbuilding here, presented very much in the "sink or swim" style where you're simply dropped into the world and must figure it out as you go. Neat stuff, but the pacing felt a little off...there's a lot of time spent setting the board, only to have the endgame sprung upon you faster than you expect. I'm not sure if I'd have preferred less setup (at the possible expense of less comprehension of the world) or more climax/denouement (which might remove some of the power of the "aha!" moment at the end), but it felt somewhat off-balance.
September 11, 2012
The concept behind the tale here is nothing new by any means, aliens living on Earth among humans who are more of a pet/social experiment to them. Brooke has approached the subject with absolute perfection though, the uprising defiance brought in the characters 'Dodge and Hope' and the frantic pace which you are dragged through from the first page onto the last. Told through two seperate first person narratives which complement each other no end. A very compelling, harsh and brutal look at human identity and determination to survive.
June 26, 2013
This is not about an alien invasion. Forget everything you know about those science fiction plots. Harmony(also known as alt.human) is a beautifully written adventure and an interesting exploration into human origins.
Read the full review on GeekyLibrary.
Read the full review on GeekyLibrary.
November 22, 2012
A set of very interesting ideas jigsawed together to make a credible, disturbing picture of a world on which humanity is the discarded indigene. Beautifully written, some wonderful xeno, reminiscent of China Mieville, but with an original flavour. I look forward to more from this writer.
April 14, 2013
Had this to read while camping, by the end I wanted to toss it in the fire.
The basic premise and underlying ideas were great. The first 2/3rds of the book were great. Then everything got squishy and lame. It's too bad; there was a TON of potential there and it was all shredded by the end.
The basic premise and underlying ideas were great. The first 2/3rds of the book were great. Then everything got squishy and lame. It's too bad; there was a TON of potential there and it was all shredded by the end.
April 22, 2014
Decent sci-fi (alternate universe). Excellent visualization of alien creatures. Very descriptive. I especially liked the "Click" language and the way I could tell the tone of all the characters.
It is a bit dark and moody (as most sci-fi), but a good read in the genre.
It is a bit dark and moody (as most sci-fi), but a good read in the genre.
February 25, 2015
It certainly was interesting and the author tries very hard to make something different in terms of setting and the aliens. But the resolution was so over-the-top that I had a problem with it.
Also, I think personally I'm worn out on "destroy everybody" storyline….
Also, I think personally I'm worn out on "destroy everybody" storyline….
December 10, 2012
Meh
kind of muddled and disjointed....
kind of muddled and disjointed....
June 7, 2013
Awesome, and then some. Really love how this is written.
August 6, 2013
fanstasy, has nothing to do with decent ideas. It was a painful waste of time.
March 7, 2015
As I remarked elsewhere, this was a book that made me want to read. Other things. The prose was flat. The central plot never truly gelled. Nor were the protagonists engaging.
June 3, 2017
In this story humans are a powerless minority, in a universe where they are oppressed by advanced aliens. the most advanced, called Star Singers, are able to create new realities in a local or more wide spread because they know everything about the universe. Human beings are new on the scene and represent an unknown factor that allow slightly less advanced aliens to control the S.tar Singers. This is the story of some of the humans trying to escape and create a new reality for themselves.
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