I have a confession to make. I chose this book because it looked bad. Specifically it looked like the sort of gimmicky excess that is common in modern sci-fi. Ideally a reviewer should go into a book with clear eyes and zero bias. I started reading this looking to pick a fight. After reading a quality hard sci-fi book from the golden age of sci-fi (Mote!) it seemed like a clever idea to contrast it with the shallow buzzwordy sci-fi I've come to associate modern sci-fi with. As you may have guessed from my tone, Rim is not that infuriating spectre I was prepared to battle. Although don't be mislead: Rim is pretty bad! It's just that Rim is like a dopey dog with a wandering eye, sort of endearing even though it keeps drooling everywhere.
Rim was made in 1994 and goddam if it doesn't show. I got about thirty pages in before I checked the copyright date on it- you can tell pretty quickly this wasn't written recently. For one thing it takes place in exotic 2028 which, sitting here in exotic 2011, does not seem to far away. Certainly not 'space castles and androids' amount of time away. Sigh, in 1994 there was still an actual space program. But I get ahead of myself. The main thing dating Rim is it's unabashed love of Japanese culture. This may not sound like a clear indicator but allow me to explain. The author is extremely gushy about things that are now commonplace like yoga. The book imagines a world where Eastern flavored New Age ideas have turned everyone into awesome psychic spiritualists. I may be mistaken but I think the mid-90s was when Eastern things like meditation classes and yoga and herbal supplements like ginkgo really caught on among yuppies.* Besher keeps name dropping things like 'otaku' and 'yakuza' like they are these hip newly discovered things. I get the feeling that when Rim was written maybe they were hip new concepts. Perhaps 1994 is when the Japanophile sub-culture was just blossuming. But by the time I got to college in 2004 Japanophiles were friggin' everywhere. I'm not saying the average American knows what an 'otaku' is but... its kind of hard to avoid finding out these days if you have a passing interest in Japan (as I do).
Nothing as cool as this exists in Rim
Enough with the lead in, lets talk about the book. Rim positions itself as a cyberpunk novel: it is about virtual reality and it's a noir piece. Except the book fails pretty miserably at being noir- it's as gritty as a Roomba. And come to think of it fails at being about virtual reality. Because in Rim virtual reality and alternate spiritual realms are one in the same. Rim posits a world where enlightenment and computers are completely entangled. Tibetan monks are programmers, as are Zen masters. Japan (or as it's called in the book New Nippon) has had a virtual reality disaster and now phases in and out of existence due to a virus in its system. It is this virus that retired psychic detective (and part time geomancer!) Frank Gobi has been hired to destroy. But first he must spend the first third of the book having tea and going about his daily life. Then, finally, the action picks up. The middle part of Rim is legitimately fun, if totally ridiculous. Sexy sex, killer androids, a space station resort with a golf course and 17th century Japanese castle perched on top of it, and increasingly arbitrary characters like cowboys and hearty Englishmen. Also gratuitous space-lesbians. Yes the middle part of the book was still dumb. But at least it was fun dumb. Once the book reaches Japan the fun drains out though. And the end is a complete shambles with every single plot thread tied up brusquely. The main bad guy appears for one page before being defeated 'off screen'.
I know this review seems just about wrapped up. But special mention needs to made about the bizarre and annoying style in which Rim is written. Everything is labelled as being part of this Eastern meditation paradigm. Every. Single. Thing. That bottled water Frank is drinking: it's from Bhutan. That love interest is wearing a Tibetan sweater with Vhituazan thunderbolt designs. The tea is crushed chi-opening herbs from Sri Lanka. I would've killed for someone to just once suck down some Liptons. It gets to the point where Besher is just throwing New Age words in front of regular things. E-mail, no: it's chi-mail. Tantric taxi service. And that's not all. People don't feel fucking tired in Rim: their chi is drained. At one point Frank drinks a herbal tonic that he is told will 'tonify his middle burner'. Upon drinking it not only does he feel his middle burner tonified it also aligns all seven of his conscious states. I like meditation, I believe in it but... fuuuuuuck.
Rim gets no Yang out of Yin.
*I don't have anything against meditation (or yuppies!). Or if I do now, it's because Rim made them seem so damn aggravating.
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