Literature / Vicarious

Audiobook cover for Vicarious

Vicarious is a 2021 science fiction novel by Rhett C. Bruno.

The novel takes place several centuries in the future. At some point, the rising ocean levels have made much of the planet uninhabitable. The invention of molecular re-assembly has allowed the surviving humanity to built High Earth, a large towering city on the remaining continent, where machines cater to every need of the residents and where they spent their days plugged into virtual reality. Humans are no longer born, they're grown in vats and programmed with necessary knowledge before being "born" into their fully-automated dwelling. Outside the high walls are the slums of the delisted, those who've been deemed dangerous to High Earth and exiled. The most popular entertainment program in High Earth is Ignis: Live, a reality show in the style of The Truman Show, set aboard the Ignis, a generation ship that's supposedly on its way to Tau Ceti after Earth has been rendered uninhabitable. In reality, the ship is circling Earth, with its insides covered in hundreds of tiny cameras that supply the residents of High Earth with a constant stream of entertainment of the struggling thousands aboard the vessel, who have no idea that their life is a lie. When resident Asher Reinhart is "born", he lays eyes on a girl named Mission-14130 who lives aboard the Ignis and fell for her. Not long after that, he becomes a volunteer on the show and eventually works his way up to becoming chief director, with his focus on Mission making her the undisputed star of the show, from her origins as an illegally-born baby (all reproduction is strictly controlled aboard the ship with violators of the law being publicly spaced) to becoming a Birthmother, a prestigious and vital position on the Ignis.

Things start turning for the worse for Asher when he's suddenly assaulted in his dwelling by a member of the Unplugged, a radical group of delisted who believe that humans have become slaves to their technology and need to live out in the real world.

The audiobook version is narrated by Wil Wheaton (for chapters from Asher's viewpoint) and Katherine McNamara (for chapters from Mission's viewpoint).

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The book has examples of the following tropes:

