Not your typical SciFi Novel
Terms of Service is not paced like most Science Fiction Novel. This is not a mistake.
Most science fiction novels begin with a bang: the action starts on page one, and there is no letup until the end. This is because most SciFi novels are written in the style of an action/adventure or thriller. The character has an adventure, and the adventure starts on page one.
You may think that the story in Terms of Service takes a while to get going. If so, you are incorrect: the story does start on page one — in the first couple of paragraphs, in fact — but it is not an action/adventure/thriller novel: it is a contemporary novel focused on the journey of the character and on the society in which she exists. This story is not about Kim’s adventures: it is about Kim and her journey from complacency and ordinariness to … well, you’ll have to read the book to see where she ends up, but rest assured that she experiences events that profoundly change both her as a person and her view of society.
The story telling in this novel is intensely personal. You will see what Kim sees, experience what Kim experiences. You will come to know her as a person and you will fall in love with her as she tries to make sense of a world gone mad and find truth in a landscape of lies and illusion. She makes some mistakes — some very big mistakes, in fact — and she learns. There is an innate innocence and goodness about her and a humanity that you will find compelling. All good fiction is about people.
The structure of this novel is somewhat unusual. It consists of three novellas, and each chapter stands on its own as a short story (there are a couple of exceptions).
You should read Part I (Spring) as four interrelated short stories. Each chapter tells you something about Kim and her world. Don’t expect a lot of fireworks; enjoy them as short fiction.
The main story line starts in Part II (Chapter 5). After that, it’s off to the races.
To help you understand my approach to storytelling in this early part of the book, I’ll walk you through a few important passages in Chapter 1.
Chapter 1: The Start of Kim’s Journey
The first chapter is titled “An Ordinary Day,” and you may say, “This is boring; Kim leads a very dull and ordinary life.” Well, yes, Kim does lead a dull and ordinary life, one which is familiar to you and I in some ways, but strange and alien in others. This first chapter is a portrait of Kim and her world, the starting point for her journey of self-discovery and healing. It is pivotal to understanding the remainder of the novel, and I’d like to walk you through it to help you understand the role it plays in the overall structure.
Here is how the book begins.
Kim awoke at the usual time with the usual pounding headache as the alarm clock blared away. She had once again ended up drinking more than intended, and the night had been difficult, her sleep haunted by unwelcome dreams. Her eyes blinked open then closed again for a few moments as she wished she could sleep a bit longer, but the wakeup alert was insistent and there was no way to turn it off. After a few more seconds she opened her eyes and looked around her tidy but nondescript sleeping chamber, trying to clear her head. Beige carpet, beige comforter, beige pillows, beige walls, and on the nightstand her VR headset, perched perilously close to a tumbler half-full of vodka remaining from last night’s binge. The damnable alarm continued its nagging ever more insistently. There was no point in trying to resist. Time to get up.
The lights came on as Kim clambered out of bed, pulled on a pale-beige robe, and sat down at the desk, staring at the terminal’s screen for a few moments. There was a soft feep as the housebot came into the room. Ahh! The coffee pot had sprung into action even before she had awoken and, as always, expertly prepared a hot, steaming mug exactly the way Kim liked it—just strong enough, served black, no sugar—and given it to the housebot, which had dutifully brought it to her desk. It was uncanny the way the appliances knew exactly when Kim would want her coffee, but not at all mysterious—it was just a neural network driven by the health monitors implanted in her body, the sort of basic AI technique she had learned years ago in school. And yet, there were times when it seemed like magic.
“Thank you, Housebot.”
Feep?
“Yes, that will be all. Oh, wait, hangover meds please. Breakfast in half an hour.”
A few things should jump out at you. First, Kim is an alcoholic. Why is that? You will learn the answer. Second, what’s this with the alarm clock? Who is in charge here, the alarm clock or Kim? Why can’t she turn the damn thing off? Why is there no point in resisting? Read and find out. Third, and perhaps most disturbing: The coffee is ready the moment Kim gets out of bed is because the AIs are monitoring her physiological signs. That’s convenient, but doesn’t it strike you as creepy? It is more than creepy: remember, this is dystopian fiction, and you will learn a lot about what is actually going on with this as you read the novel.
The Rest of Kim’s Day
The remainder of the first chapter walks you through Kim’s very ordinary and very boring day. It serves as an orientation for the reader as to what this society is like, and a little bit about what Kim is like. I particularly like the following passage, describing the start of her commute. What’s so interesting about a commute? You’ll have to read the entirety of Chapter 1 (available on Amazon in the ‘look inside’ link) to get the full details, but the following should tell you much about this civilization.
Kim activated the navigational overlay on her headset and was directed down to the main floor via the elevator. She made her way through the lobby, and out onto a broad plaza flanked by identical high-rise apartment buildings that marched nondescriptly off into the distance in two tidy rows. It was gray, rainy, and cold (exactly as forecast). Kim had dawdled a little too long this morning and had therefore been routed via the surface walks instead of the more comfortable but congested underground tunnels. On a warm, sunny day the walk was pleasant; the area was nicely landscaped and afforded a stunning view of the lofty towers of the corporate district off in the distance. But there was nothing nice about the weather today, so Kim pulled her rain jacket tight around her as she scurried along as quickly as possible, partly to get out of the weather, but mostly to avoid missing her bus.
