In Marullo’s SF novel, a future utopian community of evolved humans faces a quandary as long-suppressed sexual desire resurfaces in their society.
After the death of Earth’s original solar system, the planet is cast out on its own. It wanders as a rogue for a million years before getting a second chance by getting recaptured in the orbit of a passing star. Environmental upheavals are catastrophic, but over eons, a new iteration of Homo sapiens (“Homo Sapiens 2.0”) emerges, apparently repeating exactly the same evolutionary process as before and now occupying a single-continent landmass. The people who dwell upon the planet Opine, called Opinions, are intellectual and have a “cider complexion”; they’re nature-loving, generous, and have no organized religion, war, hatred, bigotry, or greed. A digital archive of old Earth has enlightened Opinions to their wretched history; indeed, mocking the “Fools” of the past is a common Opinion pastime. Their culture long ago quashed bad behavior by using a regime of drugs and gene therapy, and it has a side effect of muting human sex drives. Then Opinion student Aster Bottlebrush changes everything by politely asking his friend Dianella Whitebeam if he can see and fondle her naked breast, and she assents. The event has the effect of shaking Opinion society to its very core, as it reveals that the aforementioned “Self Suppressor” treatment is not absolute, as everyone thought.
Marullo, the author of Till Times Are Done (2019), among other novels, adopts several aspects of utopian fiction in this satirical work; it’s a mod of storytelling that has a venerable history in the SF genre (and one that underpins some of its earliest tales, in fact). Some readers may find that the narrative’s first act is rather tough going, offering readers a throwback to such chestnuts as Samuel Butler’s Erewhon (1872) and Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward (1888), which both delve into the idea of allegedly perfect human societies. In this one, the author follows a familiar format, detailing how the whimsical Opinions finally managed to get things right, long after the Fools evidently destroyed themselves in a mid-21st-century storm of political corruption, division, wealth inequality, pandemics, and science denial. However, after the Bottlebrush-Whitebeam incident, the story truly kicks into gear, and the Opinions start looking less rosy and their culture recalls Aldous Huxley’s classic Brave New World (1932). There are erudite quotes from such thinkers as Aristotle, Karl Marx, Immanuel Kant, John Rawls, T.H. White, and others, but things get sexier—literally and figuratively—in the novel’s home stretch, as the Opinions start acting more than a little Foolish. By the time the finale rolls around, the book has turned into another genre warhorse known as the “shaggy god story,” which tackle biblical notions, such as Creation, from an SF perspective. This punchline is one that is worth readers’ while, and it may well have readers wondering where they would stand in the author’s depiction of a paradise lost.
An intriguing seriocomic fable of a supposed utopia gone wrong.
“Welcome To Opine” by Matthew Marullo, is an ambitious work of science fiction that blends straightforward sci-fi with mind-bending scenarios that may remind you of how you’d feel watching “2001: A Space Odyssey” in an altered state. This saga is set 9,000,000,000 years in the future, where a new world called Opine is inhabited by a new breed of Homo Sapiens. Humans, as we know them today, are a thing of the past, buried inside a quantum computer in the ground that houses the history of “ancient humans” in digital form. There are petabytes full of humanity’s successes and cultures. The inhabitants of Opine are called Opinions, where the “i” is pronounced with the same sound as “pine”. As the Opinions study history, they decide to eliminate undesirable human traits like self-centeredness directly from the genes with a gene therapy technique called the Self Suppressor. But not all people are right for this therapy. One person has a natural resistance to it, but will it be a threat to them, or will they work with it? The man who first buried the computer billions of years before could be the only one who can answer that. In a utopian world where everything seems civil and sexual desire is suppressed, sparks are about to ignite.
This novel will be the exciting sci-fi ride you’ve been looking for. Clever, multi-layered, and filled with witty satirical scenarios that double as commentary on today’s life, you will be thoroughly engaged by how it plays out. The characters Aster and Dianella are interesting and well-developed, and there are creative surprises along the way, by way of style, impact, and meaning. I like the way Marullo grounds the first part of the book in science fiction philosophy of the perfect world and then veers off into more laid-bare emotional and cultural conflict, where the Opinions see how the Fools of the mid-21st-century imploded, and where the Opinions aren’t as perfect as they seem.
This is a non-traditional science fiction novel, but that’s what I like about it. It will have you thinking about the world, hedonism, the nature of reality, and the future. I like that the author doesn’t explain everything or hand-feed it to you. You must interpret and make up your own mind about some of the themes and points of the story. I would love for this to become a movie. If you’re looking for an unconventional science fiction novel that will really speak to you, don’t miss “Welcome To Opine” by Matthew Marullo.
