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WoGF Review: Cyber Circus by Kim Lakin-Smith
In his youth, Barry F. (bazhsw), really enjoyed reading science fiction and fantasy, and then stopped for the best part of twenty years. In 2012 Barry made a committment to “read more science fiction” and decided the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge would be his launchpad.
Cyber Circus is a carnival featuring a range of bizarre characters and oddities as it travels across Sore Earth in a steam powered airship. The novel is very much in the vein of the ‘road movie’ as the Circus moves from town to town whilst being pursued by a pimp character (D’Angelus) trying to reacquire one of the acts (and ‘obtain’ another) for his brothel.
That set-up may well seem seedy and indeed it is. There is a sickness to the culture of Sore Earth and on the face of things the inhabitants have very few redeeming features with individuals falling into categories of ‘exploited’ or ‘exploiter’ (and it could be argued some fitting into both).
The world is barren and survival is hard, it’s hard not to think of the American Depression era and the ‘curiosities’ of the traveling freak show.
There is a theme of violation through the characters of the circus. Many of them have been subjected to bodily modification either against their will or as a result of other ‘bio-surgery’. Indeed, there is a presence of sexual violence (or threat thereof) throughout the book and although these scenes are not graphically presented it still is an uncomfortable read at times. It seems that many of the non-storyline inhabitants of Sore Earth fit into the category of ‘worker’ or ‘prostitute’. It did make me think of how female characters in particular are portrayed in ‘Western’ cinema – (or those who inhabit bars at least).
