Mem: Why This Incredible Science Fiction Debut Turned Out To Be Not Credible

The premise of Mem by Bethany C. Morrow sounded both amazing and original.  As I began to read, I could definitely say that this science fiction debut is incredible in the sense of marvelous.  I initially thought it had the potential to be one of the best science fiction books I'd ever read. The story line had tremendous emotional impact, the protagonist was well developed and it had a fresh approach to some significant themes.

So why did I ultimately consider the concept on which Mem was based unworkable as it was presented?  Many reviews of Mem are full of nothing but praise.  Shouldn't debut authors be encouraged?  Indeed they should.  Bethany C. Morrow should be praised for the strengths of her work, but I will not fail to mention that something as important as the central concept was flawed.   I recently finished reading this 2018 release and this is my honest review.

                           

I take no pleasure in writing a critical review of this book.  I wanted to say that I loved it without reservation. Unfortunately, Bethany C. Morrow never convinced me that Mems could exist as described.

First, let me tell you what Mems are supposed to be.  Then I'll describe two possibilities for them to exist as described believably within the context we are given.  Mems are supposed to be entities that are the repositories of specific memories that have been extracted from human beings called Sources.  Mems are identical to their Sources at the time of extraction  of those memories.  Mems never age.  They were first invented in Montreal in the early 20th century.

Here are two feasible paths for the existence of Mems:

1)Mems are magic.   They are created by sorcery through the law of similars.  This explains why they don't age once they are created.  The advantage of a fantasy origin is that it doesn't require any technology that didn't exist in the early 20th century.

2)Mems are androids. Their mechanical nature explains why they are identical to their Sources at the time of memory extraction and why they never age.  This conceptualization has the advantage of  being directly relevant to some the themes of this novel.   The Star Trek: The Next Generation android Data was declared to be a "toaster" in one episode.

 Morrow strongly implies that Mems are clones.  A being cloned from the DNA of a Source would be born as an infant, and would definitely age.   The protagonist was born at the age of nineteen identical to her 19 year old Source.  She remains nineteen throughout the narrative.  This flies in the face of what is known about cloning.  I am sorry, but my disbelief  suspenders broke while I was reading this book.  Morrow owes me a new set of suspenders.

What I loved most about the book was the themes and the way they were illustrated by the narrative.   I believe that Mem shows that memory is identity.  We need to remember who we are.   So it's very possible for a Source who has had a great many memories extracted to have lost all sense of themselves.  Some memory extractions that were key events in this book weren't the decisions of Sources.  They were done at the behest of fathers or husbands who may have believed they were acting in the best interests of their daughters or wives.  So another significant theme is male control over the lives of women.  It is also of particular importance to mention that in the Author's Note, Morrow indicates that Mems as the property of  Sources were intended to represent slavery in our real world.

I identified with the Mem protagonist, and was moved by the dramatic power of her struggle to be recognized as sentient.  So I was very engaged with this book despite the flaw at the core of the novel.  

Yet I have to conclude that Mem is a failure as science fiction.  It's a very interesting and absorbing failure, but nevertheless a failure.  I have no idea how to rate Mem on Goodreads.  So I probably won't rate it.