Masque

by F. Paul Wilson, Matthew Costello, Michael Prichard (Narrator)

Tristan, an artificially created being, is sent on a mission that can bring destiny - or genocide - to an entire race.

UNABRIDGED / 9 cassettes

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Thriller, Cyberpunk

Audio Cassette

First published April 1, 1998

About the author

Francis Paul Wilson is an author, born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He writes novels and short stories primarily in the science fiction and horror genres. His debut novel was Healer (1976). Wilson is also a part-time practicing family physician. He made his first sales in 1970 to Analog and continued to write science fiction throughout the seventies. In 1981 he ventured into the horror genre with the international bestseller, The Keep, and helped define the field throughout the rest of the decade. In the 1990s he became a true genre hopper, moving from science fiction to horror to medical thrillers and branching into interactive scripting for Disney Interactive and other multimedia companies. He, along with Matthew J. Costello, created and scripted FTL Newsfeed which ran daily on the Sci-Fi Channel from 1992-1996.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/fpaulw...

Reviews

[David Agranoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been reading mostly new releases lately so this is kinda of a random book for me in a couple ways. Anyone following my reviews knows F.Paul Wilson is one of my top five writers easily, his ability to pace and structure a novel is the best on the planet. I admit I had not heard of Matthew Costello before but Dr. Wilson was the main draw. and the story.

Look I picked this up at a used bookstore that was going out of business and the corny cover made me laugh. That said It is one of my favorite authors and when I read the back cover description I was sold.

This novel is set a century or two in the future in a dystopia, I got the feeling these future earthlings had survived a nuclear war or a ecological collapse but that was a bit vague. Don't misunderstand me this novel is effective and many things one of which is world building. No matter how strange this world was it felt fully developed. This was important because the concept was such a vital part of the story.

At the heart was a very interesting character Tristan. Indentured to a corporation Tristan is not a normal person. He is a perfect spy because his genetically engineered to be a shapeshifter. The people with metamorphic DNA are called "mimes" and for good reason they are very mistrusted in this world. Tristan wants to be locked into one form and finally get citizenship. To get these things he must complete one mission.

What follows is a strange cyberpunk spy novel that is not as streamlined as I used to with Wilson. One of his strengths is no frills narratives that fly! The level of weird here was source of constant enjoyment for this reader. Former mimes turned religious leaders, Mutant underground clubs, and hero constantly changing identity. Tristan gets dragged into plot to kill off all Mimes and can't trust anyone.

First off this novel is 19 years old so some of the technology and terms you would expect to feel out of date. Not really, the most out of date thing in this novel is the Max Headroom-ish cover art. The elements of Noir,spy thrillers and Cyberpunk are perfectly executed.

Keep in mind also that being that it was released in 1998 it was ahead of it's time. Two popular works of fiction came later and did very similar things. in the not super close but was on my mind is the Richard Morgan novel Altered Carbon (and it's sequels) in that novel all the name elements were there - Spy, noir and Cyberpunk. The hero didn't morph DNA but was switching bodies and never said the same. Fans of Altered Carbon might really enjoy it.

As the metamorphic DNA shape shifters. Yeah they had those in Fringe. Yes it was done here first. Did someone at Bad Robot read this novel first? Who can say? I suspect it was coincidence.

Overall I enjoyed this novel but I can think of a dozen F.Paul Wilson books I would recommend before this one. If you are looking for weird whacked out Cyberpunk not written by authors not known for this sub-genre then yeah, It is a fun read.

[Paul Close · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, with some good moments. At other times the story drags or characters act in inconsistent ways.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book where the main concept is the question of identity and personhood, this book is way too white, straight, and male. It feels like a good idea in the hands of a mediocre author - fairly amusing to read, but a lost opportunity nonetheless.

Also, content warning for an offhand, plot-irrelevant instance of sexual assault in one scene towards the end of the book.

[Katie Robles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the world of Masque. Sucked me right into the story. At times it's a mystery, at times an action flick.

[Gravesnear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite cheesy, but so much fun!

[Goodi]

A valiant attempt at cyberpunk without leftist braindamage.

[Gabe Kline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I first read this book in 1998 at the age of nine, after finding it in the New section of my local library. Though I surely failed to comprehend many of Masque's outlandish concepts, I recall being awestruck by the book nonetheless. But seventeen years passed and Masque, along with much else, faded from all memory. Earlier this year while scanning the shelves at a favorite secondhand book shop, the hokey cover again jumped out at me. My brain was flashed with nostalgia and I eagerly paid the two dollar fifty cent toll to hop on memory lane.

It's possible that the residual approval from my childhood was essential to my willingness to plow through the extremely flawed novel that I have discovered Masque to be. This may sound harsh, but if another book used the word 'crazily' twice by page 12, (to describe the greenness of a forest, no less) it would be met with a derisive laugh and quickly labelled 'reject.'

The flaws are manifold: The prose is bland at best, and embarrassing at worst. The concepts are consistently trite and improbable. There is a pervading tone of melodrama. The futurism is little more than a pastiche of generic ideas with some laughably stupid ideas thrown in for good measure (brothels whose exteriors are living boob and penis tissues just sort of flapping around on the sidewalk.) The characters make progress abruptly; at one moment they possess stunted worldviews and seemingly zero empathy, then a small act will flip a switch allowing them to reach sudden transcendence. And the protagonist, while never described as exceptionally intelligent, gets the hero treatment as the integrity of the supporting cast is compromised and they are regularly reduced to bumbling idiots to allow Tristan to be the one to blurt out the rather obvious solution.

