Space Lawyer

by Kirk Battle

In a world where women are in power and men are struggling to find a new identity, apprentice space lawyer Lane is about to find out that change has a heavy price. A utopian world so perfect that the government knows where you are and what you are doing every minute, one of his clients has gone missing. Now it’s Lane’s job to find her. Caught in a hostile landscape of male alliances and powerful matriarchs, the line between the virtual and the real is becoming harder and harder to identify as Lane’s world is turned upside down. When he discovers that his client is involved with a faster than light (FTL) travel device, he opens a Pandora’s box of conflicting, hidden agendas. As the case becomes more confusing and reality begins to mirror the virtual world, the future hangs in the balance as Lane fights to solve the mystery and prove his worth as a true space lawyer.

314 pages, Paperback

First published August 5, 2013

Reviews

[Adrian Halpert]

Space Lawyer was an entertaining, if unpolished read.
The basic story is that the main character, Lane, is trying to find one of his clients and he hopes that by successfully resolving the case he can become a full fledged Space Lawyer. The story takes place in a matriarchal future where the line between reality and VR is blurred.
I really enjoyed Battle's look at the impact of emergent technology like online RPGs and social media run amok, but wasn't sure about the tone he was going for. Sometimes this book felt a bit like a satire with some of the stereotypical characters and silly situations, and at other times, especially toward the end, a serious throwback to 40s Science Fiction where the "competent man", in this case Lane, solves everyone's problems singlehandedly. As I was reading I also had the sense that the story would have benefitted from a really solid edit to tighten the narrative, which felt unfocused in places.
Despite the flaws, I'm quite interested in emergent technologies and their potential impact and so I had a lot of fun exploring this future world.
3.5/5 Stars

[Matt Warren]

It's time for another re-read of a book I enjoyed the first time around (and I think I enjoyed it more this time). Numerous concepts stuck in my mind from that first read: standard goods, anti-culture, GDK, and the difficulty of being a man in a matriarchal society. For the uninitiated, the story is set in a version of the North American continent far in the future, after a whole new social reality has shaped the place.

The book orbits the theme of change and how it takes root in the many cultures and sub-cultures that we inhabit. Much of the events are inspired by our collective experiences within online games and social networking platforms. This grounds the story in the familiar. And with our own societies additional time within that framework, many elements of the story have aged like wine.

[elizabeth]

For a book that has a matriarchy and is explicitly post-patriarchy, all of the female characters in this story are not only underdeveloped, but gendered stereotypes. From the boss that is shrill and hormonely-unbalanced ("histrionic female"), to the one that eats candy under stress ($5 says it was originally supposed to be chocolate), to the women that leverage sex for power, to the man-hating feminazis, there is not a single female character that is actually a whole human being. The same is also true for anyone that is not our Lord & Savior Lane. The non-straight men are also grotesque stereotypes (the "hysterical transvestite", and apparently all gay men spend their time hitting on straight men and trying to convert them), and the other straight male characters are all Angry Men With No Self Control Or Agency.

2 stars because the parallels with technology and the projection of humanity's future segregation into specific "realities" is actually quite good. The characters are just terrible.