Pat Cadigan’s Fools is a mindbendy cyberpunk novel that holds up incredibly well despite the 30+ years of technological development since it was published. The protagonist is a ‘method actress’ who can create temporary splinter personalities that believe they are real for her roles. One of those splinter personality has seemingly built her own life, and as the two collide, the reality of both is called into question.
Fools is a slippery twisty ride of a novel. Every time I thought I knew what was going on, some new piece of information or context sent my previous assumptions into question. You see, in this vaguely futuristic world, memories and personalities can be traded like currency. Sometimes this can be done safely – experience what it’s like to be someone else! But our protagonist(s) sharing the same body find themselves unable to remember vast swaths of their lives, and personalities can take over and achieve ‘escape velocity’, forging their own path outside the prescripted elements. At first the question seems to be ‘which one is the real personality?’, but it quickly becomes more complicated than that, and the actions of both personalities put them into danger.
One thing I like about this world is that the details only exist where we need them – this is effective both as a microcosm of our protagonists, whose worldview tends to be shrunk to a window where even memories from earlier in the book become obscured after trauma and complications, and it prevents the setting from feeling overly dated. The speculative technology involved is clearly fantastical. How it causes an exploration of identity is fascinating.
It’s hard to say much about the plot without spoiling anything. There is an almost thrillery vibe to things as the protagonists have to avoid threats and figure out what’s going on with their limited knowledge. I think it possibly gets a little too twisty for me – even towards the end it was harder to emotionally resonate with the outcome through the rug pulling and final revelations. It’s also a novel that requires you to keep a lot of details in your head. Both characters have different knowledge and experiences of the same things, and even that knowledge can get twisted and mixed up as the plot progresses. Their narrow window of the world leaves you guessing a lot as to how other characters know them among other things.
That all being said, I did really enjoy the ride. The idea of conflicting identities is very well explored, and Cadigan does a good job of keeping the reader engaged while not giving away too much. If you’re looking for a compact, character focused sci-fi that’ll keep your brain engaged, I highly recommend Fools.
Rating: 8/10
Writings of a Doomscribe 