The Experiment

by Cristian Alejandro Solari

Simplicity is the greatest accomplishment of the Universe Confederation. However, simplicity tends to shelter complex dilemmas. All intelligent species in the Universe live by their succinct no true intelligent life form can harm in any way or interfere with another unless it is directly harmed or interfered with. The Constitution has never been broken, not even in the most complicated differendums.Different experiments had been set up in the Universe outskirts to try to understand the transition to high intelligence; researcher Geb is assigned a particularly promising one. To everyone’s surprise, this experiment succeeds and self-conscious preintelloids evolve and thrive. But, on a routine analysis, Geb finds astonishing evidence of a new technological development that would allow preintelloids to migrate from their star-planetary system and meet their creators.The Confederation has two uncomfortable either terminate the experiment and risk going against the Constitution, or not interfere and risk an invasion by a potentially dangerous species.

Genres: Science Fiction

180 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 26, 2014

About the author

Cristian A. Solari was born on March 23rd, 1969, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is an evolutionary ecologist, with a B.S. in zoology from the U. of Florida (1993) and a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the U. of Arizona (2005). Between these degrees he worked in the private sector, in industry, and founded with two other partners a graphic design and advertising agency. He has written several papers on the evolution of multicellularity in scientific journals such as The American Naturalist and PNAS. He is currently a CONICET researcher at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Reviews

[Richard Bunning · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is wonderfully inventive speculative fiction. Philosophical 'science' shines through from page one to the last word. Solari's first book certainly isn't one of the all too predictable adrenal hormone blasts that so many readers are addicted to. Rather, tension builds through the intelligence of the plot. There is plenty of excitement for those prepared to get involved in the story, in the well constructed characters, in the concept of looking at humanity from outside of the box. And yes, there are climatic moments to raise one's blood pressure, just not enough to maintain the constant interest of a gastropod.
There are sentence constructions that will unsettle pedantic grammarians, though I don't think many of those reading for pleasure will be the least bit troubled. Anyway, much of the language is emanating from the minds of beings more advanced than mere 'preintelloids'. Solari uses some really gorgeous invented words. This is, after all, speculative writing. I enjoyed reading so much that I happily danced through the pages unaware of any linguistic tortures. I had to reread sections before I could see that the language criticisms of some reviewers were actually quite valid.
I loved this book. So what can I find to really criticise. Um- well, the cover is a bit 1950s, B movie-ish. Um- no actually that's just perfect. We have to see that we really are an advancing species, an experiment in the making.

[Nathan Mercer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since the beginning of time, man has looked to the skies and asked, "Is there anyone else out there?" We always seem to assume that we are the most intelligent beings in the solar system because we have travelled to space and haven't found anyone there to greet us yet. What if we were to discover that we are not alone in the universe, but that the reason the other alien races haven't contacted us is because they view our people as too aggressive, as well as too primitive?

"The Experiment," by Cristian A. Solari is a work of science fiction that delves into these questions, albeit using a planet other than Earth - but it isn't a stretch to see the similarities. The people of the planet Origin are being observed as an experiment by all of the creatures of The Confederation, a kind of utopian country club of various alien species who all live in harmony according to their Constitution. Only those species of sufficient intellect are allowed membership into this exclusive group, because to do otherwise may upset the self-created utopian network. The problem: the preintelloids of Origin have managed to discover hyperspace travel well before they have evolved enough to gain membership through intellect.

The confederation is left with two choices - terminate the experiment (preintelloids included), or risk the possibility that they successfully travel via hyperspace and basically "infect" the whole universe (they happen to reproduce at a frequent rate!). But there are always more options that present themselves and a little thing called "randomness" (alien-speak for Murphy's Law) has a say in things.

The complexity of the novel may well have been difficult for any novelist to pull off, but Solari does an admirable job (especially considering this is his first novel). I wasn't quite sure that I was going to enjoy it, but about halfway through I was hooked.

Strengths of the book: Originality. This book was not a repackaged reboot of a well known story. The author brings a fresh view to the question "are we alone?" I really enjoyed the fact that much of it was told through the point of view of the superior aliens. There were many points in the book that I thought I had the ending figured out, only to be proven wrong. I was also afraid that I was going to be disappointed by some sort of political tree hugger message - but thankfully the author didn't go there. Not that there was a lack of message in the book, it just wasn't shoved in your face - and the reader can take from it many different meanings, depending on what they were looking for.

