Audition

The provocative latest by New Zealander Adam (The New Animals) combines science fiction with a treatise against carceral systems. The dialogue-driven narrative has the feel of improvisation as it follows passengers Drew, Stanley, and Alba aboard a spaceship called Audition, where they negotiate the cramped quarters and try to stay positive ("It would be better if we took a moment to be really grateful for this beautiful spacecraft which used to be so perfect for us. Which was built especially for us. When we got too big for Earth," says Stanley). It turns out the trio have grown to more than 18 feet tall while on board, and have discovered that the only way to stop their dangerous rate of growth is to continue talking. They reflect on their metamorphosis, which began in a vaguely described classroom where they prepared for their mission. Eventually, the reader learns that the classroom was not a nurturing environment but a prison, and the Audition constitutes the trio's punishment as it hurtles toward a black hole. Adam charms with her nonstop dialogue and her characters' determination to be hopeful. This ebullient tale thrums with life. (June)

Three giants on an interstellar spacecraft are rapidly running out of room--and they just keep growing. As unconventional as the premise of New Zealander Adam's novel seems, the reality is far stranger. Three giants--Stanley, Alba, and Drew--are seemingly all that remain of the spacecraftAudition's original crew of 18. They can't be sure of this, however, as they are totally immobile, crammed into whatever spaces they could find large enough to accommodate them when, already enormous compared to "normal-sized humans" at the outset of the voyage, they grew at an exponential rate, with catastrophic results. These giant crew members, "dangerous and annoying" on Earth, were trained to operate the ship in the classroom--an open-air stadium where they were subjected to a barrage of mind control techniques that have made them docile and stripped them of any memory of their prior lives. The spacecraftAudition operates through the mysterious, almost alchemical, process of turning "[their] noise into speed and steering." Though the goal of their mission is uncertain, Stanley, Alba, and Drew have been trained to keep up a constant stream of inane conversation to make sure the ship's functions continue to operate, including the artificial gravity that "keeps humans small." Why did the crew enact an apparently total "silent rebellion" againstAudition itself, the consequences of which are what have Stanley, Alba, and Drew crammed up against the rafters? The novel's three simultaneous narrators don't know--their agency almost totally stripped from them by their physical suffering, lingering amnesia, and the need to keep up a constant stream of mind-wiping chatter--but a careful reader can begin to put together the story behind this story as snatches of the lives the giants lived "before the classroom" begin to come into focus. Stunningly inventive, this book is told in three parts that explore the simultaneity of past, present, and future as the three main characters' voices loop and swell around each other. Though readers may find themselves challenged by this form--akin to Virginia Woolf'sThe Waves meeting a 21st century version of Philip K. Dick--the rewards of a sustained read are abundant. Brilliantly weird. Weirdly brilliant. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.