ONLY A LUNATIC WOULD LIVE ON THE MOON, Anthony O’Neill tells us in one of the most anticipated novels of 2016, “The Dark Side.” Only a lunatic, a renegade, a pariah, a misanthrope, a risk junkie, or a mass murderer. With every square meter of our world being watched, probed, or listened to, the dark side of the Moon is a “surveillance-free zone” in this futuristic crime noir, attracting rich entrepreneurs as well as sleazy opportunists who supply every vice money can buy.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University
The far side of the moon, aka the "dark side," is never visible from Earth. The far side gets as much sunlight as the near side.
Like Australia in Earth’s own dark history, the Moon’s dark side also makes a convenient dumping ground, er, penal colony, for our most dangerous criminals. By participating in an experiment on the physical and psychological effects of long-term exposure to the lunar environment on the human body, serial killers and maniacs can opt for the euphemistic Off-World Incarceration Program (OWIP) over prison cells. Coincidentally, or not, O’Neill was born in Melbourne to an Irish policeman and an Australian stenographer. Whatever O’Neill’s views on the legacy of convicts in building the Land Down Under, he humanizes the world’s worst criminals in this story. Warning: do not get attached to these characters, however intriguing, civilized, or endearing they may seem.
The moonscape is breathtaking. Check out the Acknowledgements with its long list of reference books O'Neill consulted to create this lunar world of the future. Lines like this abound: “Of all the mysteries the Moon continues to harbor—gravitational anomalies, magnetic inconsistencies, curious orange sands, and strange eruptions of vapor—none is more intriguing than its habit of ringing like a bell, sometimes for hours, when it’s struck by a meteorite.” Cool. And true.
I don’t know if slow-falling raindrops the size of water balloons could ever exist (and I promised myself I wouldn’t take time to google it), but the trains, towns, attractions, and travelogue of lunar sites make me want to sign up for a tour, regardless. The place names already have a familiar ring: The Sea of Tranquility, the Plato Crater, Peary Base at the North Pole—“beyond which there is only darkness”—and “the jaw-dropping Shackleton Crater, four times as deep as the Grand Canyon.” Such attention to detail and plausibility is what distinguishes the best science fiction from speculative fiction that belongs on the fantasy shelf.
O'Neill is as scientifically accurate as a writer can be, giving us physical descriptions of a place no human has visited. He consulted dozens and dozens of books, studied lunar geography and considered the logistics of living on the moon. The dust clouds, for example, noted by various astronauts, are an awesome and almost unheard of phenomenon--but "The Dark Side" will help you picture them more vividly than you'd ever want to in real life.
True to the noir theme, O’Neill examines the dark underbelly of society. The cops are more corrupt than the criminals they lock up. The rich and powerful are even more dangerous than the petty thugs, thieves, and assassins exiled to OWIP.
Störmer Crater is the home of eccentric billionaire Fletcher Brass, who builds an empire called Purgatory with a domed capital named Sin City. It’s a hybrid of the lawless Wild West, the architectural splendor of ancient Mesopotamia, and the glitz of Las Vegas. Dazzling, daring and decadent, Brass rules Purgatory with a “Brass Code” that turns Dale Carnegie’s one-liners upside down, inside out, and over the brink.
• “It’s good to have a rival. It’s even better to crack his skull.”
• “Shake hands in public. Decapitate in private.”
• “The love of money is the root of all progress.”
Brass, in the grand tradition of historical tyrants, keeps his twisted world running smoothly—until deadly bombings target the businessmen, and the last good cop on Earth is summoned to find the perps. The suspects include Brass himself, his estranged daughter QT (for “Cutie”), and an elusive band of terrorists who may or may not even exist. The body count piles up.
Lurid violence and murder after murder after murder is a huge part of this story. Normally, I avoid novels full of blood and casualties, but this one is too compelling to ignore. I judge dozens of titles, book covers and synopses every day, passing over 99 out of 100 books (or something like that). What, out of a gazillion synopses, drew me to this book?
