Radio Life is an interesting, albeit a different kind of a book. Much like "The Girl in Green," this one has nothing to do with Sheldon Horowitz, who figures fairly prominently in Miller's three other books to date. All three of those are set in the twentieth and/or early 21st century, as if "The Girl in Green." This is Miller's first foray into science fiction. And you know what? It is pretty good, and worked out quite well for him. This is a very solid book. In my opinion, having read all of his books to date, they all are very successful. But this one probably has the most imagination of all of them, creating a future world that is at once both alluring and yet frightening, in some ways.
Now, before I go on, here is my usual warning that there will be spoilers ahead. So, if you are thinking about reading this book, or especially if you intend to do so, and do not want anything spoiled, this is your warning not to read on:
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
Okay, so I have to imagine that by now, if you are still reading, you either have read the book already, or for some reason, do not mind spoilers. Can't say that you weren't warned, in any case. And so, here goes:
Some years ago now, I was introduced to the writings of Derek B. Miller. My mom happened to be the one to introduce me to his book. At the time, his first novel, Norwegian By Night, just simply impressed me tremendously. It had intelligence and insight, while also making the reader care about the characters and the individual challenges that they faced, as well as their approach to facing and/or overcoming these.
As more of his books came out, I continued reading them, including “American By Day,” then “The Girl in Green,” which was a very different kind of novel than the previous two books. I actually read his fifth novel, “How to Find Your Way in the Dark,” before reading this one, “Radio Life” which was his fourth novel. The former was a follow-up to his first two, showing a young Sheldon Horowitz growing up first in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, then moving to Hartford, Connecticut under tragic circumstances, and finally, moving to the Catskills. In fact, to my old hometown of Liberty, New York, specifically to the famed Grossinger’s Hotel, one of the gems of the old Borscht Belt resorts of the Catskills.
But now, I will discuss “Radio Life,” which is what this review obviously focuses on. This is Miller’s first foray into science fiction. And my mom, who is hardly a huge fan of science fiction, and rarely reads it, said that she was surprised by how much this book grabbed her attention. She could not remember the last time that a sci-fc book had managed to do that. That is a testament to just how powerful Miller’s writings can be. Again, I have enjoyed everything that he has written, and by this point, it would be fair to call myself a fan. So I looked forward to finally getting the chance to read the book.
Indeed, this is a very different kind of work for Miller than the other four books. This does take place hundreds of years from now, in a post-apocalyptic future. It is not exactly clear what happened at first, or how all of the modern people of our age disappeared until maybe halfway through the book. We just keep hearing ourselves, our modern, present day culture with all of the people and conveniences and modern technology, referred to as the “ancients.”
We find ourselves first in what is referred to as a stadium, which is the central point of what is called “the Commonwealth.” There are people who we meet first, including Lillith, who is understandably trying to collect as much information from the civilization of the ancients (our modern civilization, in other words), in order to find greater understanding, enhance capabilities, and better security.
To that end, there are “runners” who venture out to the ‘Gone World,” which are effectively the ruins of our modern civilization. Also, a radio is kept on, although it is clear that very little ever is heard there, and never anything in the common tongue. Only some unknown, strange languages, one of which he come to understand is Japanese. But it does not help them to gain any knowledge or better understanding. Over the course of many years, there really have been only strips of information, which are more like clues, as to the vast ocean of knowledge that they understandably assume the ancients knew. So it is slim pickings, but they nevertheless obviously keep trying, with the hope that life will get better and easier and safer once they finally manage to break the code. One thing we see is that they want to get “the internet,” and hope to collect this, not understanding what it actually is.
Still, they continue to try. And it is during one of the ventures by a sixteen-year-old runner named Elimisha, daughter of Graham and Henry, is essentially chased into a forbidden Old World Tower by enemies, who we only hear vague whispers of early in the book, but who grow more prominent as time goes one. They throw explosives in after her, forcing her to make the blind jump into the depth of the forbidden building, down to the bowels, which are believed to carry death. After all, the remnants of the bodies of the Ancients are there. She injures herself during the jump, but survives. Then, surprisingly, she finds exactly what the Commonwealth is searching for in this place where she is now trapped. And she finds in her entrapment, shocking, plenty of food and modern inconveniences which remain strange to her. Eventually, she also finds a working radio, but she is not sure it is working, because she cannot hear anyone else. Still, she begins to call not only for help, but also begins to transmit some of the vast amounts of information stored in the computer banks of the central computer, which has revealed the mysterious, seemingly unlimited wonders of what up to this point have been mere rumors: the Internet.
