Beautiful Shining People by Michael Grothaus is an intriguing sci-fi fable set in Japan. It’s going to be quite hard to review without spoiling the central conceit of the novel, but let’s see how we get on!
What Is Beautiful Shining People?
It’s a novel steeped in the style of David Mitchell’s Japanese novel Number9 Dream or Nick Bradley’s The Cat and the City—mystical novels that dovetail contemporary Japanese culture with older traditions whilst adding a dash of fantasy or science fiction elements.
This novel is set in the near future. A teenage coding prodigy, John, is in Japan to close a deal with Sony. (It’s something related to the quantum code he has created.) There is a dystopian element, as climate change and the threat of global war sit over everyone.
A new Cold War, one between the US and China, has engulfed the world. Deep Fake incidents and cyberwar threaten to erupt at any moment. Weaponized pandemics might ravage the planet if one power twitches first. John’s parents were doctors, one of whom died fighting a pandemic in Africa when John was young.
Whilst waiting for his discussions with Sony to come to fruition, John finds himself in Tokyo with very little to occupy him. Friendless and in a strange city, he finds himself in a small cafe looking for something to do, for someone to talk to. Here he meets a former sumo wrestler, Goeido, a peculiar dog with a spherical head, and an enchanting waitress called Neotina.
John can’t shake the feelings for Neotina that rise to the surface, and despite the glowering of her massive sumo associate, the two strike up a friendship together. As they start to navigate their relationship and their position in an ever-shifting, precarious world, each of them harbors a secret that they are desperate to keep from the other.
Why Read Beautiful Shining People?
If you enjoy novels set in Japan you’ll absolutely love this book. It vividly captures both modern Japan and its history. It also offers an interesting meditation on future geopolitics and the role of technology in our increasingly complicated and connected world. John being a tech wunderkind, the subject of the novel inevitably turns to the future of computing and its role for good and ill.
In a world of surveillance, fake news, and simulations of world leaders, how do you tell fact from fake? How can you stop the public from being misinformed? How do you stop governments from being misinformed? How do you prevent governments from misinforming their public? these are just some of the questions the novel deals with.
Like many tech-based dystopias, Beautiful Shining People examines the problems of good ideas being misappropriated to amass power. Yet, the technology in John and Neotina’s world has had some positive changes too. Technology can help with the climate crisis, medical advances, and everyday assistance. Tokyo’s tourist bots offer a glimpse into of the future of travel and improved visitor experiences in countries where you don’t understand the language. John and Neotina ruminate on the nature of robots and artificial intelligence. Should you be polite to a service robot and go out of your way to make its job easier? If we don’t, what will that do to our societal norms?
Despite being firmly in the future, the novel also makes us look backward. John and Neotina visit Hiroshima, perhaps the ultimate example of what can happen when humanity pushes the bounds of technology. Discovery comes at a cost. This a deeply human novel, with only three people at its core. The triangle of John, Neotina, and Goeido’s relationship is what makes the novel shine. Each is flawed, and each has suffered tragedy, yet their broken pieces fit together to make something special.
The are some surprises in this novel and they’re hidden in plain view, which I really liked. You slowly start to get an inkling as to what is going on. This layering of realization is what makes the novel so strong. The not-quite-hidden clues allow you to reassess your opinion of character motives and the deeper meaning of their conversations. There’s a lot of reading between the lines to do here.
The central reveal, when it comes, is not so much a twist but a confirmation of what you’d suspected for some time. Michael Grothaus leaves his clues in a way that makes you feel like you’ve been clever for rooting them out. It’s deftly handled; the hints never feel clumsy or obvious. This is a book that delivers a great story and makes you feel clever—what’s not to love?
Beautiful Shining People is a thought-provoking read, one that keeps you hooked as you delve deeper into its central mystery. I’m starting to think publisher Orenda Books has a secret Indiana Jones-style warehouse filled with talented authors and quirky books. This is exactly that. A little different from the mainstream, it’s an absorbing novel that will make you think about the world, its problems, and its inhabitants in an entirely different way. I can’t wait to see what Orenda and Michael Grothaus do next.
If you’d like to pick up a copy of Beautiful Shining People you can do so here in the US, and here in the UK.
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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.
