From the Legend of Biel by Mary Staton

A personal story is necessary to set up this review. Please excuse the intrusion.

Once upon a time, I was at a party for an organization I'm affiliated with that took place at a huge warehouse filled with functional pinball machines. My husband and a friend were with me, and we were chatting near the entrance, my friend lackadaisically playing pinball, when a woman walked in. At the sight of this newcomer, I grabbed my friend by the sleeve.

"C'mon!" I hissed, desperate urgency in my voice. "We gotta get outta here."

My husband had already skirted up the row of machines, and we reached him and disappeared into a darkened corner of the building and watched.

"Who was that?" My friend asked, her voice full of concern. "What's wrong?"

"She's just so boring, Lauren. So boring. She’s a monologue about what she ate for lunch and how a company shipped her the wrong product and about a specific stretch of road in West Virginia that she drove once when she had to pee. I've only spent time with her at one party, but I can't. I just can't. She’s so boring."

My tolerance for relayed banalities is low.

Initially, that wasn't a problem in From the Legend of Biel. A ship on a long, interstellar travel is just about to reach its destination. Its inhabitants, a handful of exemplary scientists and astronauts with nothing to lose, have just come out of deep freeze. There are four stops on their journey before they go back into stasis and head home, but Howard Scott, captain of the vessel, only cares about the first: MC6. The land is idyllic, but it's not earth's potential to colonize the planet that intrigues him; it's the geometrically shaped structures dotting the island. Stark white and apparently faultless in construction, no one knows what they are or why they're there. There are no signs of animal life, sentient or otherwise, on the planet.

He's a man obsessed, but his mission only gives him a few days to uncover what he may. Then it's goodbye forever.

I was into this. It's a strong, simple theme with a clear puzzle, but the writing was ... I don't think I've ever used this term before, but "cerebral." Take this sentence describing Scott coming out of his state of deep stasis:

"From deep in the hidden center the dreamer dreams of the dreamer dreaming the dream. Then the dreamer dreams of dreaming. Then he dreams. Then he opens his eyes, and is awake."

Sure, it doesn't need to be that complicated to be effective, but I loved how well it seemed to convey coming up from a deep, long, unnatural sleep; the gradual addition of consciousness.

This writing elevated a simple plot and paired well with Scott's obsession, ticking all the boxes I need in a novel. 

Scott pursues his obsession doggedly, trying to wring out as many secrets as possible in his limited time on MC6. And he does learn things, but not fast enough. Will he be forced to choose between his profession/crew and his fascination with this planet?

And then the story shifts. We see a different time, when these structures were being used. The culture is markedly different, and there's some sort of experiment going on, and ... you get the idea. This was engaging at first. 

Then things took a step back.

We watch Mikkan, the protagonist of this section, wait. We watch her attend mandatory and unexciting social events. We watch her wait some more. Then, a shift! Something is happening! But no, back to watching her wait. And wait. This false start happens several times. And then when something legitimately changes, she's still waiting, just in a different way. I don't know how I powered through this, but I did. I guess I wanted to see how this flashback intersects with Scott's plot.

And then, on page 174 of 333, I couldn't go on. I felt like I was at that party, looking around wildly for someplace to hide from the relentless boredom. Not because nothing was happening—I'd gotten very used to that—but because people started talking. A lot. But they have nothing to say.

Example:

"Mikkran, what is that on your arm?"

"A tattoo. A symbol. What does it say to you?"

"Let's see. There is only one line, so it has no beginning or end. It is a twisted circle. It contains two equal spaces. It encloses some spaces and excludes others. I would say that all which is contained in the two connected circles is what you know. The upper circle would contain dynamic knowledge, and the lower circle would contain static information—facts which are exclusive of circumstances. The actual line enclosing those two spaces is the barrier between you and the unknown. Beyond the line is the unknown and it is featureless, infinite."

"Mmmmmmmmmm. It is the Thoacdien symbol for infinity."

"Aaaa. It is a good symbol—clear and simple. But there is no dividing line between you and infinity."

"Umhum . . ."

"Why do you have it on your arm?"

"Do you want a long or a short answer?"

"A complete one."

"This figure became the Federation emblem after Xitr-Bielen greeted the First Great Thoacdien Revolution, thirty generations ago. [...]"

It goes on like this for pages.

I just don't friggin’ care. Both characters talk as if they're trying to impress each other with their esoteric knowledge and ability to faff about and dissect everything. Their voices are almost identical, even though their age/upbringing/backgrounds are quite different. As they have no set goal, at least as far as I can tell, all of this chatter appears to be for its own sake. There's no connecting it to a plot or comparing it to the actions of others. Maybe later it'll come into focus, but for now we know only the two of them.

And they're just so boring, Lauren.

I tried to keep going, I did. But every time I sat down to pick up From The Legend of Biel, it felt like a little air was let out of me. I had to try to convince myself that it was bound to pick up soon to open the cover. And I wasn't able to read more than a paragraph at a time without getting distracted or just sitting there, holding the book and not reading, because the boredom was beginning to cause pain.

There is one question, and not even an explicit question, that I'm very curious about the answer to. I even skimmed the last dozen pages or so to see if I could connect anything. I couldn't. And with that, I'm pretty certain that I made the right decision here. 

From The Legend of Biel is obviously some people's cup of tea. I'm assuming those sorts of people love philosophical musings of an esoteric nature and watching/pontificating on the ordinary, though. If that's not you, I'd pass hard.

Cover art by Unknown: