Zealot Script

I was fortunate enough to be sent an ARC of Lavie Tidhar’s The Circumference of the World for review and to my shame have only this week got around to making my way through it.

It is a fascinating read, eschewing traditional narrative conventions for something altogether more complex. It is one of those books in which while reading you need to keep the faith that although it makes no sense now, it will all tie together by the end. I thoroughly enjoy this style of narrative construction, and the bravery it takes to write a book this way, as a pleasant break from the linear storytelling of most of the books I read, but it can make it heavy going if your reading is constantly interrupted by small children demanding your attention. As was the case for me in the past few days.

It is an intricately weaved book, across several perspectives, and Tidhar does a great job of drawing together the various threads across geographical and chronological gaps. The narrative takes place across countless millennia, although the concept of time itself is flexible when dealing with matters beyond the event horizon of a black hole.

Which brings me on to the fascinating concept of “Lode Stars”. The very well known, and explored, concept in science fiction of whether we live in reality or in a simulation is given a new twist, is this the real version of ourselves? Or are we fleeting memories expelled at random as all reality is swallowed up by the “Eyes of God”, black holes? Trying to sum it up in one sentence is, admittedly, challenging. The theory also involves (and here I quote directly) “the universe was created; that it is a universe fine-tuned to evolve life; and that someone, John, or some thing is watching it all, hidden from us in the Ur-universe beyond.” Also, we are all just information. It is a very interesting concept, and well theorised here.

An element that I perhaps enjoyed less was the fact that the protagonist, as much as there is one, Eugene Charles Hartley is, very obviously and unsubtly, L Ron Hubbard. And the religion he founds, despite the afterword claiming “the religion in this book is, however, entirely imaginary” is completely and directly Scientology. Considering the famously litigious nature of the organisation, I do find myself wondering if originally the names were kept and Tidhar was advised against it before publication. I prefer my satire, parody, social commentary or whatever you want to call it, to be a less “on-the-nose”.

It also fell into what can only be called science fiction self-masturbation. It’s a well known idiom that Hollywood loves films about Hollywood, and 30 Rock was a successful show because it was TV show written by TV show writers about TV show writers writing a TV show. This felt too much like a science fiction author writing about a science fiction author, in some cases as other science fiction authors. Not only do the greats of science fiction get name-dropped, there is an entire section of the book dedicated to letters between science fiction authors about L Ron, sorry, about Eugene Charles. Yes, Alfred Bester writing to Frederik Pohl, famous Astounding Science Fiction editor John W Campbell writing to Isaac Asimov, L. Sprague de Camp writing to Robert Heinlein, you get it. It seems only to serve to let the reader know that Lavie Tidhar is a student of the golden age of SciFi, knows who they wrote for and the name of their wives.

Again, this wholehearted basis in the reality of the time would only work if Eugene himself was actually L Ron, which supports my thought that it was perhaps originally written this way. Without that, if feels off.

It’s a strange book, with some great and complex science fiction theorising and a cleverly constructed narrative, but just a few too many off-points for me to fully recommend it. I’d be very interested to hear other people’s thoughts on The Circumference of the World though, it strikes me as a book that could be a “Marmite” read and I’m sure many people love it. Tidhar is clearly a very talented writer and I’m excited to dig out some more of his work, but this one just didn’t do it for me. His novel Osama won the World Fantasy Award and Central Station won the John W. Campbell Award, maybe I’ll try those next.