#138 Death is no obstacle: The Ophiuchi Hotline (1977) by John Varley

Hundreds of years from now, there is not a single human being on Earth. The species has been exiled to the moon, Mars, and other worlds of the solar system. A powerful alien race has reserved the planet we think of as "ours", and given it over to the real intelligent life: dolphins and whales. Fortunately, humankind has mysterious friends in high places, who offer powerful technological fixes. 

John Varley's debut novel The Ophiuchi Hotline (1977) is a story of a changed and changeable human future in which transplants are trivial, body modification is easy, and death is optional - but in which our species may be running out of time.

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Transcript

The clones of a renegade scientist star in the author’s first novel

Several hundred years into the future, a formidable alien race intercedes on Earth. It reserves the planet for the sole use of its intelligent species - which is to say, the dolphins and whales. Humans are regarded as mere vermin, and exiled to the moon, Mars, and other worlds of the solar system. Luckily, Homo sapiensis given a lifeline, or rather a hotline - a stream of advanced scientific knowledge transmitted by another, apparently more benevolent alien species. This is the world of The Ophiuchi Hotline(1977) by John Varley.

Born in Austin, Texas in 1947, Varley made his debut as an SF writer in 1974, and quite quickly established himself as a major presence in the field. He went on to major awards success, primarily for his shorter fiction. Most notably, his 1985 novella “Press Enter”, won a triple crown of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. The Ophiuchi Hotlineis his debut novel, and an entry in his “Eight Worlds” series, which plays fast and loose with its own continuity but deals with humanity’s exile from Earth, and the profound changes experienced by the displaced species.

In this book - included in David Pringle’s landmark Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels - Varley explores a radically changed vision of human society. In this future, advanced biomedical techniques provided by aliens have made transplants trivial, body modification easy, and death optional. But in Varley’s hostile universe, it may be that humanity as a whole is running out of time.

Where meat grows on trees

Lilo is an experienced and highly capable scientist living on the new hub for humankind - Earth's moon. She has used her skills in genetic engineering to create a variety of commercially useful products, including special trees which produce meat and eggs. Now, though, she has taken a step too far. Her meddling with the human genome breaches strict legal protocols. Caught, convicted, and imprisoned, she is sentenced to final death: every extant clone of Lilo is to be killed, every trace of her DNA to be expunged.

At the eleventh hour, the Lilo that the authorities plan to execute is sprung from prison and a previously undetected clone is destroyed in her place. The escape plan is no act of charity, however - Lilo is expected to work to earn her freedom. Her rescuer is the former leader of the moon, a ruthless politician who has modified himself to resemble the 19th century New York political figure Boss Tweed. Even more eccentric is the plan he conscripts Lilo into - an effort to retake Earth from the alien invaders.

Lilo embarks on an odd tour of the solar system, in the company of a schoolteacher and a statuesque clone bodyguard. She will die, not once but many times, and might even get close to understanding who is sending data from the Ophiuchus star system, and why.

Anticipating the future

The Ophiuchi Hotline is a first novel, and reads like one. Varley’s prose is not his strong suit. Typically it is neutral, and at times it is bland. This matter-of-fact approach may not have been the best way to explore a genuinely strange view of the future.

Issues can also be raised with the novel’s plot. Because cloning and the backup of memory states is quite trivial in this future, death is really no obstacle. This lack of genuine threat undermines any tension Varley tries to create. The meandering story never quite does justice to the unusual setting of the Eight Worlds.

In other ways, the novel is quite bracing and ahead of its time. Lilo is a good example of a well-rounded woman protagonist created by a male author. She is capable, but flawed and believable and has credible interactions with others. More generally, Varley's view of sex and gender is also quite enlightened for 1977. For example, in his future, most people have used commonplace body modification techniques to live both as men and women. Lilo is in fact unusual for how little time she has spent in a male body.

The focus on biomedical science is probably the most interesting aspect of  . Varley explores radical surgical techniques only a decade or so after the first heart transplant was performed. On his future moon, an arm can be transplanted quite reversibly in just a few minutes. His speculations about genetic engineering predated the beginnings of maturity for this technology in the 1980s. The meat- and egg-producing trees Lilo devises anticipate the lab-grown meat in development today: a technology that could genuinely change the world.

Me, myself, and I

Varley at times manages to extract real dramatic punch out of the concept of human cloning. Early on, a new clone of Lilo encounters a new clone of a medic also employed by Boss Tweed. It is explained that a previous Lilo murdered a previous incarnation of the medic during an escape attempt. There are no hard feelings: neither victim nor perpetrator remember this act of violence, because it occurred after their most recent memory backup. It's a real high point in the novel.

The use of cloning and memory backup also helps Varley introduce questions of identity that recall the work of Philip K. Dick. Who are you, if there is more than one you? How can you reconcile the actions of multiple copies of the same person, operating in different circumstances? There are some resonances with Algis Budrys’ Rogue Moon (1960), which shares a lunar setting and also has characters transcend death through duplication.

The Ophiuchi Hotline can rank alongside Greg Bear’s Blood Music (1985) as key speculations about biotechnology in classic SF. While its plot is not always as engaging as it could be, the unusual setting and the depiction of a changed and changeable human future are strong compensations.