New 09.07.03

Somewhere along the way, I had a bit of time to read and picked up Uncharted Territory by Connie Willis. It appeared on one of our bookshelves as we shuffled things around to accommodate the installation of new carpeting. Willis wrote Remake, a book I enjoyed a few years ago. That one was about people using digital technology to embed new actors into classic movies. (Willis writes science fiction, not technical non-fiction. Sometimes technology changes so quickly it's difficult to know whether a story is fiction or not.) Uncharted Territory is a story about a crew of earthling surveyors on a planet with sentient native life. One of the few really delightful features is Willis' detailing of the rules of engagement set up for the surveyors by their earth-bound bosses. The rules are designed to minimize the effects of contact between the earthlings and the natives. (See my comments about Peter Iverson's history of the Navajos and several of Adair New's recommendations.) Like most things done slavishly in response to earlier events, these rules, Willis makes clear, will have their own set of interesting and unintended results. Willis also attempts some comedy centered on gender confusion, but it didn't work for me. This book was not as much fun as Remake.

• Stephen Wu's review of Uncharted Territory