What can I say about Sly Mongoose that begins to express my excitement regarding the future of the Xenowealth saga? Well, first of all, let me say that it has my absolute favorite all-time novel beginning. Rather than ruin it by mere summary, I’d instead recommend that you check it out in this 1/3 sample of the book on Buckell’s website. Absolutely stunning, and perfectly suits the non-stop action pace of the rest of the book.
Confident in the inspiration instilled in him by Geoff Landis – a NASA scientist whom Buckell credits for the planet Chilo, the primary setting for this half-space opera, half-steampunk adventure story — Buckell set out to craft the funnest, yet most serious novel of his career yet. While Crystal Rain‘s tone is one of adventure and nostalgia, and Ragamuffin‘s is one of action and ideas, Sly Mongoose is easily the most daring and reflective of Buckell’s longer works. Though there are some surprisingly absurd steampunk and dark fantasy elements in the book – such as the mostly traditional zombies unleashed upon Chilo and its inhabitants, and also the Strandbeests, which are basically handcrafted automatons that scavenge the planet’s airships and cities for spare parts — the overall tone of the book is pretty serious.
The story arc is more or less a “character story,” finally giving the reader a deeper look into the character of mongoose-men founder Pepper, the dreadlock-sporting badass that helped launch Buckell’s career in “The Fish Merchant.” While Pepper was a fairly static character, and seemingly invincible, in previous novels, Sly Mongoose gives readers a very different view of the aging, centuries-old warrior. We see him bleed (more than usual), lose limbs, lament the deaths of innocent humans, and show sincere concern for those around him, despite the facade of pragmatism that the hardened warrior generally exhibits.
Not only does Pepper stretch his muscles (the ones that don’t get severed in the course of the book) in this effort, but Buckell does as well. While Crystal Rain was a vessel of Buckell’s imaginary universe as inspired by his Caribbean upbringing, and Ragamuffin a vessel for all his far-future ideas, Sly Mongoose is the first work in which Buckell really starts throwing in a palpable tinge of his philosophical beliefs in addition to the more abstract themes common of his fiction.
The colonialism aspect that is so key to his short fiction, for example, comes up quite a lot in Pepper’s pondering of the nature of the mysterious alien Satrapy — which is more or less in shambles following the events of Ragamuffin. Also, there are a few somewhat overt political messages laced throughout the work — the idea that true democracy would offer action, whereas current national democratic governments are hindered by poor judicial processes; and also the idea that humanity could best serve its kind by joining together, looking beyond nationalism and cultural differences in favor of global improvement and a greater quality of civilization. Perhaps Buckell’s political views are yet another reason why his fiction resonates with me as much as it does. That, and the fact that he is an expert storyteller who knows how to craft honest, sympathetic characters that live within a hauntingly believable far-future space opera universe.
While the fourth book in the “Xenowealth” saga, Duppy Conqueror, is reportedly on hold at this time, I feel that I can sleep soundly with the assumption that it will in time be written and released once Buckell’s audience and reputation has widened. The fact that he’s written, and contributed to, two Halo tie-in books, at least one of which was made a New York Times Bestseller, leads me to believe that he’ll do just fine in that regard. His short fiction certainly shows no sign of a decline in quality — “A Jar of Goodwill” is likely the most successful, most widely acclaimed piece of short fiction published by speculative fiction e-zine Clarkesworld; and Lightspeed Magazine has recently given him wider recognition by reprinting one of his older works, along with an author spotlight interview. I imagine there are few readers of science fiction at this time who have not yet heard of, or enjoyed, the work of Tobias S. Buckell.
