Though it is rare for Urban Fantasy fiction to have aspirations beyond escapism, its ability to examine humanity's warts by providing it with a distorted mirror through which to view them bestows the genre with value and power. In its alternative, contemporary worlds where the normal rules do not apply, every conceit, every wish, every imagined nightmare, can be conjured up and, thus, picked apart, digested by readers used to accepting societal norms at face value. Ms. Bull's 1991 work, which was nominated for the Hugo award, manages, despite its flaws, to tap into the genre's escapism without forsaking a grander message, an admirable feat which saves her novel.
In a future Earth environmentally and economically devastated by war, hard-scrabble souls do their best to eke out an existence in the shadow of their authoritarian rulers. These powerful men have capitalized on the disintegration of high-tech civilization to regulate essential systems like electrical power, keeping all but the compliant in the dark. It is a simple and effective method of compelling wide-spread obedience from the subjugated. However, despite how many powerful cards one holds, occasionally, the gods throw up surprises, unanticipated events which have the power to destabilize the status quo.
One such wildcard is our protagonist, Sparrow, a bioengineered human being grown for a nefarious purpose which died with the collapse of the United States' government. Now free, he does his best to stay beneath the scrutiny of the high and mighty, occupying himself by restoring stereo equipment and conserving a collection of albums which he hopes to keep from sliding, along with the rest of civilization, into the rotting neglect of obscurity. But as hard as he has tried to escape the notice of the powerful, Sparrow becomes a wanted pawn in a dangerous game when, after waking from one of his periodic blackouts, he sets out to discover the source of what's plaguing him. In the process, he triggers a series of events which will shake the pillars of his city, threatening to hurl its rulers from their positions of abusive authority.
Ms. Bull has successfully amalgamated the hard technology of science fiction with the spirit world of fantasy to create a strange but compelling piece about the nature of humanity and the role that Fate plays in its existence. Sparrow is an artificial being, a thing into which the gods have breathed life. And it is through him that Ms. Bull explores the essence of human life: loves and friendships, motivations and aspirations. However, Sparrow is not his own man. He lives at the whimsy of the manifestation of voodoo spirits who have chosen to take a hand in Earth's temporal affairs. And so, even while Sparrow is learning what it is to be human, he is realizing that he is little more than a piece to a puzzle being assembled by the gods.
Though Ms. Bull succeeded in investing Sparrow with a rare, delicate and complex humanity, the remainder of Bone Dance's cast of misfits fail to animate. There are flashes here and there, moments in which the secondary characters flicker to life, but these moments are far too few and mostly confined to Frances, the enigmatic woman who complicates and catalyzes Sparrow's life.
There's much here to admire. The prose is witty and active, the world is dark and suitably spiritual, the villains are appropriately creepy and malevolent, but the story suffers from the same syndrome that plagued its protagonist. It is only half alive, deadened by a dizzying array of pop-culture allusions which rapidly became silly distractions from what was, otherwise, a serious examination of life in all its drivers and its fears. I can see why Bone Dance earned its nomination; there is gold here. But its flaws keep it well off a podium finish. (3/5 Stars)
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