I’ve known Lukyanenko as a phenomenal fantasy author, with his bestselling Night Watch series. The hexalogy held me in its grips for a year at least, while I obsessively re-read all the books five times, and felt genuinely disappointed for not being initiated into the Night Watch. Or the Day Watch, for want of options. I also read a few duologies – steampunk “Seekers of the Sky”, space opera “The Stars Are Cold Toys”, and parallel universe “Rough Draft” (not translated to English yet, it seems), which though enjoyable, did not induce frenzied appreciation.
After the duologies, I lost interest in Lukyanenko for a good while, not only because these books did not impress me so much, but also because of scattered news on the author’s lamentable political views regarding the Russian invasion of Crimea and other Ukrainian territories. So when I ran into Genome, early this year, I was intrigued by the blurb, but not at all certain if I should read Lukyanenko at all.
Before the book review, therefore – on these political views. I did some research to understand how far they go, and was rather surprised by how little actual information I could find in English. Apart from a 400-word overview on Wikipedia, practically nothing. I took the trouble of checking in Russian, and have come up with some examples (e.g. here: https://sakh.online/news/18/2022-06-10/sergey-lukyanenko-rossiya-ne-nachala-voynu-a-zavershaet-ee-339573) where the author, plainly and unmistakably, supports the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
I was saddened, but perhaps not so surprised. Throughout the Watch series, there are hints and seeds of this thinking – the Soviet nostalgia, the perception of spiritual Russia as a victim/saviour as opposed to the rational greed/hypocrisy of the West, the ethno-nationalism and cultural relativism. Still, Watch series protagonist Anton Gorodetsky is a remarkably peaceful person, often consumed by ethical dilemmas – would he vote for Putin? I frankly cannot say, but if he is in any way reflection of the author’s personality, the world Lukyanenko sees must be radically different from the world as seen outside Russia.
And now, after this long-winded introduction, about Genome. I decided to read it on the grounds that it had been written before 2000, and that that I would not hold my hand in the fire over the politics of a good number of other authors either. And Genome is a remarkably good SF novel, though in the 20+ years of its publication, some of the originality have faded. It has all the good things that make Lukyanenko an excellent SF/fantasy writer – careful world-building, a suspenseful plot with twists, and a quickly relatable protagonist. The latter, Alex Romanov master-pilot, could be cloned from Watch series Anton Gorodetsky when it comes to frequent self-reflection, ethical pains, and a strong tendency towards self-sacrifice.
One of the central themes of the book is genetic modification. Humans have colonized extra-terrestrial planets, and have engaged in extensive gene manipulation to create specialists, “speshes”, who excel in certain professions. Imagine you are a lawyer, a musician or a pilot – and not only are all your senses and intelligence geared towards your profession, making you brilliant at your job, but you are even emotionally designed to like your job better than anything else in life. A lifetime of guaranteed satisfaction, coupled with top efficiency and top quality – what could go wrong?
Genome also touches upon the topic of humanity sharing space with alien races (taking the side of peaceful coexistence, which is ironic in light of the author’s later views) and the dangers of xenophobic and expansionist ideologies underpinned by religion (again… unless my interpretation is wrong and Lukyanenko actually advocates for this model). But first and foremost, it is a quick-paced, entertaining detective story set on space stations and a spaceship, the stakes raised to the level of potential interplanetary war, supported on the side with an unusual love story of two “speshes”, one of whom is designed to be unable to fall in love, and the other, unable to help falling in love. Read Genome if you want a good mix of SF and crime, and entertain yourself with imagining what kind of “spesh” you would like to be – beekeeper spesh, anyone?
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