Weaknesses: I feel this book could have used another round of editing and proofing. The book picked up quite a bit in the second half, but I think that trip to get there could be shortened without losing anything. There were a few misplaced words and names that were spelled differently from previous uses, but it wasn't enough to detract from the story. There were times when some of the dialogue was difficult to tell who was "speaking" (the quotes are because the dialogue was actually telepathic communication, so I can't say what the correct way to present it would be - but at times I had a hard time who was thinking what)

All in all, I enjoyed this book. Hopefully Solari has more hypothesis' to "Experiment" with.

[Lita Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Experiment by Cristian A. Solari is a science fiction story about a galactic alien observer named Geb Saar who champions a fledgling race growing in a cosmos-sized petri dish.

Geb, a member of the super-intelligent Universe Confederation, agrees to transform his alien appearance so he may enter the restricted area of space called “The Experiment” and observe firsthand the Preintelloids inside. Once comingling with these surprising creatures, Geb advises his people that the Preintelloids have promise, but need more time for evolution to weed out their selfish natures.

Inside The Experiment, Iana the Space Program Director, and her staff have secretly built a spaceship called Spora that has hyper drive. For the first time, Iana’s race can pierce the puzzling barrier surrounding their solar system. Perhaps they can confirm that they are not alone in the universe. Politics swirl, and Iana and her team launch Spora before the bureaucrats cut their funding.

The Spora crew does indeed find life on this far planet. The Universe Confederation is aghast at their presumptuousness. Geb’s people debate oh, so intelligently, and decide to terminate The Experiment as a failure. Geb disagrees. He begins a non-violent battle to change the Preintelloids, and his people’s intellectual bias, before all is lost.

The Experiment does a dandy job with world building. Instead of dwelling on technology’s swell gizmos in this science fiction world, the story immerses us in the cerebral dialogue of Geb’s people. The story is a wonderful example of showing, not telling, the reader about the intelligence of the Universe Confederation. The many characters were well defined, had distinct voices, and varying concerns. The science made sense. The plot had enough twists to keep me reading to the end.

Solari’s story is a recommended read. If you dive in, be prepared to work a bit to unravel its cleverness. The Experiment is stuffed with unusual, but precise terms from Geb’s people. Some readers may not enjoy learning the vocabulary, but for those who stick around, expect to be richly rewarded. The Experiment is a thoughtful treatise on politics, struggles to become better, and touching humanitarianism from aliens.

[Brian Wilkerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christian Solari asked me to read their novel "The Experiment". It's about these aliens who want to see how intelligent life develops and then get scared when their creations develop hyperspace techonology. I will examine plot, characters and polish, and then assign a grade.


PLOT


There are two plot threads in this story. They intertwine like DNA. In the first thread, there's the Universe Confederation investigating the Experiment. This investigation is complicated, but in a nutshell, the UC wants to determine if subjects of the Experiment (humans, by the way, sort of, it's complicated) will play nice with the rest of the universe. It's basically a "Humanity on Trial" plotline, except no human is aware that trial is taking place. In the second thread, there's the Frontier Space Program pushing to prove that Hyperspace travel is possible. It is this second thread that triggers the first and so they mutually develop alongside each other and influence each other. They are, in fact, so intertwined, that either one of them could be "The Experiment" from the title.



It's fascinating to watch this story start up and develop. MR. Solari's constructed world is well thought out.

On Tvtropes, we have this page called "Blue and Orange Morality" which states that is a system of morality separate from the "Good/Evil" axis on which basic human morality operates. The page also states that some writers fail to make a true example and instead create "evil by a different name." I feel that's not the case here. Mr. Solari genuinely tried to create a culture that works on a different wavelength-sufficiently alien for something that claims to be "truly intelligent/ high intelligence" that a human (i.e. the reader) would still be able to recognize as valid.



