I saw Stewart Hotston's Project Hanuman on the new books shelf at my local library, and it seemed like very much my thing (space opera with elements of Indian mythology, and an author influenced by Iain M. Banks!). I immediately moved it toward the top of my to-read pile.
The science fictional and philosophical ideas are quite Banksian. Sometimes I just need some spacey SF in my life, and this hit the spot. It's not a perfect fit (more on that later), but overall I really enjoyed this!
Some of the big questions explored in the novel: Is death preferable even if immortality were possible? Is the "real world" of meat space more meaningful than a perfect utopia in information space? For that matter, which of these spaces is more "real" and what does that even mean in a universe where everything can be expressed as information? Could you have sentience without phenomenal consciousness (somewhat like "philosophical zombies"?) What do you owe the society that makes your life possible?
What about the plot? Our protagonist has left her perfect digital world to be downloaded into a physical body. When her original world disappears, she teams up with a pilot and a sentient ship to figure out what happened and avoid the further destruction of her cilvilization at the hands (or whatever) of a truly alien other that may lack real consciousness but does not lack a hunger for information.
The plot is interesting, but it also didn't entirely work for me. I think the author is trying to explain such abstract things that the narrative often buries the lead. Several times the text would say "since X happened..." and I'd have completely missed when X happened. I also couldn't really tell you how the main story wraps up. It just kind of does, and then the characters move on, maybe leaving space for further adventures? I'd be interested in a sequel, because the world building was too sparse for me. My unpopular opinion: info dumping and telling not showing are helpful for this kind of science fiction. I would have loved a glossary.
The "Indian mythology" was also pretty sparse, other than the name Hanuman and some talk of samsāra and reincarnation (in digital form, anyway). Maybe the deeper idea of the goal of escaping samsāra was there? But I don't understand all these reviews that claim this is a "mix" of space opera and Indian mythology. At best, it has a few South Asian inspired ideas added to space opera. The Iain M. Banks influence is much larger, and as a fan of Banks, I approve. Not that this quite lives up to Banks in terms of ideas or writing, but then what does?
In any case, I'll look for more from Hotston, whether in physical or information space!
See also my Goodreads review.
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