Maximum Light

Nancy Kress

Completed 8/17/2019, Reviewed 8/17/2019

4 stars

I’ve come to really like Nancy Kress.  This is the first full novel I’ve read of hers and I enjoyed it very much.  It packs a punch, much like her novellas.  The only problem I had with it was that the ending felt a bit dragged out.  It went on a bit too long after the big climax.  Otherwise, I’d say this was a terrific book.  It tackles the problem of the effects of the chemicals in plastics on our bodies.  In this book, the effect is that it has reduced human fertility, so that few children are being born.  This book was nominated for the Gaylactic Spectrum Award in 1999.

The book is told from the perspective of three main characters.  The first, Shana, is an army reserve grunt who wants to be accepted into the army itself.  I believe she’s nineteen in the story.  She’s a very rough character.  Her plans to get into the army are thwarted when she is assigned to help with a railway disaster, helping people retrieve their pets from the neighboring houses.  The man she’s assigned to escapes from her, but before he can get completely away from her, she sees him carrying cages with monkeys that have human faces and hands.  And they all have the same face.  Nobody believes her, giving her a black mark on her record and little chance of getting into the army.

The second character is Cameron.  He’s a relatively famous, young ballet dancer who has undergone a procedure to remove a major part of his memory.  The book begins with him falling in love with the guy with whom he previously had a relationship.  The problem is, everyone who knows why he had his memory deleted is sworn to not tell him the reason behind the procedure.

The third character is Nick.  He’s a wealthy and famous older scientist on the committee that reviews Shana’s perjury case.  He comes to believe in what she is saying.  He’s also dying of a strange type of cancer in the mucous membranes of his nose and sinuses.  All three characters come together, not necessarily willingly, in an attempt to find the cover up of Shana’s story.  The key seems to be Cameron and his missing memory.

I really like Kress’ writing.  She writes good, unobtrusive prose, telling a story without the writing getting in the way, but still producing a lush world.  Everything I’ve read of hers is very readable, with enough action to keep you interested.  My only issue with the book was the ending.  After the climax, the pace seemed really off.  It went on way too long tying up the loose ends.  It just wasn’t as interesting as the rest of the book.  However, the loose ends do get resolved, so in that sense, it is satisfying.

The characterization is really good.  Cameron is very likeable, Nick induces empathy, and Shana is a selfish brat.  Even most of the minor characters get a decent treatment.  I felt most for Cameron, as I think most readers do, because of the horrible things that happened to him, for which his memory was erased.  Revealing that however would be a spoiler. 

I give the book four stars out of five.  Except for the very end, it’s a taut mystery set in an all too believable near future.  Kress has been nominated for a lot of awards and won several, mostly for her shorter works.  She’s definitely someone who I am going to keep an eye out for in the future.