I love Lindsay Ellis the same way that one loves a cup of tea on a rainy day while reading a book. I first started watching her videos after she posted “Bright: The Apotheosis of Lazy Worldbuilding” and immediately loved the almost punchy witticism that I find lacking in similar Youtube popculture/commentator/media critical personalities. There just seems to be this genuinely real person that can and has spent an hour on screen (and countless hours offscreen) discussing the intricacies of the litigation of Omegaverse.
Despite how much I love watching these video essays I must penitently say that I have never supported her word before. I even have Addblock on Youtube so any ad revenue that would be generated from that was bottlenecked with a click of a button. So it was with this mind set that I approached her book, “Axiom’s End”, not as a rabid fan of her work but more as a person that has enjoyed what she has previously done, felt the need to contribute to a writer and possibly find a new book that I might like. As a final note, this piece will contain spoilers throughout so if you do not want to be reading those I personally propose watching whatever video she has most recently posted.\
Cora Sabino
We are introduced to Cora at quite possibly the worst time in the her life. Her father is a raging narcissist that has sought political asylum in Germany leaving her with her estranged mother and her 2 siblings: one that has the personality of a small version of her father, the other she plays the guitar to. Her father does not directly appear much and never in person thought the show and we really only understand him from what Cora says and from what he dispenses on the internet through his conspiracy website “Broken Seal”- video game unrelated. Cora never really desires to see or go to her father except for a few brief moments sprinkled throughout the book usually at moments of intense emotional trauma or when she believes the government is unjustly withholding information from the general public. She is otherwise a fairly normal early 20s something with no idea what to do with ehr life and constantly seems to be only a bad day away fro everything to come crashing down. Which happens in the first chapter; quite literally. I think it is difficult at times not to see Cora as an authorial insert character. I confess to know very little of teh author as I believe that everyone is entitled to a certain level of privacy, even as a semi-public personality but the references to My Chemical Romance and Star Wars seems very on brand with how the author would describe situations in her casual vernacular. This is not so much a criticism as an understanding of how I approached the character moving forward.
Why did the Axiom End?
This first and foremost is a First Contact story. All the elements are there: CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), DOD (Department of Defence), NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), ROSA (Refugee Organizational and Settlement Agency), and WIEAA (Why Is Everything an Acronym). The second to last one was quickly constructed by the CIA to handle a spaceship containing 44 aliens that arrived at Guam in the 70s. Turns out, at least in this universe, humanity is not the only thing out there in the inky crushing darkness of space, there are also aliens with force powers. Actually 3 alien species descending from the same common ancestor. Which is why it is called Axiom’s End, because previously the space faring societies thought that they were unique among life in the universe. One thing that I do like about this book is that very complicated ideas about the nature of language and ethics are brought up with not much pretence. A running theme throughout the book is how the aliens, who are these cyborg, vaguely incectoid looking things look down on humanity for a wide variety of reasons. This is not a new idea but these particular aliens seem to rely on radiation to survive and show destain to the humans who eat meat to survive. I don’t know if they would be okay with vegans but after this discussion I immediately thought of the main alien (Ampersand) as being this very hyper activist vegan stereotype that I personally find very entertaining to think about.
What about the Aliens?
The main alien of the group goes by the name Ampersand. None of the aliens give their names, my conjecture being that they evolved beyond the need for them and allowed humans to use whatever name was easiest for them. He is the first alien encountered by Cora and subsequently abducts her to break into Google to obtain top secrete information about the alien reports/speculation being held by Big Government. Ampersand initially used an ear bot to issue commands to Cora that she had to obey and then after Cora obtains bodily autonomy, talks to her using the device. The first encounter I think was very well written and is nearly how I would react given the circumstances of it. That is petrified and vaguely threatening them as they get closer to me. The aliens physiology is complicated to describe and but it is essentially a raptor-insect hybrid that are human or taller in height and are a mix of cellular and synthetic operations. They also posses the ability to manipulate magnetic fields with incredible precision which results in a moderately powerful telekinesis and they have some ability to shapeshift their fingers into tools or weapons. I like them and I do think they would fit an species that has developed near light speed capabilities would look like and the capabilities they would possess. These aliens are part of a “Super organism” which I interpreted was more like a semi-hivemind with some ability to act autonomous. I believe it is conjectured by Cora that they have no worker bees but there is a strict hierarchy. I think this is enforced through their language as well as general culture but this is speculation. At one point humans gain the ability to talk to the others of the species and 2 of them, referred to as “propagandists” openly opinionated an idea that is contrary to the Co-Hegemons. If this was ancient Rome, they would both be dead so I was curious about the inclusion of such an element. They also have 3 languages 1 of which is a neural network which they were cut off from. Another is what I interpret as copper pipes opening an closing, that is a “talking” language that has a written form to it as well that is used for communication later in the story. The last is merely alluded to and not much is known about it as it is considered untranslatable in nature. I have some theories as to what it could be about but most of them would sound like I’m a crazy person so I’ll save everyone the worry.
Big Government
I personally thought the sections concerning Big Government were cliche to the point of bad parody. At one point the President of the USA is about to be impeached/resign over the first contact cover up and the Secretary of Defence strolled in, demands to speak to Ampersand and then demands a way to communicate to the other aliens outside of the unique connection that Cora has with Ampersand. Ampersand also gives a entire lecture about the dangers of open communication with the super organism that I also thought was a little weird considering the messages can’t travel faster than the speed of light so really it would just be for the neutral to cooperative aliens on Earth. I didn’t see how the translating tablets added much to the overall story aside for being a McGuffin for a few scenes later where Cora had to be able to speak to some of the other aliens. Honestly Big Government was more banal than evil. Even when one of the agents said to Cora about how many civil liberties would be violated if she ever when public, I just instinctively knew that that was never going to happen because as a white young woman, in Cora’s own words, she is considered “innocuous”. And the story needed to be wrapped up and the idea of spending any time in a Gitmo would grind the story to a halt.
Conclusion
Overall, I liked the book. It isn’t the best word of scfi that I have ever read but it appears (and feels) like a passion project and I like projects like that.