Filaria (Brent Hayward) 3

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Filaria
Brent Hayward

A complex, intricately woven (or should I say tiered?) little book, Filaria divulges its most important secrets in bits and pieces, usually secondhand to a character who is unaware of its import. For instance, the lust that seizes all the male characters is revealed as a pheromone experiment mentioned in the first quarter of the book, aimed at Deidre, but outed to Phister. The four central characters never meet each other, but cross paths with mutual acquaintances who provide new revelations at every step.

In addition, the level of detail is subtle and exquisite, often provided in succinct fragments. For instance:

"Retired pods embedded deep in the curved walls. Dusty mesh strung between glistening tracks. Loops and untold lengths of entwined tubes. Endless tubes. Hundreds of sizes, gurgling and trickling and burping quietly, up and down the great shaft."
The first scene, with Phister, is particularly well done — he belongs to a ex-Public Works clan living in the very basement of the world, unaware of any other levels (or the existence of people with hair and teeth; the radioactive sewage in the basement makes theirs fall out). Through him, we also see only the basement, so his expanding world becomes ours as well.
But I really do wish that the story had mirrored to bring the last scene with Phister to the very end; it is the pivotal moment when the long-lost messiah returns at last, after all. It’s even on the cover — great cover, too. It’s the moment when a new beginning is visible, so I would have liked to see it right at the end. Right now I feel it’s easy to overlook the significance of Phister’s transformation.

Deidre’s eventual fate is also fairly skin-crawling, but it does seem a rather just reward given her position and privilege. She hasn’t exactly suffered in life. Mereziah and Tran so, as proletarian characters, have less dramatic arcs, but they provide interesting perspectives, with Mereziah’s staff position as a lift attendant, and Tran so’s quest to find the "god of all gods" that he believes is the network.

I also would have liked to hear more about the "errant" giants, and how the sleeping ancestors would be awakened. There’s also the common mistake about DNA — it doesn’t record memory, only the biological code. Archived DNA wouldn’t recreate someone, only their clone. Although maybe it was DNA in addition to some form of memory storage. I won’t nit-pick because that would ruin the dramatic power of the Engineer being reborn.

I’m also not sure whether "Filaria" is the name of the world or a reference to filiariasis. I feel like I could be missing an interesting metaphor there.

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3 thoughts on “Filaria (Brent Hayward)”

  • Reply ↓
    brenth

    Filaria

    Dear Wheelwithin,
    Your assessment of Filaria is very appreciated and somewhat intimidating in its depth. Thank you for the nice things you’ve said, and thanks for the review on Amazon (my first!!). The title of the book is meant to be a riff of both your theories: humans as infection (and there is a filarial worm, removed from Tran so’s eye), and I also thought the word sounded like a city’s name, what with the suffix ‘ria’ and all…
    Brent H.

    • Reply ↓
      debicarroll Post author

      Re: Filaria

      Hope the nice things outweighed the intimidation — I do love books where I can go that deep. Glad you appreciated the Amazon.com review — I saw you didn’t have any yet, and since I did enjoy the book, I thought I’d do my bit to help out.

      I remember the worm in Tran so’s eye, but I hadn’t made the connection. How fascinating.