Review: Summerland

Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hannu Rajaniemi is a writer whose works are fun to read because of his technical brilliance. I will admit upfront that this is only the second novel of his that I have read. Many years ago, multiple people suggested the Jean le Flambeur novels to me. I was astounded by the Quantum Thief and excited to read the rest of the series. I fooled myself into believing I could trust myself to jump around to other books and eventually the rest of the series ended up on my never-ending stack of things to get to. Not every story you read in life will stay with you, but The Quantum Thief is still as vivid to me as it was hundreds of books ago. That's how memorable Hannu Rajaniemi's writing is.

Summerland is often compared to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which is a movie I haven't seen and a book that bored me enough to not finish. I would love to give it another go someday but haven't been encouraged every time my eyes scan the titles of my to-be-read. Summerland has sat in that pile for quite some time. After reading three terrible digital review copies in a row I found myself picking a book by random to pull me out of the funk and Summerland was the winner.

It is classic Rajaniemi. Maybe I'm not qualified to say that just yet but he is a writer whose readers tend to agree about his strengths. That being said, Sometimes his writing can be a bit dense. If you are looking for something breezy and lighthearted I wouldn't suggest this as too casual. Remember, Rajaniemi is a sci-fi writer. If you want an example, how many of us know what the word Quantum actually means? He has a Ph.D. in Mathematical Physics. Summerland is absolutely a Rajaniemi novel to the fullest extent.

The story is set in 1938. We are introduced to Rachel White who works for the British Secret Intelligence Service. A meeting with a Russian defector takes a wrong turn and right before murdering himself he decides to reveal to Rachel the identity of a mole in the agency. This seems to be the controversial aspect of the novel reviewers complain about. Most of them from what I've read discuss how a spy novel should develop into you learning the identity of the mole. By naming him in the first chapter you lose your chance to tell a thrilling story of discovery and back and forth action. I didn't mind this at all. I did not view the story as mainly about the spy agency. I categorized that as a subplot. I was much more interested in Summerland, it's creation and "mythology". That was the focal point of the story for me.

The book alternates chapters between Rachel who has gone rogue after being demoted and Peter Bloom, the Summer Court operative who is our mole. The difficulty in Rachel's mission lies in the fact that the Summer Court is part of the afterlife. She's chasing an agent who is dead. Summerland isn't our afterlife. Not in a conventional way. I would more closely associate it with a limbo of our own design. It was figured out years ago that the British were able to maintain a form of their society in the afterlife where the best and brightest would have an infinite amount of time to hone their skills and share their gifts with the world of the living. Despite the honorable intentions, it is mainly thought of as a city of luxury. Barely anyone dies anymore in the conventional sense of the word. As long as you have a Ticket your soul will be brought to Summerland where you can continue on your existence without the restraints of truly being alive. It is not without controversy.

"...Having a Ticket will be the only thing anyone cares about. Not studying, Not working, not doing the right thing. Nothing real."

Those who exist in Summerland are able to communicate with the world of the living through different means. Throughout the book, we witness Ectophones which are exactly what they sound like, cross-dimensional telephones. They also can rent the bodies of Mediums to use for meetings and special events. Another option would be to inhabit lifesized dolls. There's a particular Edison doll that gets used at one point for creepy effect.

I envisioned this to be very similar to Bioshock Infinite albeit a touch more modernized.

The Russians on the other hand have a different means of an Afterlife. Lenin has died and his entity has become The Presence which is a form of God. Those who are chosen can have their spirits attached to his upon death and become part of the collective of the Presence. Peter's turn against the SIS is linked to his desire to join the Presence instead. A goal to go from one afterlife to the next. But there's more.

Being in Summerland is not the end. Inhabitants in Summerland are at risk of Fading, or true death. Sometimes they lose a ton of memories all at once. Sometimes they'll lose one every few years or none at all. A death in Summerland would equate to true death even if it is unlikely to occur. It does happen. Some people have faded so much they exist as almost formless entities. Some have ghostly bodies with no faces. In Summerland, you can thought travel, maintain any appearance you want barring the fading process, and can see emotions in other people's minds.

This book has layers upon layers of depth to it. Rajaniemi put a lot of work into building this world.

"Your father and I want you to grow up in a world where it matters to be alive. We want you to learn to care about this world, about sunshine, about other people."

The amazing story that is told in this book isn't the tale of espionage. It is the emotional crux that is Peter Bloom and his struggle to find meaning in any form of existence. I found myself not caring about Rachel or her struggles. Even her backstory is mainly told when she's talking about her life to others. Peter's sections are more personal. Whereas Rachel tells Peter the story about her miscarriage, Peter's past takes up pages upon pages in multiple flashbacks. His quest is a struggle to find answers amidst a world where answers are meaningless. This is his motivation for wanting to join with the all-knowing Presence. It is so much more complex than I am spelling out right here but some books you have to discover on your own.

In this alternate 1938 world, Rajaniemi intertwines his fictional world with people who really did exist. Roger Harris, Mansfield Cumming, and even Josef Stalin all have critical roles here as the Russians and British plot to take advantage of the Spanish Civil War. It is a fantastically researched and unconventional twist of the classic spy format. I would recommend this book to everyone.

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