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| M.R. Carey's latest novel is the third (and best) in his Pandeminium series. |
The result is a rollicking, entertaining, and occasionally ludicrous novel that does not take itself too seriously. And although some readers might enjoy Outlaw Planet as simple pulp entertainment, it has much more complexity and depth on offer than might be obvious at first glance.
Screenwriter and teacher John Truby notes that the traditional western didn’t die; rather, the fight for a new frontier moved into outer space, and includes genre favourites like Star Wars and Guardians of the Galaxy,. Truby wrote in The Anatomy of Genres, “If science fiction is social philosophy in fiction form, and crime and comedy are applied moral philosophy, the western gives us a philosophy of history,” and this is evident in Outlaw Planet, as the book offers both ideas about a philosophy of history and broader ideas about social philosophy.
The setting (the titular “outlaw planet”) is a nation similar to the antebellum United States. It’s populated with the sapient descendants of numerous mammal species; everything from dog people and cat people to weasel people and even moose people. As the story begins, readers are introduced to Elizebeth (aka “Dog-Bitch Bess”), a young woman of canine lineage who sets out from the prosperous southern coast out into the untamed wilds of the west in search of her destiny. As she reaches the frontierlands, her nation plunges into civil war.
Featureless white ceramic towers litter the landscape of this Western setting, vibrating with an ominous hum — and as it turns out, resetting the minds of everyone who lives there to restart their civil war over and over again.
It slowly emerges over the course of 500 pages that this planet’s analogue of the United States Civil War has been engineered by shadowy figures as part of a multi-generational experiment to figure out what species of sapient mammal makes the best soldiers for their much larger war. It’s a lot to fit into one book, and our biggest criticism of Outlaw Planet is that it might be overlong.
The subtext of this setting is timely. From our perspective, it seems like the United States is trapped in an endless cycle of conflict, replaying the tensions that eight score and five years ago led the nation to its first civil war. America’s mass-media ecosystem is complicit in misinforming the public, and pitting the masses against each other while faceless corporate overlords profit from the resulting tensions. Consequently, the setting of Outlaw Planet that features mass media organizations broadcasting falsehoods from featureless skyscrapers and pitting citizens against each other is somewhat apt as a metaphor. Or maybe we’re reading too much into things.
At its heart, the book succeeds primarily because of well-developed character work. Even when the protagonists Bess and her gun Wakeful Slim have lost their moral compass, they’re written with believable empathy and the reader understands their bad choices. Supporting characters — such as elderly warrior Mur Ghrent and young shaman Dima Saraband — may not be fully fleshed out, but they aren’t reduced to a series of cliches either.
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| As a non-American, author M.R. Carey does not seem to be swayed by the mythologized version of Westward Expansion or "Manifest Destiny" that many United States residents are taught. (Image via Wikipedia) |
One of the interesting details in this setting is that the only characters recognizable as standard-issue human beings belong to semi-nomadic bands living in western lands that are slowly being expropriated (stolen) by settlers. We are not of Indigenous ancestry, so we cannot speak definitively about whether this depiction passes muster. It is interesting to note that members of these Indigenous-analogue groups are the only characters in the book who truly know how the World really works. Indeed, Indigenous knowledge is depicted as being vital.
The book acts as a stealth sequel to Carey’s previous two novels, Infinity Gate and Echo of Worlds. Outlaw Planet is not marketed as the third part of the Pandominion trilogy, with the publisher’s website even describing it as a “standalone” novel. The previous novels had introduced the Pandominion, a multi-planetary empire stretched across billions of parallel Earths with sapient species having evolved on different Earths from almost every mammalian lineage. This empire — and its fracturing during the events of Bridge of Worlds — is referenced early in the book, and eventually becomes crucial to the outcome of Outlaw Planet.
Over the past few decades, numerous writers best known for work in comic books have attempted to make a transition to writing prose novels. The results have been mixed at best; even influential comic book figures like Alan Moore, John Byrne, and Warren Ellis have often found limited success on book store shelves, and although Neil Gaiman has sold a lot of books and graphic novels, his career is the exception rather than the rule. Even the legendary Stan Lee’s attempt at prose (a series of novels called The Zodiac Legacy) is not well remembered. It is clearly a different set of skills that is required for success as a purely text-based author as opposed to one whose work involves words and pictures in sequential panels. M.R. Carey, the Liverpudlian author of Outlaw Planet seems to be a worthy exception, having begun writing successful novels only after a multi-decade career as a high-profile comic book author.
Outlaw Planet is a delightfully weird fusion of western and big multiversal sci-fi adventure, and it’s one that we sort of hope earns Carey his first Hugo nod in best series.
The book acts as a stealth sequel to Carey’s previous two novels, Infinity Gate and Echo of Worlds. Outlaw Planet is not marketed as the third part of the Pandominion trilogy, with the publisher’s website even describing it as a “standalone” novel. The previous novels had introduced the Pandominion, a multi-planetary empire stretched across billions of parallel Earths with sapient species having evolved on different Earths from almost every mammalian lineage. This empire — and its fracturing during the events of Bridge of Worlds — is referenced early in the book, and eventually becomes crucial to the outcome of Outlaw Planet.
Over the past few decades, numerous writers best known for work in comic books have attempted to make a transition to writing prose novels. The results have been mixed at best; even influential comic book figures like Alan Moore, John Byrne, and Warren Ellis have often found limited success on book store shelves, and although Neil Gaiman has sold a lot of books and graphic novels, his career is the exception rather than the rule. Even the legendary Stan Lee’s attempt at prose (a series of novels called The Zodiac Legacy) is not well remembered. It is clearly a different set of skills that is required for success as a purely text-based author as opposed to one whose work involves words and pictures in sequential panels. M.R. Carey, the Liverpudlian author of Outlaw Planet seems to be a worthy exception, having begun writing successful novels only after a multi-decade career as a high-profile comic book author.
Outlaw Planet is a delightfully weird fusion of western and big multiversal sci-fi adventure, and it’s one that we sort of hope earns Carey his first Hugo nod in best series.
