Red Dust by Paul J. McAuley
"Red Dust" is a science fiction novel by Paul J. McAuley that explores a dystopian future on Mars, where the planet is undergoing a transformative struggle for survival. The narrative begins with the unsettling premise that "Mars was dying" amid a backdrop of high-tech mysticism and spiritual allegory. Central to the story is the Silence of the Emperor, an artificial intelligence that influences human subjects, specifically Tibetan laborers, to forsake their organic existence in favor of a virtual reality.
The protagonist, Wei Lee, a contract agronomist technician, embarks on a perilous journey across the Martian landscape after encountering a female anarchist. This journey reveals betrayals, self-discovery, and an unexpected connection to a sentient machine known as the King of Cats, who channels the spirit of a rock-and-roll demigod. As Lee navigates challenges that include tribal communities and mutant beings, he becomes inadvertently heralded as the savior of Mars, grappling with the fate of the planet and uncovering his own role in its salvation.
The novel combines elements of myth and technology, leading to a climactic confrontation that intertwines love and destiny, ultimately pushing Lee toward heroism in a quest to rejuvenate Mars. "Red Dust" stands out as a thought-provoking examination of identity, sacrifice, and the intersection of humanity with advanced technology.
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Subject Terms
Red Dust
First published: 1993
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—dystopia
Time of work: Ten thousand years in the future
Locale: Mars
The Plot
Scotsman Paul J. McAuley, a past winner of the Philip K. Dick Award, proves himself to be one of the more inventive writers on the science-fiction scene with Red Dust. As in his critically acclaimed Eternal Light (1991), McAuley presents a future speculation that is dystopian in its orientation by combining science with high-tech mysticism and spiritual allegory.
The novel begins with a simple sentence: “Mars was dying.” The reader is catapulted into a world that is at once familiar and odd. It is the second year of the Silence of the Emperor. The emperor is an artificial intelligence, and the human-machine Consensus has persuaded it that its human subjects should abandon their organic forms and join the greater virtual reality. The human subjects with whom the Consensus is concerned are Tibetan slave laborers that the Chinese have used to terraform Mars, using the Ten Thousand Year Plan to lead to the Great Sky Road.
Rains come when the planet’s water, which was released during the terraforming operation, slowly locks itself back into the planet’s rocks. The King of Cats—a sentient machine on the planet Jupiter, with a reconstructed personality—has a cunning plan to overcome the silent emperor and the Consensus.
Wei Lee sets out from the Bitter Waters danwei. He is unaware that his journey will carry him to the far ends of the planet and beyond. Lee, a lowly contract agronomist technician with a blood connection to the ruling Ten Thousand Years, finds his life forever altered when he encounters the crashed spacecraft of a runaway female anarchist. He agrees to transport the prisoner deep into the Martian wilds at the request of his powerful kinsman. Lee soon discovers that he has been betrayed and that he, his charge, and the future all are in serious peril. Myth, circumstance, and a viral kiss—which allows Lee to tune in directly to the broadcasts of the King of Cats (a reconstructed Elvis Presley by another name)—transform Lee into a reluctant deity who follows the words and music of a rock-and-roll demigod across dry rivers and dust seas toward an inevitable confrontation in information space with the true lord of the living and the dead.
Lee races around terraformed Mars in a desperate attempt to change his own destiny and to release the trapped water that will make Mars fertile. During his journeys, Lee is rescued by yak-roping cowboys, is set adrift in a world of tribal Yankees and feral children, and meets other odd characters, including a mutant dolphin. In the course of his journeys, as everyone he meets anoints him as the savior of the red planet, Lee changes the nature of cyberspace and learns how to act heroically. He fights to save Mars, a planet doomed by a conspiracy of religious destruction born on a machine-run green wilderness called “Earth.” The novel ends with a different kind of kiss—one of love.