Midnight Robber

MINOR SPOILERS MAY BE PRESENT IN THE REVIEW. TRIGGER WARNINGS WILL BE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE REVIEW.

This is a pretty amazing book. It is beautifully written with a pace, cadence and rhythms of the storyteller. It is like a fable. It is an at times extremely challenging read, and at other times it is incredibly touching. Like all good science-fiction it asks challenging questions about our own lives, and whilst I really did enjoy reading this book I also appreciated the reflection on the themes this book posits. The world-building is exemplary, and I love the weaving of human history and folklore throughout.

So a short summary of this book. Tan-Tan is a young girl who lives on a colonised planet where Artificial Intelligence pretty much runs things and physical labour is a thing of the past. The dominant culture of the colonised planets are Caribbean and West African. Society runs pretty smoothly, but those who transgress are exiled to a shadow planet called The Half Way Up Tree and no-one in the colonised societies really knows what happens there and there is no way back. Tan-Tan ends up there, and we follow her story through her childhood and teenage years.

I really like the structure of the book. It took a little getting used to but I really grew into it. each chapter starts off with a fable (ostensibly about Tan-Tan) and then we have a chapter about a part of Tan-Tan's life which follows the fable somewhat thematically. Since she is on another planet and we cannot know for sure what is truth and what is story (and it doesn't matter) I really love the idea that there is this world, and then there are stories we tell about it and that it exists side by side. It makes me think of Futurist possibilities of how many things can be true and we can create different narratives. My understanding is that the stories in the book are influenced by the concept of the Anansi - a spider in Ashanti folklore of a trickster. Trickery does weave itself through the book.

The dialogue in the book is written in patois, which in the book the language is referred to as Anglopatwa. The rhythms and inflection of the speech are incredibly beautiful and I think this is the first time reading a book in patois where I noticed how the language can carry deeper meaning and concepts beyond standard English (or me hearing it as 'English spoken by a Jamaican'. There is life and vibrancy to the characters and a sense of community to everything. I feel I understand every character's depiction, motivation and place in the story no matter how small in this book and that's down to Hopkinson's wonderful writing.

There are also so many mirrors held up to contemporary society too in this book. I'm incredibly sensitive to my own white privilege as I type this but I loved the morals and ethics this book asks. When I read about the planets colonised by black people, I asked myself, 'was this a willing Exodus?', 'what were they escaping from?', 'were they pioneers, refugees, or exiles?' And as I was thinking that I realised I wouldn't say that about a nominally (or presumed) white human doing the same. I was also thinking about these AI controlled planets which sounded decent on the surface but there was clearly a hierarchical caste system in place, with 'some' people working in black subservient roles we have seen in the media and society - black people are the nurses and cooks and pedicab drivers. It made me think about privilege and how groups oppress others within their same groups.

This though is quite a clever take. Of course one would avoid physical labour if one could design it out, and labour had the added generational trauma of slavery. The fact that this is 'not a part of society, but really is' makes this incredibly thought provoking. And what about the concept of exile as punishment with no chance of return? Hopkinson continually asks her reader to consider how cycles of oppression repeat themselves by a privileged group, even if that group has experienced oppression in the past. There is something a little weird in the book which I assume is some 'cycle of life' thing and that is in the 'civilised' society no one eats meat, yet on the 'prison planet' it is a necessity and the closer one gets to that planet's heart the more they consume it's life raw. It didn't land so well with me that.

On the 'prison planet' things are different (and here I get in my head the ideas of nesting of colonialisation and oppression) as the prisoners of the world try and make sense in a 'primitive' world (which has a delicately balanced ecosystem that was doing just fine until humans turned up). It is clearly analogous to Australia and the relationship of aboriginal people to White convict settlers . What should be in balance is tipped by the actions of humans. Even in which feels a relatively small space different human communities spring up. Some are like benevolent dictatorships where polyamory and non-straight relationships are just a fact of everyday living but you can still get tortured or hung for transgressions. There are places which descend into theft, selfishness and depravity. Other communities reflect the slavery of the past (in what feels incredibly sad) whilst others depict a pioneer spirit, a place where community can make a difference. And through this, despite being low-tech, humans find ways to revert to their earth state creating monsters which today we call the gun and the car. What I think Hopkinson is telling us, is that many futures are possible. On this planet we know about and tell stories about but can't really get to the future is not set in stone. Many possibilities exist and we can always choose another village.

Hopkinson also shows a mirror up to ourselves in respect of gender relations and patriarchy. We see the foolishness of desiring a partner for our own and treating them as a prisoner. We also see the ugliness of vanity. We see how women and girls continue to blame themselves for the actions of men and apologising. There is a line in here that really shook me when Tan-Tan says in relation to a 'pack creature' that she had to remind herself 'she is a woman'. It hit me hard, because in so many places and contexts women are barely seen as human and are just there to work for men. Is it that ridiculous to compare a woman to a pack horse?

If one has taken time to read reviews it is highly likely that they will know about the significant plot change. I genuinely didn't see it coming (though I should have known). It's harrowing. Much of the second half of the book is Tan-Tan understanding that, understanding who she is. The scenes are not gratuitous but Hopkinson holds nothing back in it's ugliness. The exploration of Tan-Tan afterwards is superb as it explores difficult themes of surviving, of love, of hate, of guilt and blame, and conflicts. As a reader one wants to tell her she did nothing wrong, but at the same time I think this subject is handled sensitively, intelligently and I could definitely empathise with the feelings and perspectives shared.

TRIGGER WARNINGS BELOW:

Child abuse, rape, incest, slavery, animal death, colonisation, confinement, abortion