Book Review: Binary Star #4: Legacy | The Janus Equation by Joan D. Vinge | Steven G. Spruil
“Binary Star” was a short-lived series of paperbacks from Dell SF in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Their gimmick was pairs of novellas with a loose theme, something like the classic Ace Doubles. #4 was the first with a female author as one of the pair, and some other innovations I’ll discuss later.
Legacy by Joan D. Vinge is edited together from two stories published previously, “Mediaman” in Analog, and “Fool’s Gold” in Galileo. It takes place in the far future, in the Heaven star system. Originally colonized from distant Earth, the Heaven system had no hospitable planets, so its civilizations primarily settled in its asteroid belts. Unfortunately there was a civil war about a generation ago, and most of those civilizations were destroyed by atomic warfare or the knock-on effects. The pockets of humanity left are scavenging the salvageable bits of their former neighbors to get by.
A lot of technology has been lost, including any way to get outside the solar system and there’s no relief coming from Earth so far as anyone knows. But now the largest remaining colony, the Demarchy, has gotten a message from a stranded prospector. He’s found a research station his family company had established on the frigid Planet Two before the war, with computerized processes that would greatly help the chemical distilleries that have lost those programs. But an important ship part broke on landing, so he needs rescuing.
Siamang and Sons has decided to send a rescue expedition, with a three-person crew: Sabu Siamang, heir to the Siamang business, as leader of the expedition; pilot Mythili Fukinuki, a rare female spacer; and Chaim “Red” Dartagnan, a “mediaman” (a cross between a reporter, ad writer and public relations flack) to record the voyage and spin it to the greater glory of Siamang.
Dartagnan is himself a qualified pilot, though out of practice. His prospector father had taught him in hopes of taking over the family ship and business, but that father had died in an “accident” immediately after making a huge score, the ship being unsalvageable and a major corporation taking over the discovery. So he found his career derailed into becoming a professional liar and lickspittle in the hopes of scoring a relatively cushy corporate job. This is his big chance, but the stress has given him a chronic ulcer.
Sperm can still be preserved, but ova cannot, and radiation slowly makes spacers unable to reproduce (proper shielding has never been developed) so female spacers have to volunteer to be sterilized if they want to pursue the career path. Fukinuki loves piloting, so she agreed to this, but she hates the sexism among spacers and pressure to have sex. If she completes this job, she’ll finally have enough money for her own ship and only take assignments she wants.
Siamang is a spoiled rich boy who’s an emotional sadist, and enjoys lording it over his employees, forcing Dartagnan to be his yes-man and sexually harassing Fukinuki. Oh, and his actual goal on this mission is more depraved than even Dartagnan has guessed.
The two employees have survived the first half of the story, but now Mythili and Chaim find themselves unwilling partners in prospecting as they’re co-owners of a ship–Mythili has little knowledge of prospecting techniques and Chaim is not that good of a pilot. Plus the events of the first half have left a lot of resentment between them. They must both reconcile with each other to work as partners and somehow make a rich enough strike to pay off their new ship.
It’s an interesting setting, and there’s a map of the system as well as an explanation of the metric timekeeping system to help the reader visualize the action. Deliberately childless women were unusual as protagonists in science fiction at the time, so that’s a selling point. The future may be bleak for their civilization but our heroes find reason to build a personal bond and go forward together.
The Janus Equation by Steven G. Spruill takes place on an alternate Earth where John F. Kennedy was not assassinated. Genius scientist Paul Essian is on the verge of solving the title equation which will allow time travel. Problem is, he’s been having creative block for several months and been unable to progress. Then he meets the mysterious Jill Selby, who is somehow perfect for him and his work. Too bad he’s being pressured by his project advisors, pursued by rival corporations that want to have his discovery for themselves by hook or crook, and subject to apparently insane people trying to assassinate him!
It’s a couple of centuries in the future. The old countries have faded away, replaced by five mega-corporations. Most of humanity lives in gigantic arcologies with the spaces between largely returning to wilderness. Meridian Alpha, where the majority of the action takes place, is in what used to be Michigan, near the former city of Detroit. There’s a moon colony with vegetable farms, though that is just a setting detail.
More relevantly, this future is one in which LGBTQ+ people are much more tolerated by society than they were in the 1970s. A trans person has a cameo in the first chapter, and the only reason her status comes up is that Essian’s a little obsessed with questions of “true” masculinity and femininity. He suffers from what we’d now call “homophobia”, at least partially stemming from a difficult relationship with his lesbian mother. (Essian keeps referring to his mother’s partner as her friend (yes, in italics.) This is causing problems in his working relationship with his chief of staff Eric Winters, who’s gay, and Essian really doesn’t want to admit he’s at least a little attracted.
It’s no surprise that Essian’s creative block is partially caused by his psychosexual hangups, and part of the resolution is him working that out in a way that’s only possible in science fiction. But there’s plenty of problems that aren’t inside his head that also need to be dealt with.
As often with future societies, it’s interesting to see what technologies are just part of the setting. This future has cybernetic eyes, but not knee replacements. There are 3-D holograms that are indistinguishable from reality but it’s never used for anything plot-relevant. Oh, and there are “gas bars” where people try out various inhalants, as well as the standard wet bars. Heat-seeking drones are more plot relevant late in the story.
Content note: In addition to what I’ve hinted at above, there’s a torture scene.
The other nifty features: An introduction by James R. Frankel talking about what he was trying to accomplish with this pairing, several very nice illustrations by Jack Gaughan, and the authors contributing afterwords to each other’s novellas. Ms. Vinge in particular discusses how her background in anthropology and Mr. Spruill’s background in psychology affect their approach to their characters. This gives the volume a deeper value than a normal mass market science fiction paperback of the time.
As far as I know, this volume has never been reprinted, and I am unsure if the novellas have been collected elsewhere. This might be a good one to chase down if you’re a collector, and of special interest to those interested in the history of LGBTQ+ themes in science fiction.