But none of this stopped me; for the second time in my life I eagerly ripped through the pages. For all its blatant flaws, there are elements of Masque which are genuinely effective and entertaining. I certainly scoffed often and rolled my eyes regularly, but mixed in with the banal, was enough quality intrigue, tension, and pathos to keep me moving along. And when they weren't busy behaving improbably or stupidly, the characters were even pretty likable.

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suppose it would be eye-rolling to say I'd rate this 3 and three-quarter stars if I could? I guess what I mean about that, is that this is about average for a science fiction book, enjoyable without being something classic or quotable, but distinctive enough to remember years later. This has a lot of the outer trappings of cyberpunk and noir, but though I don't usually like those genres, I rather liked this book because it isn't in the end all that dark or cynical. In an unspecified post-apocalyptic far future, Earth is ruled by competing "gloms"--organizations part government, part organized crime, part corporation. Their most valuable property are "mimes," humans grown in vats, they all carry a gene that allows them to "flux" into various "masques." Masques based on ordinary people for the purposes of espionage or gladiator forms that might have lizard or spider qualities to fight in the arena or specialized short-lived workers on Mars. The elite among mimes are controlled with the tantalizing prospect of "Selfhood," where as a reward for service to the glom they'd be freed to stick to one identity and roam freely. The central figure in the book, Tristan, is a mime who has been told he's one job away from gaining his precious Selfhood. But he finds that job will change how he thinks about himself and his world. This is well-paced, with solid, if not hugely original world-building, an element of romance, and one that appeals to the armchair freedom fighter in me. An entertaining read, decently written and well-paced that will keep it's place on my too-crowded bookshelf. Not the kind of book I'd put on a recommendation list to introduce the best of a genre, but if you're looking for some escapist entertainment in the tradition of Robert Heinlein, you might enjoy this one.

[Brian Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cyberpunk is a genre like noir -- it's easy to get the rough outlines, but the subtleties are hard. In this, I think Wilson managed to craft an excellent cyberpunk storyline. The world is a grim one where genetically created "mimes" are routinely used as corporate lackeys, arena fighters, and general slaves; the rise of this underclass threatens natural born humans, as they are losing jobs. At the top of it, the massive 'gloms' wage high-level corporate warfare. Mimes are genetic shapeshifters, able to alter their body when equipped with the proper 'wardrobe' of DNA samples. Of course, this ability has its downsides: their natural bodies are inhuman looking and each shift is enormously taxing on their body, and leads them closer to death.

Tristan is one of the more successful mimes, used as an industrial spy and corporate agent; he should be close to finishing off his contract and earning the promised 'Selfhood', when his shapeshifting will be disabled and he'll be able to live in the world with all the freedom of a human. But first, he has to do one last big score...

The world is throbbingly punkish, with street slang and dire fates, but manages to not revel in it like many grim'n'dark novels do. Not all of the details of the world are outlined, and so parts of it feel like they're obligatory movie-style action sequences, but it's a grand heist/action/adventure narrative.

[Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one of those "you know it must have been good because I read the entire thing cover to cover all over again and not a single word I read rang a single bell, despite apparently reading it - AND LIKING IT - at some point in the past."

Anyway, still true. With a story that's literally about body dysmorphia (a body that morphs), I'm impressed that this didn't come out nearly as transphobic as it could've. There's a tiny bit of that weird "men are obsessed with sexualizing themselves as women" thing that's always an odd trope in these sorts of storylines, but by and large this is an easy sci fi beach read type deal.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a strange tale of “mimes” who have adjustable DNA that can be “rewritten” to turn the mime into another person or a person/animal hybrid. Mimes are viewed as cheap and easily replaced labor. Their world is controlled by Gloms (conglomerates) that own the mimes and just about anything else that can be owned. Escaped mimes create Proteus, a group working to free mimes. The strange thing is I read this book years ago and as I read through it again, I found myself remembering things but not everything. It is an amazing story and well worth reading or even re-reading.

[Skip · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up after reading Paul Wilson's blog about having conceived of the shape-shifters in the TV show, Fringe. Basically, a shape shifter is deceived into delivering a virus that wipes out his fellow mimes by a competing corporate state (flagge.) While there is heroism and a decent love story, protaginst Tristan becomes part of the freedom movement for mimes, led by "mother" Okasan. Strongly prefer Wilson's Repairman Jack series.

[Nathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad. Suffers from the "tying up loose ends" syndrome, where the writer makes some strange leaps in an effort to sum things up. Also, just some elements of the story tend toward the cheesy side, the dialogue in particular. I do appreciate that the characters are (mostly) likeable and as relatable as you could expect in a sci-fi work. As the story goes on, it tended to leave me asking who this was written for, as it was adult oriented at one moment and much younger the next.

[Millerbug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It sort of reminded me of a cross of Blade Runner and Snowcrash but a then it was very different at the same time. The characters were good and the authors kept my attention and the pages turning. I liked the mimes, futuristic shapeshifters. Kind of cyberpunkish as well. Cool stuff!

[Jon Mamaril]

sci-fi

[Peter Okeafor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good read. A dystopian future with a little cyberpunk. People called mimes use disks to shapeshift. This book has a unique take on shapeshifters.

[Ron Judenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

read