Author: C.F. Bentley
Cover Artist: Larry Rostant
Publisher: DAW
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: August 2008
Harmony is one of the books Damon used to fill up the box with my latest batch of book with. I didn’t request this particular novel. I have absolutely no idea who the author is, there doesn’t seem to be an author website and as far as I know this is her first published novel. So other than what the publisher put on the book cover I went into this book without expectations and only a vague idea of what to expect. An interesting experience. I guess it could have gone either way and while I don’t think Harmony is going to win any prizes for best début, it was still a decent read.
Most of the novel is set on the planet Harmony where some seven centuries ago a group of colonists arrived to find just that. A harmonious society. To achieve this the created a very strict caste system. Society is led by the Priest and Noble casts, while the Workers and Poor make up the bulk of the population. The Spacer and Military castes help maintain order and keep Harmony effectively cut of from the rest of the universe, while the Professional caste provides the services that require higher education. You could say it it the you-keep-’em-poor, I-keep-’em-stupid arrangement that prevailed for centuries in western society. This system worked well enough for centuries but now the planet/goddess Harmony is making her displeasure known by unleashing all manner of natural disasters on the planet. To make matters worse the High Priestess dies in one of the earthquakes. Something most be done quickly. To try and stabilize society High Priest Gregor pick an unusual girl to success the High Priestess. Sissy, a girl born in the Worker caste but with all the (genetically engineered) caste marks present on her face. Sissy has the gift of Harmony. She is very uneducated, a bit shy and not ambitious. In other words, Gregor should have no problems controlling her.
While Harmony wants the universe to leave it alone, and has the fire power to back up this preference, the rest of the universe is interested in Harmony. Or more in particular in the formula of Badger metal. An alloy named after the inventor that give Harmony’s fleet an edge in battle. After horribly messing up on a routine flight major Jake Hannigan is recruited into the Confederated Star System secret service and sent to Harmony to get the formula. He soon ends up as the personal bodyguard to Sissy. She makes him realize his mission’s goals might be insufficient, once on Harmony he won’t settle for just the Badger Metal. One of the challenges of this book is not thinking of Jake as Franz Joseph. A test I failed miserably.
The writing in Harmony is good, the story is well paced but the book does have a few problems. It leaves way too many things unexplained. A conspiracy that never materializes, the strange reaction by the original inhabitants of the planet, what the turning point in deciding to create the seven-caste system was. There’s also the harmonies Sissy uses to appease the planet/goddess. Her voice seems to hold real power but the origin of that power isn’t mentioned at all. Every time Bentley reaches a point where the book requires a more in depth look at parts of society the story takes off in another direction. There’s always the chance the author means to revisit this particular universe but there is noting in the book that indicates there is going to be a sequel.
While reading it I wondered about the huge gap between the military technology available to Harmony and the limited availability of even relatively simple technology to the majority of the population. The gap is so enormous it doesn’t seem sustainable even with the docile population of Harmony. I suppose one could argue that this is one of the reasons why Harmony’s society is heading for a crisis though. The process of this collapse and it’s causes remain a bit vague. The restless planet obviously had a part in setting the system up in the first place and the natural disasters are seen as a sign of the impending crisis. Harmony’s spiritual life is very much involved. Looking at it more rationally it seems to me like the system undermined itself. There are signs of dissent among the population but again they never materialize.
Maybe I am looking at it with too much of a hard science fiction look. With the heavy emphasis on the spiritual life on the planet, it is almost as much fantasy as it is science fiction. It may even attract some readers who don’t normally read science fiction because of this. To me the various elements of this story seem to be a bit mismatched. It was not a bad read but the book ultimately failed to convince me . It’s not something I’ll be tempted to reread any time soon.
