Cyber Circus

Cyber Circus is a carnival featuring a range of bizarre characters and oddities as it travels across Sore Earth in a steam powered airship. The novel is very much in the vein of the 'road movie' as the Circus moves from town to town whilst being pursued by a pimp character (D'Angelus) trying to reacquire one of the acts (and 'obtain' another) for his brothel.

That set-up may well seem seedy and indeed it is. There is a sickness to the culture of Sore Earth and on the face of things the inhabitants have very few redeeming features with individuals falling into categories of 'exploited' or 'exploiter' (and it could be argued some fitting into both).

The world is barren and survival is hard, it's hard not to think of the American Depression era and the 'curiosities' of the travelling freak show.

There is a theme of violation through the characters of the circus. Many of them have been subjected to bodily modification either against their will or as a result of other 'bio-surgery'. Indeed, there is a presence of sexual violence (or threat thereof) throughout the book and although these scenes are not graphically presented it still is an uncomfortable read at times. It seems that many of the non-storyline inhabitants of Sore Earth fit into the category of 'worker' or 'prostitute'. It did make me think of how female characters in particular are portrayed in 'Western' cinema - (or those who inhabit bars at least).

Despite this, I do think the characters are well crafted and the nature of the acts (and their modifications) quite imaginitive. Desirious Nim is the initial target of D'Angelus who has circuitry through her skin which makes her 'light-up' to entertain or show emotion. Hawkeye is a former soldier with 'eye' modifications that give him a significant edge in combat but also has it's issues leaving him unable to find peace whislt being emotionally detached. Pig Heart looks like a pig, after a pig heart was transplanted into him. There are other races, insect children, wolf-girls and mysterious monks. Given time I think I would have cared about the characters. I suppose that this is my biggest problem with the book - the plot is pretty simplistic and by the time you have begun to root for the characters (and see them bond closer to each other) the novel seems to abrubtly end.

I do have a concern of the character of D'Angelus - he seems to drop his business at a moments notice and charge across the planet to get Nim back, even to the extend of having little regard to his safety. Of all the characters I felt his was the most one-dimensional.

I think Lakin-Smith shows a richness of language and sentence construction. The world and characters are very creative, the novel is easy to visualise. There's a fair bit of graphic sex and violence and plenty of action which you'd either like or not depending on your tastes. I think a lot of effort has gone into setting but the novel would have benefitted from a richer plot.