• Artistic License – Physics: There's not enough water on Earth (either in liquid or ice form) to flood so much of the surface that only a small portion remains undrowned. Even if all the ice caps melted, the amount of dry land wouldn't be reduced by that much.
• The Atoner: Asher's former assistant Vivienne Poole becomes that after she reports him to Craig Helix, which results in his delistment and Mission accidentally killing Jacen and being arrested for murder. After Mission is brought to High Earth, Vivienne is assigned as her chaperone. However, it becomes pretty clear that she's uncomfortable with the turn things have taken. Eventually, she voluntarily lets Mission take her as a hostage to keep the bots from killing her (the bots would never risk harming a resident) and finds a place to hide her.
• Big Bad: Asher's mentor Craig Helix turns out to be the main villain of the novel. He sees Ignis as just a show, he doesn't see its people as real beings, merely characters he can play with as if he's God. For all his talk of "authenticity," he doesn't shy away from causing disasters aboard to boost ratings. His justification to the employees is that the reactions of those people are still authentic, even if the cause isn't. Helix has enough pull in the Network to get around rules that would normally get someone delisted. After Asher saves Mission from being spaced, Helix takes her back with him to High Earth to parade around for all the residents to see. He also wipes Asher's mind and put him aboard the Ignis as punishment.
• Bittersweet Ending: Both Asher and Mission are alive, and the Ignis is finally sent on its long journey to Tau Ceti with the lives of the people aboard the ship now truly their own. Mission also joins the Unplugged in a recreation of the Ignis on the Outskirts. And Alora decides to take care of Asher as if he were her own son. On the other hand, Asher's mind has been wiped, and he and Mission will never see each other again.
• Child by Rape: Missin's mother was raped by her father. Not much is known about him, but her mother died at childbirth. During her trial, Mission learns that this story is true, except Alora is her biological mother. She was sexually assaulted by a man whose DNA doesn't match anyone in the Core's database (most likely a Fixer) the day after her contraceptive implant was removed. She ended up pregnant. Cassiopeia helped her hide the pregnancy but ordered her to recycle the baby after it was born. But Alora couldn't do that after seeing Mission for the first time and kept her hidden from everyone.
• Eye Scream: Many Unplugged remove their own eyes in order to avoid being drawn in by the digital content of High Earth. Virgil, the Unplugged who attacked Asher in his own dwelling does the same.
• First-Person Perspective: Asher's chapters are written from a first-person view, while Mission's are in third person, likely to show that Mission is always being watched. After the two are swapped, Mission's chapters are the ones in first person, while Asher are in third.
• Generation Ships: The Ignis was built out of a hollowed-out asteroid to allow humanity to settle a planet in another star system. However, before the ship was launched, the molecular re-assembler was invented and made space exploration and colonization unnecessary. The ship lay abandoned until Craig Helix had the bright idea to set a live show aboard it with ten thousand mind-wiped volunteers from among the delisted. Much of the surface of the asteroid is dedicated to growing crops, with tunnels in the walls leading to habitation blocks. The Core of the Ignis is the heart of the ship composed of a powerful fusion reactor at the center that provides power to the ship as well as light for the crops. All controls are also located around the Core, with the chosen 30 members of the Collective running the day-to-day tasks of keeping the ship and its society running. The ship spins to provide gravity. The laws aboard the ships are strict, designed to maintain what they believe to be the last of humanity until the Ignis arrives to its destination. Any theft of resources is a crime against everyone. This includes eating or drinking more than their share (including members of the Collective), as well as illegally removing contraceptive implants in order to have an unapproved baby. Violators are Thrown Out the Airlock, which is considered extremely shameful, as their bodies can no longer be recycled for the good of the Ignis. The Collective uses genetic modeling to find fitting pairings for reproduction to keep the population from degrading.
• Happily Adopted: Mission was born illegally. Her mother died at childbirth, and she was raised in secret by Alora, who kept the girl in a compartment under floorboards. The chaos of the Great Blackout allowed Alora to add Mission as an legal denizen of the Ignis. Just before being spaced, Mission learns that Alora is her biological mother as well. Alora was sexually assaulted by someone (likely a Fixer) just after she became a Birthmother and her contraceptive implant was removed. Alora's superior Cassiopeia helped her hide the pregnancy but ordered Alora to dispose of the baby. Alora couldn't.
• I Lied: When Asher asks the Unplugged why he picked his dwelling to invade, the Unplugged replies that he chose him at random. Later on, after learning the Unplugged's name and former dwelling location, Asher realizes it was right across from his own, and Virgil admits he picked him because Asher never came out to his balcony.
• Ink-Suit Actor: The illustrations showing Asher and Mission look very much like Wil Wheaton and Katherine McNamara, who provide the narration for their respective POV chapters.
• Last Fertile Region: High Earth was built on the last piece of dry land after a global flood. Similarly, the inner surface of the Ignis is all the people aboard have to grow their food, which consists of plants blended with bugs.
• My Greatest Failure: While dying from radiation exposure, Virgil tells Asher the true story of how he joined the Unplugged. Apparently, during a visit to see the delisted, he slept with a woman. During his next visit, he learned that she got pregnant by someone else and died at childbirth. Unwilling to let the boy die of hunger, he decided to raise him as his own and teach him how to create VR content. Unfortunately, he unintentionally got his son addicted to VR. When Virgil's data finally ran out 14 years later, his son grew angry and left. Virgil searched for him and finally found him brain-dead at a VR den. Enraged, he burned the place down on top of himself and was found by the Unplugged, who opened his eyes to the world.
