Forbidden Knowledge: Book Review

I just finished reading Forbidden Knowledge by Stephen R. Donaldson. This is the second entry in The Gap Cycle, which is a five book science fiction series that was written back in the nineties. With this book, the series is starting to inflate into something expansive and engrossing on an epic scale.

I really enjoyed the first entry of this series, The Real Story; particularly the horrifying elements and the deeper questions about the nature of control and the human capacity for depravity. This entry continues those questions, carrying trains of thought along related tracks. But alongside this, the story expands to bring in the political intrigue and the worldbuilding elements that weren't mentioned but hinted at in the first entry. Apparently, the epic aspect of the story only grows further from here.

While that is amazing and has me excited for the rest of the story, I also found myself rather captured by the subtleties that were evident in this story. Every action seems to matter, even in basic interactions. It has the substance of a story that is very precise and carefully written, and there is nothing I like more than stories like these. You can tell that Donaldson cares a lot about the stories he writes, and that he wants them to make sense.

No Spoilers

My overall impression of this story is that it is a major step up from the previous one. This is for the reasons I have already mentioned: the increasingly epic scope, the precision in the writing, the themes, and the worldbuilding. Donaldson builds on all of this in a way that was wholly enrapturing.

Expansion

I heard while reading the first entry that the series expands massively in scope. I was excited for this, but I will also admit that this could have been clumsily handled. If there was too sharp of a contrast, then the first entry very well could have felt more like a companion novella. But that really is not the case. The story continues with the same characters as the first entry, and the story seems to only lean into the epic scope, instead of taking off into nowhere.

Some people have criticized this entry for being boring and/or another prologue for the rest of the story, but I have to disagree. I am willing to admit that the story might expand even further in the next entries, and the story does imply that things are going to escalate even further than they have, but this absolutely does stand as a story all on its own. Just because the story is even more epic in the next entry does not mean that the stories that came before did not work on their own or were even just a prologue. A prologue is a mere set up for what is to come, but without much internal story to come with it. Forbidden Knowledge is not that all, even if it does set up the later entries. Indeed, The Real Story is not necessarily a prologue either, by this understanding. You just have to be attuned to the narrower storytelling that is presented first in The Real Story, and then slightly scaled up in Forbidden Knowledge. This series seems like an escalator, where the reader is being eased into increasing complexity.

Precision

This brings me to the next point, which is the precise story telling. What makes the story more compelling on a scene-by-scene level is the amount of care put into the thought processes and the decision making. The characters do not find themselves in a position where they could just hang out or behave nonchalantly. They have to put real care into how they even walk around in an apparently casual manner, all to ensure that a certain image is secured in the eyes of the rest of the crew.

Storytelling as particular as this is so compelling to me. It shows that the author is clever and careful in how they write their stories, and it is something that I hope is shown in my own stories as I continues to try and refine my craft.

Theme

The themes are the next major thing that I have to comment on. The Real Story kicked off this series by using the zone implant to look at themes surrounding the nature of control. In that story, we saw that using this implant did not necessarily imply that one truly had the control they sought for. This entry (without spoilers) twists the usage of the zone implant to explore two new additional threads that I found to be fascinating. And there is even yet another thread not related to control that is also potentially touched upon that has more to do with the purity of human experience. I won't get into the specifics until the spoiler section, but you can rest assured that if this aspect of The Real Story was fascinating to you it continues in this next one.

The theme of control continues into the plotline of another character, as well. As this implies, everything that I mentioned above is all part of one plotline in the book, the primary one. In another plotline, one that is largely taking place in the background, it touches upon the limits of control and the manner in which one can subvert this control. As before, I will leave the specifics for the spoiler section.

Finally, for the theme section, we have a short discussion about consciousness and how it can manifest in people. I think this theme will continue more in the later series, as it was really only touched upon in this one.

Worldbuilding

Tied to the expansion of the story is the worldbuilding. Something that Donaldson talks about directly in the Afterword of The Real Story is that there is potential for expansion, namely by answering the question of how pirates operate. How do they profit from their activities? There must be something outside of the UMCP, or they would see no profit in their activities. And this story answers that question and more. I think it is easy to get spoiled on these worldbuilding features (I was spoiled), but I will still avoid giving specifics on it. What matters is that the UMCP is not a monopoly on violence in space, and that there is something else out there.

On top of this, there is a larger conflict that is tied to this worldbuilding, as well as internal conflicts that are set up. I was about to say that the larger conflict is meant to loom in the background, in a way, but in this entry it was more central than the internal conflict. What matters is that there is an existential conflict that has the potential to destroy everything, and then there is conflict over how to respond to this threat and/or how to take advantage of it.

