First: The synopsis, courtesy of Amazon.
Kyle Straker volunteered to be hypnotized at the annual community talent show, expecting the same old lame amateur acts. But when he wakes up, his world will never be the same. Televisions and computers no longer work, but a strange language streams across their screens. Everyone’s behaving oddly. It’s as if Kyle doesn’t exit.
Is this nightmare a result of the hypnosis? Will Kyle wake up with a snap of fingers to roars of laughter? Or is this something much more sinister?
Narrated on a set of found cassette tapes at an unspecified point in the future, Human.4 is an absolutely chilling look at technology gone too far.
Human.4 is a delight for science fiction enthusiasts and philosophers alike. Given that I am both of those things, it's not at all surprising that I very much liked the book.
I have to say, I really admire Lancaster's ability to tell an engaging and thought provoking story that I think is sure to capture the interest of teens (and those who still remember what it's like to think like a teenager), geeks (Yes, I am), the curious, the skeptics, the cynics and anyone else who enjoys digesting a little bit of technology, reflections on the human condition and unanswerable questions in their daily reading.
The narrative structure is creative and works well with this particular story. The narrative voice -- that of a teenage boy, Kyle, as "listened to" from cassette tapes recovered at an undetermined point in time, really is done well. Lancaster combined the structure and voice to good effect, helping distance the reader (in a good way) from whatever is considered present time in the story. It also helps to convey the philosophical questions that are the centerpoint of the story: Who, and more importantly, what, are we (meaning humans)? Where do we fit -- or not fit -- in the world? What power do we have to affect our collective future?
The story told in Human.4 is a little like the art of hiding vegetables in spaghetti sauce (of which I may or may not be guilty). Lancaster tells a compelling and seemingly straightforward story that might be about a lot of things: talent-show hypnosis stunt gone wrong, an alien invasion, technology gone too far, humans as catalysts for their own evolution.
But there's more to it than that. The questions the Kyle asks might be asked of my life and worldview, or anyone else's, in the here and now. And those questions are not only open-ended, but in many cases downright unanswerable. Often they lead only to more questions about such topics as what it means to be human, what are humans made of, what are the possibilities that you're not who -- or what -- you think you are, where do humans go from here (whenever and wherever "here" is), what if there are other "versions" of humans that pass by us (and us them) countless times with every passing moment.
You know, nothing too intimidating.
Of course, at this point you might be saying, "Yeah, right. Not intimidating in the least -- maybe not the book for me." So here's where I remind you about the spaghetti sauce. In the same way that random vegetables can be cut up and, along with the more traditional peppers and onions, put in something like kid-friendly spaghetti sauce, so Lancaster tosses so many philosophical meanderings into his teen-friendly sci-fi adventure.
There's no reason for readers' eyes to glaze over, courtesy of a barrage of questions that are the content of philosophy courses on college campuses everywhere. The questions are there; you just don't taste them. Err...notice them. But you will find after reading the story that such questions are buzzing around your brain, even if only faintly. Bonus, if you like to think about such things. Or, added ingredients and exposure to something out of your particular ordinary that will give the story an added depth that may only be experienced, not examined.
Okay, I'll shut up about the philosophy. And spaghetti, and such....
I do want to mention that Lancaster very cleverly uses his narrative structure also to help further the mystery. For those familiar with cassette tapes, you'll remember that there was a couple-second stretch at both the beginning and end of every tape on which nothing could be recorded. Kyle apparently doesn't take this into consideration, so the words he meant to be the beginnings and endings of all of the rcordings are lost -- a fantastic device used to fuel speculation about what details were contained in those missing and forever-lost minutes.
I could go on but from here I'd only wind up dropping spoilers. I'd rather leave it to the prospective reader to discover on their own what makes this story so unique and so compelling.
Recommended.
Of note: Word is, Human 1.4 is due out in January 2012. As of yet, no details about the story have been released.
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