Review: The Spare Man

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I found this book at the library and picked it up on the basis of A) that it was by the author of one of the best Hugo winners in recent memory, and B) that it had a pretty striking Art Deco cover, and the little dog too! That, plus Andy Weir's blurb hinted that, like Kowal's signature Lady Astronaut series (for which I've been waiting since 2020 for the next book!), it was an alternate history kind of sci-fi. That turned out to be wrong, as the book was ultimately revealed to have a near future setting, late 21st century, albeit with that Art Deco aesthetic. But that dissonance of expectations vs. reality, for me, was only the tip of the disappointment iceberg.

The real problem for me was that while it's easy to sympathize with Kowal's protagonist Tesla (or Tess, or Artemis, or various pseudonyms thereof) because of her various levels of disability (most notably PTSD, kept at bay with a little technological implant and a stinking cute service dog, and reminding me of the Lady Astronaut protagonists' own psychiatric issues), Tesla is also, shall we say, eminently unlikable. She's said to be a billionaire and genius inventor, but she's also kind of an alcoholic (no seriously, she's got a whole bar traveling with her on this interplanetary cruise, and each chapter begins with a cocktail recipe, some of which are Kowal's own invention) and she's very quick to weaponize her privilege against anyone who gets in her way.

This is especially ironic in the same book where progressive gender standards are pretty well normalized - everyone introduces themselves with their pronouns after their names, with a fair amount of people of many genders (there are even neopronouns in both English and French), and everyone is addressed with the gender neutral honorific Mx., regardless of their actual gender. This last part can get pretty confusing, even for readers who are experienced with gender inclusive fiction - hell, there were a couple of times when my eyes wanted to read the honorifics as the gendered "Mr." or "Ms." instead. I'm kinda surprised that no characters requested to have gendered honorifics instead. If I was a character in this book, I certainly would have - I've said it before, but as an autistic man, I sometimes feel like I have to make more effort to have my gender clearly and correctly perceived than a neurotypical man might.

That said, though, I do appreciate Kowal's effort to be gender inclusive in this book - it's certainly better than when she wrote The Fated Sky and revealed (only in the afterword) that one of the secondary characters in that book was actually a trans man, and that the protagonist's narration therefore accidentally misgendered that character the whole time. (I'm honestly surprised no one's attempted to cancel Kowal for that, but then those that would, could look at this book and see that it would be ridiculous to do so.)

It just feels so...dissonant when this book is very obviously from a place of progressive mores in some respects, and yet its protagonist is someone whom leftists would hate with a burning passion because she's a billionaire girlboss. I don't even consider myself a leftist, at least not as far left as many readers online, and even I'd like to see Tesla lose a game of Eat the Rich.

Hopefully, though, the next Lady Astronaut book will come along soon and I can put this one in the back of my mind palace where it belongs.

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