In other words, the central premise of the story is political intrigue and the complexities of dealing with something that ought to bring people together.

Character

As before, character is one of the central aspects of the story. There were multiple characters at the center and Donaldson did a great job balancing them. There is this annoying trend in movies and books where a crew is introduced and they all have to be thrown at the reader at once, and the readers inevitable get overwhelmed by the information; unless the characters are quirky enough, though those have a tendency toward being shallow. Either way, Donaldson does not do this, instead easing the reader into the situation. You see many of the characters one at a time, and even when they are all in the same place at the same time, some are left unnamed, telling you that they are not relevant and can be treated at background filler.

Morn takes the seat in this entry, and I thought that Donaldson did a great job getting into her head and continuing from where the story was left off. I was reading through some of the reviews in on Goodreads, and some of the reviewers had sharp criticisms, as ever. But I got the impression that some of them were accusing Donaldson of doing the opposite of what he actually did.

What happens is not some starry-eyed continuation (and it was never going to be), but Donaldson was still able to take the character in interesting directions. There might have been some issues of execution in particular places, but it didn't really take me out of the story. They weren't that absurd.

Donaldson already mentioned in The Real Story that Nick Succorso was not the hero. And the reader definitely gets to see that here. He is just as bad as, if not worse than, Angus—though the nature of his cruelty takes a different form. He isn't driven by the same things as Angus was, and he has his own vulnerabilities.

What's more, there are some questions regarding his loyalties that are touched upon in the entry. We get to see what actually happened on his end during The Real Story. But we also get some open questions and complexities that we are left to ponder.

Action

There isn't a whole lot of action in this story, at least when it comes to space battles and fist fights. And when they do come onto the page, they aren't epic. That said, there is one relatively major space battle. It doesn't last too long, but it is amazing for what it is. This is largely because of the precision in the storytelling that was mentioned before. There are no epic spiraling maneuvers, there is no swarm of x-wings zipping through a flurry of bullets—instead, we have serious limitations on movement, where the occupants have to take into the account the distance from which the projectiles are launched, the fact that they don't know exactly when the projectile was launched, and the fact that twisting to the side actually exerts forces on their bodies that might kill them. It's very similar to the Expanse. This makes the battle less epic in terms of its feel, but much closer and more tense than any full on battle could.

Bleakness

This story is largely considered to be very bleak by the readers, whether they enjoy the book or not. And it is, overall. But this does not mean that there is nothing of promise, or that there is no hope in small respects. It is rather similar to Berserk, which is incredibly bleak, but still grabs the reader with glimmers of hope that stand out precisely because of the backdrop. I don't know if I would say that the contrast is as profound as it is in Berserk, but to be fair, Berserk has its elements that are a bit cartoonish and out of place that the Gap has not fallen into so far. There always seems to be give and taken with these things.

Conclusion

Overall, I loved this story. There were only small nitpicks here and there, so there is not much to complain about. Conformity of purpose was achieved through the mutual satisfaction of requirements. I think I will give it a 9/10.

Spoilers

Worldbuilding

I absolutely loved the way in which the world was expanded in this entry. The story was built upon in two major ways that I hinted at above: First, the threat of the Amnion. Second, the internal conflicts within the existing power structures that control space.

I

The Amnion are an alien race that came into humanity's reach (the solar system, I think?), and they present an existential threat. There is no outright malice, but rather a hyper rational approach, combined with a nature that wants to coopt humanity as a kind of host. They want to rewrite DNA and turn human hosts into Amnion in their own right. Basically, in the long term, there really is no solution to the contact with the Amnion. This is an alien race that has one purpose, that purpose being the extinction of humanity.

And this is no matter what the Amnion suggest in the moment: "Conformity of purpose will be achieved through the mutual satisfaction of requirements."

Perhaps the story will pivot hard in the future, catching the reader off guard as to the purpose of the Amnion. That would be amazing in its own right. As long as it doesn't go off the rails like the Expanse did with the alien contact in their story: (spoilers up to book/season 6 for this paragraph) where an Amnion-like disease shows up first, followed by a strange sentient asteroid that wants to coopt all of humanity, followed by humanoid beasts that come from the alien technology, followed by the emergence of a ring gate, which then allows humanity to explore all new worlds even though it was about to kill all/most of humanity beforehand.

I also really liked how the introduction of the Amnion was executed. On one hand, there were the short accounts about first contact with the Amnion and how there was increasing interactions and associated doom. They first came across some strange substance that had dangerous implications for humanity, as well as indirect implications as to its source. The actual Amnion arrived shortly after, and one man changed history when he went out of his way to actually meet with the Amnion. The whole history had a very creepy and ominous feel to it, and when this escalates to the actual contact in the main story, the stage is set for a very subtle terror that is likely to build over the long term.