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Comparisons to Phillip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler, and Quentin Tarantino didn’t do it for me. Nor did talk of Dark Side, the movie. I’ve lost count of how many authors celebrate their book being optioned for movie rights only to have nothing to show for it years later. I’m more impressed that Simon and Schuster bought an Indie author’s book than hearing producers Steve Zaillian and Garrett Basch “optioned” film rights. When “The Dark Side” comes to movie theaters near us, I’ll get excited.
So, what tripped the trigger for a busy book critic to choose this book over so many others? One line: an amnesiac android traversing the Moon, on a mission to "Find Oz. And be the Wizard." It just sounded so ... endearing.
The droid, however, has other missions: "See El Dorado. Take El Dorado. Find another El Dorado," and "Smile. Smile. Smile. Kill. Smile." Does that sound like something straight from the Brass Code? It is.
The Brass Code forms the prologue. Never mind references to Ayn Rand in the publisher’s promo; this doesn’t sound like Dagney: “Workers are like dogs. Pat them on the head occasionally. And put them down when necessary.” It does, however, sound like The Collector’s job description in “Titanborn.” Not by coincidence are both novels reviewed together here.
Chapter by alternating chapter, the homicidal Leonard Black, one of a dozen androids first-named Leonard, crosses to-do items off the Brass List. I winced and cringed and vowed to speak ill of this novel, or worse, ignore it completely. Instead, I kept turning pages, admiring the artistry, the narrative detachment which ironically underscores the horror that unfolds with the classic inevitability of Greek tragedy—which, we would do well to remember, was filled with comic and burlesque elements.
Also, actor Christoph Waltz, the real star of Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” kept coming to mind as the actor to play Leonard Black. Going from charming to vaguely creepy to homicidal in the course of a five-minute conversation, the serial-killing android is more comical and sophisticated, yet terrifying, than any fantastical monster or metal-clad alien of the Golden Age of pulp science fiction.
The other Leonards obey Asimov’s First Law (robots must not harm or kill their human creators), but Leonard Black has somehow gone astray. Like a Mormon in his black suit, he knocks on door after door in OWIP country, so polite, until he strikes a chilling note in conversation after conversation. The dialogue is brilliant. Leonard always twists it into something vaguely confrontational, then profane and vulgar, then violent, so consider yourself forewarned.
The narrative is fast-paced with alternating points of view. The honest cop summoned to the Moon is Lieutenant Damien Justus, pronounced Yoo-stus, butyoost try getting anyone else to say it right. His face was disfigured by an acid-wielding criminal, but he refuses plastic surgery, citing a motto in his Scottish legacy to explain why.
With all the hype over the Total Eclipse across a thin swath of America, August 2017 would have been an awesome time for the movie to come out. Alas. For all the hype, I still unearth no news of a film in progress, much less a release date.
O'Neill can spin a taut and riveting tale that puts pulp science fiction in the same elevated league as Greek tragedy. Not that I was ever a fan of Greek tragedy. O'Neill writes well, with black humor and bluntness. If you like R-rated language and senseless violence, you’ll love it. Even if you hate the ruthless characters and their dark deeds, you are sure to respect O'Neill's vision, imagination, careful research, clever dialogue, and classic noir plotting. Five stars, or four stars and a half moon (the dark half, of course), this story is a must. (“The Dark Side,” Anthony O’Neill, Simon and Schuster) —Carol Kean, originally reviewed for Perihelion Science Fiction, April 2016
"Find Oz. And be the Wizard."
I love that!
Because of your review, I'm definitely reading "The Dark Side"
Thank you!
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STOPThis sounds like such an intense mix of hard sci-fi and horror. Off to Amazon to check it out now.
Glad to see it was "price set by seller" to $4.99 even though it was with Simon & Schuster! Five dollars is my cut-off for an impulse purchase, and once things get picked up by a publisher they tend to price unreasonably. Looking forward to enjoying this later today.