Scales - review. (WITH SPOILERS) *** *** SPOILER WARNING *** *** I have read the novel "Scales" - the second narrative book written by Tony Williams. I leave the summary of the novel to people abler than I am, and take the occasion to write a short comment with my very personal opinion on the book. The novel is chronological, the main themes, or, at least, the ones I perceived as main themes, are in my opinion an evolved development of the concept of parallele universes, yet hinted at in the former novel of Tony, "The Foresight war", but in this case well developed and used at their full extent; even the effects of the "butterfly effect" are taken into account in developing countless universes, and, in this developed scenario, we have the story of Cade, the man trasformed in a mutant with powers that bring him well above the average human. The figure of Cade is interesting: the enormous equilibrium and moral sense he has allows him to use his powers - that could make of him a virtual world dictator, with his telepathy and his taumaturgic ability - in order to take care of the human people. This is a common trait of all the personnages in Tony's books: in his other novel, not only the protagonist, but even the antagonist, Konrad Herrmann, while having the possibility to exploit their situation in order to gain power and personal wealth, use their particular status (of powerful mutant or of time travellers with knowledge of future) in order to do their best for their countries and their people - or, at least, the best given the circumstances. What a reader can like of Cade is his goodwill and his sincere self imposed duty to improve the situation of the whole humanity.
If one can make a consideration, maybe that the high-flyer Cade at a certain point takes the responsibility to choose, on his own, what is the best for the future of all mankind: at the end of the book, he has chosen for the best, or, at least, for good, but, well, all his behaviour is well beyond the human, and here and there this seems to be "inhuman". An interesting point is that, while for most part of the novel there is an "idealized" wiew of both humans and our reptilian cousins of one of the countless parallele worlds, Tony has not forgotten another important message, the one that gives balance to the whole novel: there are even dark sides, and even if your aim is a quasi-utopic way of life, you cannot and must not forget that you must maintain the will and the strength to defend what you have built, even fighting for your ideals, while keeping a balance between the capability of using violence, and the restraint to exploit it. Cade cures the ill, gives to the whole humanity the key (at least, in the view of the author) for the next step in evolution, the instruments to reverse the degradation of the Earth biosphere, but at the right moment shows to have the will and the ability to face more than a threat with all means necessary - violence included. And even this is a trait of the human species that, at the end, even the evolved man (Cade) and the still evolving humanity of this particular universe, has not lost - and cannot afford to loose. An interesting way to send a clear message in the last part of a novel that is only in apparent contrast with the first part: I could say that only in the last chapters we can see the other face of the writer's truth. Not a critic, but a suggestion: in his blog, Tony Williams remarks his prefernce for relatively short, fast paced stories.
Tony, given that you was able to give thickness and emotions to people like Don, Konrad and Cade, a deeper look into their souls and their lifes could be exchanged with a someway slower pace of a longer novel. In any case, I did like the approach to a narrative book that is close and complete in itself. It's a welcome way to tell a tale, in respect to the trilogies of trilogies so loved in these days. And it's a book that one can like to red more than once. (edited for spelling, syntax, grammar & horrible English)
Edited 11/10/2007 15:22 ET by LucianoT1 |