Lambda

Lambda is a fascinating book that feels like a modern classic sci-fi. It features several of the themes I particularly enjoy in my spec fic like an unusual structure, exploration of one or several world-specific moral and ethical dilemmas, odd characters that are dear to many, but clearly set others at great dis-ease. The result is a book that feels like it sits side-by-side with my love of Star Trek: The Next Generation - in particular Data's character development over the series.

Most of the chapters are told through an ‘Auto Narrator,' set with a data-rich description style. At first the abundance of measurable data such as OCEAN personality test scores and specific dimensions of objects feels odd and a bit distracting. However, that didn't last long for me. By the second chapter it felt like a very specific, deeply considered choice that was instrumental in the world building.

There is something that feels uniquely Autistic to the prose of Lambda - and I use that descriptor in the least derogatory, most enjoyable and familiar way, being autistic myself. The pseudo-anthropomorphism of sentient objects, the government agent with special interests in burial urns and modern furniture design, and absolutely the info-dump style of prose. Even the parallels between Data's character arc in Star Trek: TNG (a character lovingly claimed by the autistic community) and that of object sentience and the Lambdas themselves. Who deserves protection under law? What assistance is offered to encourage an equitable society? How do those who easily hold status within society (deserved and undeserved) respond to these attempts at equity?

And underneath it all how much trust can truly be placed on a government and judicial system? How far do they go to maintain the status quo - that is maintain their power over the populous? How aware is the average person of their data privacy and to what end is their data being used?

There is so much that I loved and felt uniquely familiar to me in Lambda. But there were too many questions left unanswered for my tastes, too stark of a focus shift in the last third of the book, which doesn't feature any of the titular characters at all and barely speaks of them, to boot.


Among my questions:
Where did Cara's father actually go? Why and why was this left almost totally unexplored? I expected that the app posing as him had asked Cara about whether she'd picked up a particular book as a form of foreshadowing. It never came up again.

Where did the Lambdas go? Why did they suddenly seem happy? Was there ever actually any ALA? If no, who actually blew up the school? Was it Colin all along? And what, exactly, was Cara writing on all those pages of paper?

Maybe there's a yet-unconfirmed follow up being planned by Musgrave. But Lambda read to me like a stand alone so maybe I'll never know.

In the end there was so much about Lambda that I found deeply enjoyable despite the over abundance of questions lingering at the end. Hence 4 stars as opposed to the 3 I might give a novel that left me hanging that I didn't find quite so unique.