The Man Who Would Be Kling

The Man Who Would Be Kling by Adam Roberts


Something weird has happened to Afghanistan. Not far north of Kabul, Afghanistan has become surreal. People who go into the area die, but not because of pragmatic Islamofascism, which counts as a perfectly ordinary thing. Instead, electronics do not work as they should; simple electronics stop working, complex electronics become chaotic and unpredictable. The mind does not work. Things get transformed. Strange things are seen in satellite surveillance. A large part of Afghanistan has become a “no go zone.” Again this is not unusual for Afghanistan, except in this case, no one goes there....no one at all.

The main character of this novella is Rudy, the head of British Intelligence's Kabul Station.[1] He is approached by two individual — Chillingworth and Dallas — who plan to enter the Afghanizone. Chillingworth gets Rudy's help because he is a Star Trek fan and she uses a phrase from The Next Generation as a kind of code phrase.

Chillingworth believes she is a Vulcan; Dallas believes he is a Klingon. Both have had surgical alterations to pass as their respective fictional creatures. Their theory is that the Zone disdains mere humans but will recognize their superior species as emissaries of a higher civilization.

Clearly, they are batshit crazy.

Rudy tries to talk them out of their plan, but they maintain their resolve.

Only Chillingworth comes back.

Most of the novella is about the experiences of Dallas and Chillingworth. A lot of it does not make sense. We can suspect that Chillingworth is not a reliable narrative. Do Dallas and Chillingworth survive for as long as they do because they are playing?

Roberts tells us he has given us an answer, but I didn't see it.

I did enjoy the story. It falls into the category of “Zone Story.” These stories involve humans dealings with the problem of an alien reality being laid over a mundane region of space. Physics, reason, and perception are twisted and untrustworthy inside the zone. The theme of experiences in such zones involves unintelligibility. Classic stories of this kind include Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky, as well as M. John Harrison's Kefahuchi Tract trilogy.

I am not sure that I like Zone Stories. Unintelligibility is not a feature I appreciate in my literature. [2]

I liked this story, perhaps because of the weirdness of the characters. Adam Roberts is also a solid writer. He is rapidly becoming one of my favorite living writers.

This novella is part of the NewCon Press collection. This one is part of Series 5 — “Aliens Among Us.”

It is a quick read, has engaging ideas, and is well-written. The absence of an ending that ties the whole thing up is a feature of the Zone subgenre.

Footnotes:

[1] While putting this review together, I realized I didn't know the character's name. Since the book is written from his first-person perspective, this is easy to overlook. I did a snipe hunt through the book, and I came up with four references to the character being called “Rudy.” Since Robert's end note is “He considers Rudyard Kipling the finest writer of short stories in English,” I suspect we can guess what the character's last name might be.

[2] I have enough unintelligibility in my quotidian career as a trial lawyer.