Norton Glover reviewed Rejoice, a Knife to the Heart by Steven Erikson
Aliens show up and solve everybody's problems.
2 stars
Aliens show up on Earth and stop all war and violence, protect the environment, and provide material abundance for humanity. They choose not to contact any Earthly government, and just start changing things.
Borders are erased, and all militaries are rendered useless. Environmentally sensitive areas are protected with force fields. Violence against other people is rendered impossible. Eventually, magical and easy-to-reproduce energy technologies are freely provided.
We never meet the aliens, just their AI emissary, who explains everything to an abducted SF writer, who will serve as a messenger to humanity. We also check with various people around the world - SF writers, the US president, an African warlord, wealthy plutocrats, who each react to the alien's actions in their own way.
Humanity doesn't have much agency in any of this. The aliens do their thing, and the world just has to accept it.
I don't have any problem with …
Aliens show up on Earth and stop all war and violence, protect the environment, and provide material abundance for humanity. They choose not to contact any Earthly government, and just start changing things.
Borders are erased, and all militaries are rendered useless. Environmentally sensitive areas are protected with force fields. Violence against other people is rendered impossible. Eventually, magical and easy-to-reproduce energy technologies are freely provided.
We never meet the aliens, just their AI emissary, who explains everything to an abducted SF writer, who will serve as a messenger to humanity. We also check with various people around the world - SF writers, the US president, an African warlord, wealthy plutocrats, who each react to the alien's actions in their own way.
Humanity doesn't have much agency in any of this. The aliens do their thing, and the world just has to accept it.
I don't have any problem with the politics, but the book is such an obvious exercise in wish fulfillment. A Canadian SF writer makes the protagonist a Canadian SF writer. The villains are clearly stand-ins for Trump and the Murdochs. All of the characters, good or bad, are fairly shallow, serving mostly as mouthpieces rather than fully realized people.
I wouldn't mind living in this liberal social democratic utopia, but I'm not particularly interested in reading about it.