• Offhand Backhand: A tragic example. After being assaulted by someone who looks like Jacen (actually, it's the Fixer Lancer using a holographic disguise), Mission is able to grab his gun. Someone calls out to her, she spins around and shoots without looking. She ends up hitting the real Jacen in the chest, and he dies shortly after. Mission is arrested for murder.
• Population Control: In High Earth, every resident is sterilized to prevent unintentional pregnancies (then again, most residents interact virtually anyway). New people are produced artificially and are grown in synth wombs with infusers downloading knowledge into their brains before they're finally "birthed" to become residents. Aboard the Ignis, all women have contraceptive implants, which are only removed for those chosen to become Birthmothers to keep the population at ten thousand. They are matched with chosen men to produce the next generation through DNA modeling in order to prevent incest and unwanted mutations. It's not unusual for young couples to illegally remove the contraceptive implant in order to produce a love child. They're almost always found out and spaced as punishment. The baby may either be recycled or accepted into the crew, depending on the need and the genetic scan of the child. After being delisted, Asher is shocked to discover that the delisted are able to have children. Virgil explains that reversing the sterilization was one of the first things the delisted figured out. Asher wonders why anyone would want to bring a child into the world to live in filth and poverty.
• Practical Currency: Data is used as a currency both in High Earth and by the delisted. In High Earth, it's possible to run out of data by binging content. It's possible to earth data by volunteering to work for someone else's content. Running out of data puts someone at risk for being delisted. The delisted use it more directly by paying for goods and services with data. New data is usually obtained either from visiting residents or slicers breaking into the High Earth Network.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Cassiopeia may come off as harsh and cruel at times, but she's simply trying to uphold the necessary rules to necessitate the survival of what she believes to be the last of humanity until their arrival to their destination. Near the end, when Mission falsely admits to causing the failure of the fire suppression system that kills over 200 people, Cassiopeia tells her that she's no fool. She knows that Mission is lying, but, for the good of all, she must act in accordance with the law and accept her confession. She thanks Mission for her sacrifice, knowing that the people need a scapegoat, someone to rally against. As such, she lets her say one last goodbye to Jacen's body before it is recycled. She also has trouble giving the usual spacing speech to the crowd, knowing that this time the one being executed doesn't deserve it.
• The Reveal:
  • The Unplugged man who attacks Asher in his own dwelling is Virgil Rhodes, the creator of Asher's favorite dating VR.
  • The Unplugged Elder is Gloria Fors, the inventor of the molecular re-assembler and one of the original builders of the Ignis.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: Spacing is a punishment for a serious transgression aboard the Ignis. It's considered especially degrading since the "energy" of the criminal's body is being expelled from the ship rather than reused for the good of all (ordinarily, dead bodies are recycled). It's a public event, with the criminals placed on the inner seal that is then opened. They fall onto the outer hatch and, when the inner seal is closed, the outer hatch opens. The spin of the ship provides the necessary momentum. After the disastrous events of the 50th anniversary and Jacen's death, Mission decides to confess to causing the disaster and accidentally shooting Jacen (all false) in order to give the people a scapegoat. Cassiopeia knows she's lying but praises her for acting for the good of the Ignis. Luckily, Asher and the Unplugged stage a rescue by sneaking aboard a toxic refuse rocket and getting to the Fixer station that's circling the Ignis. Asher manages to catch Mission as she's falling into space and drags her inside the station before she suffers irreparable damage from exposure to vacuum and radiation.
• "Truman Show" Plot: The people aboard the Ignis are completely unaware that everything they do is being watched by everyone on Earth as if it was a reality TV show. They're also convinced that Earth is uninhabitable, and that they're on their way to Tau Ceti. In fact, the Ignis never left the Solar System and is actually in Earth's orbit, although there's a hologram showing fake stars through the only airlock. The High Earth residents love the show because it's entirely unscripted, and it's people just living their lives in harsh conditions. Similar to Christof in The Truman Show, Craig Helix interferes in Ignis much more than is publicly known. He orchestrates the fire suppression system malfunction on the 50th anniversary and is heavily implied to have orchestrated the Great Blackout.
• Wasteland Elder: The Unplugged are led by an old and decrepit woman they call "Elder." The Elder is said to be over two hundred years old, having been around before High Earth existed. Her body is extremely frail, and she's unable to speak. Instead, a band around her head transmits her thoughts to her proxy, who sees the words appear in his visor and speaks them aloud. Despite her age and physical degeneration, her mind is as sharp as ever. While she is far from being a Luddite, she believes that humanity made the wrong choice when they created High Earth and let technology run their lives instead of using it to better themselves (nobody truly lives, they're all stuck to their VR screens). Asher later realizes that the Elder is Gloria Fors, the inventor of the molecular re-assembler and the whole reason humanity was able to save itself and build High Earth. She was the one who pioneered the Ignis project in order to settle the stars and keep humanity alive, but the Network took the ship away from her and turned it into a stage for Ignis: Live. In the end, she (well, her proxy) overrides Craig Helix's code and has the ship depart for its original destination.
• You Are Number 6: Aboard the Ignis, people don't have last names. Instead, they have a first name followed by a number (e.g. Mission-14130). The number is generally omitted in everyday conversation.