Today’s review is on a bit of weird fiction with an incredible sci-fi setup, throwing you right into a tale told by a living human statue located in a castle discovered on an alien planet. “There Are No Countries” is an enigmatic book written by Marshall Smith.
***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***
What I love about this book:
Aesthetically, I like the setting and setup of this novel. It reminds me a lot of Area X in “Annihilation.” How our main character Doug gets to the planet Dandros is only thinly explained—something to do with universe splicing, whatever that is—and it adds to the mystery of the novel, but it isn’t super important. He’s there now, and there is no going back. He’s stranded on this vast uncultivated world, filled with pristine environments which are all just a little uncanny.
As for Doug himself, I’m not entirely sure the man turned into a living statue at the beginning of the novel, which endlessly tells the story of his arrival on Dandros and his life there was ever actually a human being like you or me. Or, at the very least, he’s not a human from our universe. Just like the setting of the story, there is something Uncanny Valley-Esque about him.
Maybe I’m thinking way too much into it, but it’s little things at first, where he refers to everyday objects in a slightly off manner. Early on, he refers to a device that he has on him that does everything you’d expect a typical smartphone to do, but he calls it an almanac. He also occasionally refers to one of his favorite shows, involving a survivalist and adventurer that, at first blush, you can recognize as Bear Grylls—but Doug refers to him as Bare Gryllz—close but off, again. Early on, he refers to a coworker who worships a “Goddess” as though this faith, while a bit unorthodox, should be common knowledge to us as the reader like we have a shared cultural history. But we don’t. It also occurs to me that Doug is a talking statue that has been self-admittedly trapped that way for hundreds of years, and maybe his memory is just a bit faulty. Still, it really made me suspicious of him right out of the gate and made me think of, unreliable narrator.
What I don’t love about this book:
I don’t like Doug. He’s a vicious, manipulative weasel, and to boot, he’s the worst kind of vicious manipulative weasel—one that thinks he’s not that bad a guy. Also, since he’s the protagonist, we spend all of our time with him.
I’m really not a fan of how terrible Doug is to Annie. Annie, while I’m not exactly certain what a preform is—other than a living machine of some sort—seemed to be really nice and devoted. Well, you know, except for the part where it’s implied that Annie might be murdering other women out of jealousy in her devotion to Doug.
After the strong opening of the book, and unrelenting weirdness to everything, including the guy telling us the story, the rest of the plot just seems to mark time and meander. There is some kind of conflict between the preforms, who are terraforming Dandros, and this Goddess, but it all feels distant and without stakes. It feels without stakes because I couldn’t emotionally latch on to anything or anyone in the book. It’s kinda like watching multiple rival anthills do battle. It can be interesting at times, but it’s hard to emotionally invest in our main character—a narcissist with an unwarrantedly high opinion of himself—or the preforms and melted people, who are equally strange and always a bit unknowable. So plot-wise, things just happen, and they aren’t predictable developments, but every event in Doug’s long, long life hits with the same emotional off-key note of, so what?
Also, like I mentioned before in my review on “Ink and Bone,” the synopsis of this book gave me false impressions of this novel’s plot. The synopsis gives you the impression that this story is from the perspective of the people who find Doug and have to reconcile with his extremely odd story that left him a statue when really it’s pretty much just his weird story. It’s got a real, blink and you miss it sort of context that Doug is even telling the story to someone or someones else, and not just the walls of his empty castle.
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***The Spoiler part of this review***
***Ye be warned to turn back now***
The quick and dirty synopsis:
“There Are No Countries” starts off with Doug telling someone his story of how he ended up on Dandros and his life there up until being turned into a living statue. It nearly immediately smash transitions from that interesting setup to his first day on Dandros. He and part of his office building were somehow transported to this pristine wilderness.