This may or may not be the case, but their values are not internally consistent. They claim that "fear" is a primordial emotion that they left behind but the entire purpose for "terminating the Experiment" (i.e. solar system wide genocide) is because they're afraid that humans will harm them/their way of life. They claim to be "fully cooperative" yet they have many arguments among themselves and don't involve humans in their decision making. They claim that "destruction is never an option" yet they can't think of any solution to their Preintelloids-With-Hyperspace tech problem other than Kill Them All. They sound like hypocrites.



I say "may or may not" because I don't feel like Mr. Solari meant to portray the Universe Confederation as truly superior. It feels like more an inversion of What Measure Is A Non-Human. There are parallels between the Universe Confederation (the aliens) and the Union (the humans). Both of them deal with an experiment that will change their world and engage in morally ambiguous behavior in the process. I think Mr.Solari's point is that neither of them were as great as they believed themselves to be.


It has a peculiar turn of events in the third act. Suffice to say it's a mixture of Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions and Messanic Archetype in the same person.


I like the ending. Given the premise, making the ending neat and tidy would be unrealistic. This is a resolution of conflict that's not a "The End".


CHARACTERS


It's a diverse cast here. There are about a dozen or so main characters and all of them are distinct and well developed.


I found it interesting that the most prominent Universe Confederation members are named after Egyptian Deities. Amun was the sun god and here he's the guy in charge of The Experiment. Amaat was the concept of unity and here he is a mediator. Anubis was the god of embalmers, thus associated with death, and his role is to argue for the "termination" of the Experiment. As a side note, this is Everyone Hates Hades because Anubis wasn't considered evil or a maker of death. That's someone else.


Geb is a fascinating character. A scientist that's also a Messianic Archetype. It's a transformation and fusion. If being "fully cooperative" is the mark of "high intelligence:" then I'd say he's the only truly intelligent character in this story.



Huan is a fun character. She's a Genki Girl and brings life to many scenes. Her interactions with the stoic Gup make her even more fun. She's also a walking proof that the "pre-intelliod-Intelliod" line is blurrier than the Universe Confederation makes it out to be. Despite her aggressive-selfish genes, she has the empathy to understand the intelliods she encounters.


POLISH


No spelling or grammar problems. This is a dense but easy read.


The only flaw I see is in the UC's decision making. They do not consider any options other than "All or nothing". There's a sense that the author meant to show them as flawed but the lack of a clear What the Hello Hero make this mere speculation. If something like this was present, I'd give this story a perfect grade.


Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Experiment" a B+

[Kristin Scearce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a sci-fi novel with a very interesting premise: Most of the universe is made up of several large-scale experiments, trying to determine the theory of evolution as it applies to "preintelloids," as they are referred to. How fast does this happen? What is the process by which that last jump occurs to full-scale intelligence as they see it? And how can it be scientifically controlled in such a way so as not to interfere?

The book bounces back and forth between those controlling the experiment and those who are actually pieces of it, and it's a great way to see the differences between the two groups. The aliens are incredibly scientific in how they approach everything, and everyone else is just going about their business, considering they have no idea about the big picture involved. However, when things advance at a rate that was unexpected beforehand, those in charge have to figure out how to handle the situation and whether or not it's worth it to continue and see where the subjects go from there.

This story is very thought-provoking, and it really makes you ask: What if this is true? What if all we are is a giant petri dish for an alien race? And what happens if we're considered an unsuccessful experiment?

4 stars

[Steven Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yearning for a marvellous futuristic alien tale? The Experiment, takes the sci-fi alien genre to a whole other sophisticated level. A story, that will make you wish you could live to see advance civilizations. It is the true definition of a science fiction story.

The Universe Confederation struggles to come up with a verdict that will decide the fate of the preintelloids. Do they give them a chance to evolve into an intelligent species or do they destroy them to protect themselves from the preintelloids in the future.

Cristian Solari did an amazing job when he created the characters. I found myself attached to Geb with my emotions going wild as he forms a connection with the preintelloids. If you want to experience the same magnificent feeling I had when reading this novel, I highly recommend downloading it. You will not regret it.

[Sadie Forsythe]

#DNF 26%

An interesting idea, no doubt meant to prompt readers to consider the state of human cooperation and propensity for aggression. However, the galactic utopia is a little too much to stomach, the writing is extremely stiff and uncomfortably formal. Names are used too frequently to be natural. Contractions aren't used often enough and, on the whole, there is too much tell to read well.