JEM by Frederick Pohl (1979)

Bit of a strange book this, and by a unique author. How many writers did their most famous book sixty years ago (Space Merchants, 1952), was still putting out really good books 30 years ago (Jem, 1979) and is still going in 2011 with a regular blog at the age of 81? That’s Frederick Pohl, the last surviving dinosaur of the Golden Age of science fiction.

Jem is the story of the colonisation of a planet - the planet Jem, to be precise.  It’s an odd novel. For a start, it doesn’t have one central character; rather, the indirect narrative viewpoint shifts throughout the book, from Danny Dalehouse, the nearest thing to a hero of  the story, to the ruthless, ambitious and thoroughly unlikeable Marge Menninger, but also to sundry other minor characters, including, with mixed success, three of the alien species to be found on the planet. 

It’s no mean feat to imagine an entire planet and populate it with three distinct species of alien that are entirely believable, but Pohl does this without breaking a sweat. I loved the description of the balloon aliens’ language, as well as the psychology of the Krinpit, who call humans ‘Poison Ghosts’, since they aren’t good to eat. The colonisation of Jem is described in a way that is not only highly plausible, but also, in a sense, tragically inevitable. I would argue, however, that the lack of a central protagonist or group of protagonists makes the narrative rather disjointed at times, and means that the story lacks a proper narrative arc. You could argue that Tolstoy does the same thing in War and Peace, but Fred Pohl isn’t Tolstoy. Without a strong central character to root for, there isn’t a proper narrative arc - it’s just ODTAA  - One Damn Thing After Another. 

That criticism to one side, Jem is a highly enjoyable sci fi novel.Regular Pohl readers will recognise his obsession with political alignments of the future based on the scarcity of earth’s resources. They will also recognise his strong satyrical tendencies, as man’s propensity to rivalry, greed, and ultimately, destruction, are transplanted to an alien planet. Jem is quite shocking, actually, with the casual brutality of man's treatment of alien races, both for the purposes of 'scientific research', and also, survival.

It’s quite common, I think, for science fiction writers to fall in love with their own ideas, and forget that, at the end of the day, they are still telling a story. Also, many sci-fi writers find it difficult to sustain an idea over the length of a novel, without the concept getting out of control. For this reason, I think that the short story format is the best for science fiction, and I would recommend anyone who wants to read Pohl to begin with his short fiction before venturing as far as Planet Jem.