After a few minutes half-walking, half-trotting, she arrived at the station and placed her right wrist in the scanner, which read the embedded ID chip and flashed green to indicate admission. A nervous glance at her watch and a sigh of relief. She had been slow leaving her apartment this morning but had managed to make up most of the lost time along the way, arriving at the turnstile only ten seconds behind schedule. This was fortunate, since the last thing she needed was to annoy the AIs by forcing them to reroute her at the last moment. She had been working in the company’s transit support division for the last six months and she knew exactly how much tolerance the AIs had for tardiness—none whatsoever. The entire system was demand-driven, with tens of millions of passengers and countless busses and trains routed and dispatched on a real-time basis. Depending on your boarding priority and which stations the AIs sent you through, your commute could be quick and comfortable or slow and painful. It was important to stay on their good side, and few things were as certain to provoke a week of long and grueling commutes than carelessly missing a bus and forcing them to adjust your routing at the last moment. It was always a bad idea to be late.
Again, I’ve highlighted some important passages. The first is the role of the VR headsets in this society. There are strong elements of Cyberpunk in this novel; this is an augmented-reality society, in which everyone wears their VR headsets whenever they are in public. The headsets overlay reality with useful information — in this case, navigational data to help you make your way through the transit system. Who controls the augmented reality? Why, the AIs of course! I’ve also highlighted the sentence where she pays for her transit system ride, using the ID chip implanted in her body at birth. That is noteworthy and should also strike you as creepy and rife with potential abuse. The remainder of the highlighted phrases tell you a lot about the relationship between the AIs and humanity. The AIs have a lot of control over your life, and they can make your life very difficult if you get on their wrong side.
Most of the rest of the chapter is focused on Kim’s day working at The Artificial Intelligence Company. As a Ph.D. in AI, this is where I teach the reader about how AI works in this world. It is all scientifically solid; this is hard SF, and nothing I write about contradicts the laws of nature or foreseeable technology. You will learn some disturbing things. After Kim comes home from work, she attends a baseball game in Virtual Reality. This is where I explain how VR works in this world; this is another major Cyberpunk theme, and very entertaining. As an aside to the reader, I am a die-hard baseball fan (Go RedSox!), and the ballgame I portray is “Tigers vs. Giants.” For those of you who have knowledge, yes, I’ve been to Koshien. Write what you know!
The End of Kim’s Day
The first chapter ends as follows:
It was late now, so Kim undressed, poured a glass of vodka, and settled into bed to watch the videos that the terminal had queued up that morning, starting with Dr. Kro and the Punkmetal Gang. As expected, it ended up being a typical Dr. Kro flick. The ne’er-do-well youngster was whisked off to the ‘mysterious secret lair’ where she had numerous adventures, all leading to a massive, choreographed dance number set to—surprise!—Afro Punkmetal, and a final celebratory feast featuring kale, spelt, and tofu. It was incredibly lame, but Kim was bemused by the sheer crassness of the tie-ins and cross-promotion.
The binge continued, with one Dr. Kro flick after another, but Kim paid no attention as the cheap vodka proceeded to do its work. All in all, it hadn’t been a bad day. Nothing awful had happened, she had gotten an opportunity to rise above the pack at work, and the ballgame had been a blast. And yet she was sad, without really understanding why, and she sank into that melancholy mood which often struck her in the wee hours of the morning. The bottle gradually emptied, and she eventually drifted off into a shallow and troubled sleep interspersed with dreams of soft warm arms and a dimly remembered song that was somehow comforting despite the sadness it provoked. The vodka finally won, and an ordinary day in the ordinary life of Kim ended as it had begun, in oblivion.
Kim is not a happy person. She is traumatized. You will spend the rest of the novel understanding her trauma, where it came from and how it proceeds from the dystopia in which she lives. She is a fascinating and very human. Definitely not perfect; she makes mistakes, but she is a good person, and you will come to love her.
The Flow of the Rest of the Novel (and a bit more - mild spoilers)
I don’t want to go into too much detail about the rest of what happens, lest I spoil it for you, but I’ll give you a few hints. If what I’ve said so far has you hooked and intrigued, don’t read another word - just buy the book and experience it for yourself. You will love it!
But, if you’re still wondering if this is a book you will like, I’ll tell you a little more.
Part I: Spring
I’ve already told you a lot about Chapter 1. The rest of Part I proceeds in a similarly leisurely fashion, as a series of short stories. If you insist on action and adventure, you may struggle to keep up interest in this part of the book. Fear not! There are plenty of fireworks to come. If you enjoy world-building and character development, you will love this part of the book. Not a lot happens, plot-wise, but you learn a lot about the world, and you learn a lot about Kim. Metaphorically, this is the slow climb of the rollercoaster to the apex of the first, big hill.
Part II: Summer
This is where the fireworks begin as you crest the hill and accelerate. Kim does some unexpected things, and finds herself drawn into the belly of the beast. Her life becomes distinctly not-ordinary, and she soars to undreamed of heights of prestige as she finds herself suddenly important. You will also come face-to-face with the AIs, and begin to understand their mindset and who/what they are. They are fully sentient, self-aware beings, alien yet human. Their fates are subtly intertwined with ours, and there are some dark secrets lurking.
Part III: Fall
Kim’s life spins out of control, and the deepest and darkest secrets yet are revealed as she slides farther and farther into the abyss. This part of the book is very intense emotionally and gathers speed as the roller coaster hurtles ever downward with no end in sight. I won’t say more, lest I spoil it for you.
The Prophecy of the Heron
At this writing, I am 2/3 of the way to the second novel in the saga. Originally I had intended this as a single book, but the tale grew in the telling. This continues the story of Kim as she descends into the heart of darkness. I’ll tease you with the titles of the component novellas.
Part IV: Exile
Part V: Shadows
Part VI: The Maelstrom