There are specific things that we still do not understand about the Amnion. At one point, we are convinced that the Amnion never wanted Davies Jr., but simply wanted Nick to annihilate himself without a trace. After that failed, however, they seem to still want Davies in spite of the prior actions. This is possibly explained by the fact that Davies Jr. being alive is the worst possible outcome. But there is also a possibility that there is something else up their sleeve. We will have to see.

Finally, I really want to see if the Amnion are an actual threat. So far, they are quite ominous. But a complete subversion of this notion, if well seeded and executed, has the potential to be a great and insane plot twist that will shatter the fabric of the story as it stands. We will see.

II

There is groundwork for an internal conflict within the existing organizations that control space. And what we see is not terribly promising for the characters of the story. Even if it is promising for the story itself, lol.

From the outset, we see that Nick does actually have an informant at ComMine Station. Milos Taverner worked alongside him because of the need to capture Angus and finally bring him to justice after failing to convict him of anything. But things take a turn into the more sinister once you learn the Taverner, in turn, was paid off by the heads of the UMC in a plot to get a piece of legislation passed. The law would extend the power of the UMC to the whole of space, with no exceptions made for stations like ComMine. By showing that people like Angus are a threat, they were able to extend their power even further.

Worse, these schemers also decided to use Angus as a tool by giving him zone implants of their own and by changing him into a cyborg against his will. He will now be an imposed soldier of the UMC leadership. Basically, this is his worst nightmare, and is a kind of payback for everything he did to Morn in the last entry.

But Morn is not sitting pretty at this point. She was simply a pawn in the schemes of the UMC, of people like Hashi. He laments not having Morn killed after being taken from Angus—one less person talking in the aftermath of the schemes outlined before. Now she is taken from them by Nick, and they need to take her into account. The main consideration is the public image of the UMCP, as its members are being taken from them, which makes them seem weak. And good old Angus is the one being sent to take her in hand. Wonderful, right? But the sense I have is that Angus is the one getting the shit stick. We'll see about his interaction with his son, too.

But there is another element of the story regarding these internal divisions. We know that the UMC leadership has these shady schemes to extend their reach in space, and we also know that the UMC also suppressed the spread of an immunity to the Amnion for some unknown (?) reason. There is some complexity, though, as the head of the UMCP, a division of the company as a whole, now seems to be working against his superiors in order to get back at them for suppressing the immunity. The book ends with Warden Dios, the head of the UMCP, taking control of Angus and hinting at him confounding the coming schemes of the UMC.

Characters

I

In this entry, we find Morn in a situation that is more or less a continuation of where she was in the last book. There are differences with regards to the zone implant, especially with how it deals with the theme of control, and potentially other themes besides, but I will leave that for the section on themes below.

While Morn has switched from one abuser to the next, her circumstances also seem to take a different form, and this allows her to take action and flex for influence. She has control of her own zone implant, so she is able to endure Nick's advances. She is also able to work near incessantly, leading to her to claim a place on the crew by winning the trust of Nick. Partly, this is because of her credentials, and then her knowledge from being in the UMCP, alongside her wiles, which she uses to stop the spread of a virus that one of the men in Nick's crew had put into the ship.

While the idea of all this is interesting, especially with what it says about both Morn and Nick, I did pause about the execution. On its face, I didn't think that there was enough groundwork laid to explain why she would be the one to come up with the solution to the virus. This is mediated by the fact that Vector helped, at least by brainstorming and laying out the process of speculation and the subsequent drawing of implications to check for theories.

There was then the question of specifics. Namely, they came to the conclusion that they were trapped within an assumption that a given device would be used to plant the virus. Instead, an interface card would be used to plant the virus. I didn't really grasp why the interface card wasn't considered from the outset. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this kind of blindspot could not exist; I just did not see any in world reason for why they would not have considered these kinds of cards from the outset.

Morn is then faced with the terrifying revelation that she is pregnant, but it is the child of Angus, not Nick. She wants to abort it, knowing the horrifying circumstance of having a child while out in space. But her circumstances lead to her keeping the child, and she eventually lies to Nick, telling him that the child is his. Through this, she is able to control Nick and get him to go to the Amnion of all things, where they will force grow the child to his teens in the matter of minutes.

One moment that is particularly important for Morn is that she chooses to go insane in order to secure the life of her child. Her mind will be copied in the head of her child, her memories and all, and she will be left catatonic.