In time, she is joined by another, and the urgency to get them out and help them escape grows. The enemy now knows that they are there, as well, and they mean to kill the threat of information from the Ancients from being spread. By now, we have learned more about the enemy, who are known as the Keepers. At first, they look only like barbaric enemies, and a major threat to the commonwealth. But one thing that I appreciated was how Miller made them more and more human as the story goes along. Far from being mindless brutes intent on destroying, we truly come to understand their way of thinking and doing things, their perspective on life and this world. After a while, we understand why they view the Commonwealth as a threat to all of that, and indeed to life itself. The people of the Commonwealth are trying to gain back the knowledge and know how of the Ancients, in order to improve the world, as they see it. But Keepers view the way of the Ancients as inevitably leading to death and destruction of the world, and for good reason. After all, they are living in a world where there are constant reminders of the disastrous end for the Ancients.
There are important questions asked by the characters here. We get the perspective of the Keepers and the Commonwealth. The Keepers are skeptical of the seemingly blind pursuit of knowledge and know-how by those in the Commonwealth. They believe in life, in beauty, represented vividly by a flower petal. The Leader explains that beauty and this moment, the Now, is all that matters. In his viewpoint, the Commonwealth is only focused on the past (the time and secrets of the ancients) in order to try and secure a brighter future. With this pursuit, they are forgetting about the present, about now. It is, unknowingly to the Keepers, quite a Buddhist mode of thinking. They also believe that the way of the ancients is inevitably destruction and death. The Leaders only has to wave his hand at the world as it presently is – a desert wasteland littered with the dead carcasses of formerly great inventions by the ancients – in order to understand that this is what it led to. And for the Commonwealth to try and follow the lead of the ancients is a sure fire recipe to more destruction. They believe that no good can come from it, only bad.
Yet, the leader of the Keepers is impressed by Graham, and how he actually does appreciate beauty, and has more intelligence and perspective and appreciation for the world then he has assumed. For a little while, it feels like the seemingly inevitable war between the Keepers and the Commonwealth might actually be averted. That, however, proves to be a false hope. War indeed is inevitable.
Still, Graham does manage to escape during the confusion of the war, and he right away sets off to try and save his daughter, Elimisha, who is still trapped inside of the modern tower, and still learning and transmitting what she is learning on the radio. The Commonwealth has learned an unbelievable amount of information already, and even more is being stored for permanent keeping. Their body of knowledge continues to grow.
In the end, they make their escape into a previously unknown second base in Mexico. They also have learned of a distant place where plant seeds have been stored for just such a possibility as an apocalypse. But it is far away, across an ocean on another continent. And the means to travel there are limited, and safety is not guaranteed. Meanwhile, the war between the Commonwealth and the Keepers still rages on. The stakes are as high as they can possible be, no less than the very future of the world. Will the Keepers succeed in maintaining the status quo, with the disadvantage of destroying the progress from greater knowledge of ages past? Or will the Commonwealth succeed, and build a promising new world, possibly a better one, and being careful to avoid the mistakes of the past, of the Ancients? Or, will the worst fears of the Keepers prove to be true, and the gains from the knowledge of the Ancients ultimately lead to the Commonwealth destroying the world all over again, much as the Keepers warned about?
This is a terrific, thought-provoking read. Another triumph by Deerek B. Miller, who continues to climb steadily as one of my favorite authors.
Radio Life by Derek B. Miller The Editors BSFA Review August 2, 2021
https://vector-bsfa.com/2021/08/02/review-radio-life-by-derek-b-miller/
Reviews | Written by Rich Cross 15/01/2021 RADIO LIFE
https://www.starburstmagazine.com/reviews/radio-life
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