Review of Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin

 Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin

If you missed my post about the collection of short stories that Amazon put out called Forward, here's the link http://bit.ly/2nh9OeH

If you want to read the collection, it is available for free on AmazonKindle here.

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Another story in the Forward collection from Amazon, Emergency Skin, is an excellent example of science fiction. It combines futurism, space exploration, and environmentalism in a personal and intriguing story. Emergency Skin is about a person from another planet sent on a mission to Earth to retrieve samples of culture cells. What's interesting is that people from this other planet have no skin. Instead, they live in what is called a composite suit. For the mission, the person has artificial intelligence (A.I.) implanted in its head. The main character never speaks, yet we can infer what it says from the interactions with people and its A.I. When it gets to Earth, the A.I. is dumbfounded that Earth is not a wasteland. Instead, Earth is lush and the people thriving by living together in harmony and working together to maintain a balance of resources. When the body starts questioning the A.I., it deploys the emergency skin to blend in with people.

Instead of hate and cruelty, the person finds care and acceptance from the people it finds. One person who takes care of them is an old man, who tells them the story of Earth's destruction, the “founders” fleeing the world, and then the reconstruction of Earth's society. It is revealed that the old man is like the main character. He came from the other world, found the truth, and decided to stay on Earth in the emergency skin. All the while, the A.I. is trying to convince its host body to leave and finish the mission. In the end, the body decides to live on Earth and removes the A.I.

This is a fantastic story with a unique perspective and point of view. We never get to hear the main character, yet we understand how he feels and wants. The use of the A.I. is done brilliantly because it gives reason for exposition and serves as the story's narrator while feeling authentic. As the story progresses, we start to understand better what kind of world the A.I. comes from and the actual plan for the founders. When the host body finds out his whole world has been a lie, he chooses to stay on Earth. This decision is a nice change for the science fiction genre. Instead of having the main character become a hero and go back to his planet to try and enlighten everyone, Jemisin has him stay behind. Partly because he knows that if he goes about knowing the truth, they will kill him.

Like most future-based dystopian science fiction, this story blames the downfall of Earth on environmentalism. However, unlike other vague stories about environmental disasters, this story takes a political stance claiming it was the actions of greedy men that were responsible, as in wealthy people in business that have power. It also is so bold to state that when people remove wealth, they can work together peacefully. Everyone is happy because everyone has what they need to live, no more or less than anyone else. This is a fascinating stance of environmental politics and egalitarianism. It is not a cautionary tale of what could happen with Earth, but rather a tale about how to live if something should happen.

Not every story in the Forward collection is good, but this is the best it has to offer. It's only about an hour-long listen. I read it when I was on my morning walk; I highly recommend listening to this story. And I look forward (no pun intended) to reading more from N.K. Jemisin.

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