Genesis - Bernard Beckett
Genesis - Bernard Beckett
‘What does it mean to be human?'
One of life's great unanswerable questions, explored mostly though a series of discussions between an eighteen year-old boy and a highly intelligent robot named Art. That is the easiest way to sum up Genesis, but it seems far too simple a way to describe a book that will stay with the reader long after they have finished the story.
The book begins by describing something we can all relate to - a nervous girl named Anaximander (Anax for short) entering a history exam. But this exam's far harder than any you've ever sat; it's five hours long and consists of answering questions out loud in front of three Examiners. Through Anax's answers, we learn her history, and our future.
In a world ravaged by war, plague and climate change, a small group of islands seal themselves off from the outside. The Republic is formed. Its laws are Orwellian; children are separated from their parents at birth, and assigned classes depending on their intelligence. Any life from outside the islands is destroyed on sight. It is into this world that Adam Forde is born, a rebellious boy who is to bring about the downfall of the Republic. As punishment for committing, in the Rebublic's eyes, the worst crime imaginable, he is locked up with a robot (it's worse than it sounds!). Anax tells his story, but what she thinks she knows isn't all there is...
The two main characters are Anax and Adam. Anax narrates much of Adam's story, but we don't really get inside her head much until about half-way through; her reactions to her exam situation up until that point are normal, natural, so she doesn't stand out much as a character. During the second break, we learn a bit more about her background, but she still doesn't have massive impact as a character. In some ways, this makes the other main character, Adam, stand out even more. We don't get inside his head either, but this only makes him more mysterious and appealing. He's passionate and rebellious and also very clever, but he does make mistakes because he follows his heart before his head, which gets him into deep trouble, but makes him endearing as a character. He is the character the reader is meant to feel most drawn to, and this becomes very important at the end of the story.
Another important character is Art (short for Artfink). He's a highly intelligent robot, and, while he has a lot of personality for a robot, he's not a massively strong character in the way that Adam is. His reasoning ability is both impressive and annoying, but he's so deceptive that we never really feel we know him.
The novel is set roughly a hundred years from now, but the history Anax describes is only forty years ahead of the present day. This really brings the impact of the story home to the reader because, while the future it describes (probably) isn't true, it's not that far away and isn't totally inconceivable. The Republic seals itself off from the rest of the world because of war, climate change, disputes over oil, terrorism... sounds familiar, doesn't it? So if that part's true, how true might the rest of the story be?
This book main drive is the philosophical question which makes up its central theme. ‘What does it mean to be human?' The book challenges our preconceived notions about thought and the mind, the differences between man and machine, nature and technology. It makes you think. The astonishing revelation at the end literally turns black into white and changes the reader's perspective entirely, so even if all the talking bores you, it's worth hanging on till the end! Genesis is a fascinating story-within-a-story, short but intriguing and definitely worth reading.
Kitty
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