And in Smith's second book, One of Us, a not-so-tough smart aleck with a heart of gold...but you get the point.
Smith, it seems, is a one-note wonder. Book after book, he writes about the same kind of protagonist, in the same kind of dystopia, with the same kind of bizarre twist at the end that was fun at first, then becomes (ironically) predictable. But at least it's a lovely note he's chosen to stake his reputation on: it's hard not to like his protagonists, whose flip, insouciant manners fail to mask their essentially good natures, and it's hard not to thrill at Smith's jazzy writing style, deft plotting, and fast-flying humor. In fact, one of the funniest lines I have ever read in a book comes from a passage in which the protagonist remarks on the ubiquitous phenomenon of sentient household appliances:
I used to have a coffeemaker like everybody else. You tell them where the coffee beans are, and how to use the tap, and it's ready whenever you want it. But through a design error the hole the coffee comes out of is rather closer to the machine's posterior than you would hope, and after seeing the little biomachine squatting over a cup, grunting with effort, I tend to sour on the idea of a hot beverage. When it goes wrong, as they invariably do, the result tastes very strong indeed.
In the world of One of Us, dreams and memories seem to have become metaphysically corporeal. As a result, companies now allow wealthy dreamers who don't like their dreams to transmit them to willing receivers, who suffer through the effects of bad dreams for a neat bundle of cash. Hap Thompson is one of the best receivers to work at REMtemp, a company specializing in such transfers. Soon he's offered a promotion: rather than receiving dreams, his boss wants him to receive memories--but only temporarily. Hap reluctantly agrees. Then one day he finds himself with the memory of a murder--and the woman who was supposed to take the memory back has disappeared.
As in Smith's other two novels, One of Us starts off with a novel concept, and Smith does well with the idea of dream and memory transfers. But only for a little while. Soon small mysteries begin to intrude on the larger mystery that Hap is pursuing. And then these small mysteries suddenly balloon, twisting the plot into an entirely new and completely bizarre direction. I won't reveal what happens, but the ending is a deus ex machina, with both deus and machina playing fairly significant (and quite literal) roles. And I really didn't like the way the story turned: while the bizarre twist did resolve some of the enduring mysteries of the novel, it was also extravagant and yet, simultaneously, dissatisfying.
I still recommend One of Us for new or regular Smith readers. But I hope that Smith turns to something genuinely new in his next novel, because his old ideas are overstaying their welcome.
Copyright © 2003 Steven Wu 