The Entropy of Loss by Stewart Hotston
(NewCon Press, 2022)
Reviewed by John Dodd
It’s something humans don’t do, talking about death, because merely the discussion of it might invite it into our midst, and if we’re being honest, none of us really has a hankering to meet it. It’s not that we have a fear of death, it’s just that no one understands it, not really, and so all we can do is talk about the part leading up to it, and the feelings that that gives us.
The Entropy of Loss is the story of Sarah and Rhona. Rhona is dying and Sarah doesn’t really want to live without her, but the treacherous nature of being alive has caused her to have an affair with Akshai, a co-worker, while Rhona is still alive. This has led to Sarah questioning if she is a good person, if she’s doing what she’s doing because she’s trying to deal with her feelings over Rhona, or if she’s just messed up by everything that’s occurring.
Sarah is a scientist, Rhona an artist, and we realise early on that while Sarah has the intellect to do all the things that she does, it’s Rhona who is the driving force behind her. When the research that Sarah is working on takes another direction, and the possibility of life from another realm comes into play, her emotions and her need to still be with Rhona cause her to make a judgement call that brings them all into the path of that new life.
What follows is a first contact scenario wrapped in a last contact scenario, new and unfamiliar life meshed in the ending of familiar life. It doesn’t dwell on the maudlin aspect of death or the wide eyed thought of exploring possibilities, but focuses both through the lens of what would really happen if new life were ever to be discovered in the universe.
The result is a story of absolutes, of the nature of how humanity looks upon itself, of how that gaze turns inwards towards darker thoughts in darker times, and of how even the most optimistic of things can be looked upon with sceptical eyes. It’s not an easy read, particularly for those of us who have lost people, who have waited beside beds knowing that not even hope remains, but the way in which Sarah behaves, the way in which she reacts to all the things that she encounters, has the ring of truth and lived experience to it.
I enjoyed the unpredictable nature of the aliens, how they didn’t possess greater intelligence or power than the humans in the story, how they were every bit as confused and puzzled by us as we were by them. I liked very much that there were hints towards other stories that had told of alien invasions and first contact, and then subverted those stories by going in completely different directions. Most of all, I liked that the human perspective was never lost, from the officious nature of the agencies trying to control the encounter, to the grief of Sarah, to the love of Rhona. I thought that more could have been made of Akshai, but in the end, she wasn’t the point of the story, and spending more time with her could have displaced either Sarah or Rhona. In a novella there isn’t time to have diversions, you have time for a premise, and then a flight to the conclusion, which this does masterfully.
I would recommend this without hesitation to those who liked the film Contact, or the film Arrival, and while I’m not convinced this would make a film like those, I am certain that the book itself is every bit the equal of the books that inspired those films. Some stories are better suited to the medium of film, some need the intricacies of the written word where visuals would only prove to be a distraction. This is the latter.
Review from BSFA Review 19 - Download your copy here.