The twist is that her zone implant actually prevents her from going insane, and she is left with an exact mental copy of herself in a younger image of Angus himself.

Because the implant was what prevented the madness, this comes back to haunt her. She actually took the implant from Angus because she was suffering from addiction to the implant, and she desperately wanted control over herself. But when she finally forces herself to cut out the implant influence, she genuinely goes mad. Only from the intervention of Nick's crew, the members who have lost some of their loyalty to Nick, does she get pulled back from the madness.

II

Nick is the other major character who is profoundly affected. As Morn points out later in the story, he maintains leadership and influence through reputation, and his infatuation with Morn begins to breaks this.

Mikka points out that Nick only fucks women he doesn't trust, and never fucks women he does trust. This is downstream of the backstory that we learned in the first entry of the story. But Morn changes him through the use of her zone implant. He genuinely becomes addicted to her, and is willing to let her work for him, despite his sexual desires. He only wants to maintain his grip on her and is willing to risk the Amnion for possession of her.

After the reveal (to Nick) that she had been using him with the implant, he is essentially humiliated. He and Morn try to spin it, but as she continues to undermine him, the secret starts to fray. All of this breaks him and leads to him selling Morn's son to the Amnion (or trying, at least), and this precipitates the fall of Nick and the betrayal of multiple subordinates under his command.

Themes

I

The zone implant is twisted in ways that were provocative in this book.

The first entry of the series used the implant to show that control is often more complicated than it is on the surface. This entry puts the implant in the hand of the victim this time, where Morn is using the implant to endure the imposition that Nick is putting on her. She has no natural desire for Nick, but she is able to use the implant to artificially create that desire for herself, and thus create the illusion that she is attracted to him.

The question being asked is whether she is the one in control. And the answer is as complicated as it was in the last one, perhaps even more complicated. On one hand, she is able to use the zone implant at her own discretion, something that she had not been granted while she was with Angus. And she is able to take advantage of Nick by doing this. And he is humiliated, as a result. On the other hand, she is not in control in any way. She is not interested in Nick, and this is just a means of enduring him. She is being raped repeatedly.

One question that came to me is the question of hedonism, or perhaps utilitarianism. They are related at least insofar as they ground morality on pleasure and pain. Pleasure is good, pain is bad. But under the condition of the zone implant, something like rape could be classified as good, as you can manipulate what makes you feel good and what makes you feel bad.

This leads to another possibility that moves away from a more hedonic view of things. Does the zone implant recognize a more fundamental question? Namely: To what should we be responding to with pleasure? And what should we be feeling pain in response to?

The problem of hedonism is that it takes for granted what we feel pleasure/pain in response to. Maybe the answer is some natural humanity that should not be manipulated. I'm not saying this is my answer, but it is a question that I want to explore in my own novels sometime in the future.

II

The next major thing to talk about is the theme of control that involves Angus. He is basically suffering an even worse fate than Morn had when under his thumb. But there were still questions asked in even this context. Angus still has his mind, even as he has lost his motor function. It is rightly mentioned in the beginning of the book that the implant creates a split between the mind and the body.

But another interesting dimension on this is that there is a way in which this is breached, though in the opposite direction. Angus cannot determine how he moves, though he is fully aware. But his physical body can still control his choices. When he is being questioned, he tries to resist by facing the pain he feels head on. But this ultimately fails, not simply because he lacks the will power, but because his brain is physically incapable of embracing pain when it is designed to do otherwise.

And I also have to mention the solution that Angus comes up with: Basically, answering when he can and answering in a leading way so that the questions he doesn't want asked never do get asked. This is the Angus we all love. Not intelligent in a scholarly manner, but clever on an instinctual and manipulative level.

Finally for Angus, he now has a datacore in his own head, as he is a cyborg. But he somehow knows how to edit the core on his ship. I know this is going to become relevant down the line.

III

The last thing to discuss is the son of Morn (and Angus). He is basically the spitting image of Angus Themopyle, but he has Morn's psychology and memories implanted within him. He is not even a few months old, but he has been force grown into the age of sixteen, with only the experience of his mother in his head. Take all of that with the fact that his father had raped his mother (the man he looks like), and he (will) remember all of this from the perspective of his mother.

Not only does this open up so many questions about the nature of the self, about who we are intrinsically and who we are in relation to our experiences, but little Davies Jr. is also a psychological time bomb. This story is bleak as fuck, and I just know how nasty things are going to get in the future.

Conclusion

Overall, I loved this story. There were only small nitpicks here and there, so there is not much to complain about. Conformity of purpose was achieved through the mutual satisfaction of requirements. I think I will give it a 9/10.

Video: https://youtu.be/h057Jf7MBts