KIRINYAGA

ONE PERFECT DAY, WITH JACKALS

by Mike Resnick

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

As I've written elsewhere, I have highly enjoyed the entire "Kirinyaga" Cycle written by Mike Resnick. With the complete set of stories about to be published in novel form, I took the opportunity to listen to the first two stories on audiotape as presented by Infinivox.

Unfortunately, Infinivox dropped the ball in their selection of a reader for Resnick's powerful fables of one man's attempt to secure a utopian society for his people. While Koriba is described as a mundumugu, part of which entails being a masterful story-teller. Unfortunately, Pat Bottino recites both stories, and the fables Koriba tells, in a stiff, nearly monotonous manner.

In earlier reviews of Infinivox's versions of Geoffrey A. Landis's "A Walk in the Sun" and Ian Watson's "Slow Birds," I commented on the poor sound levels and ennunciation of the reader. The sound levels on "Kirinyaga" are adjusted better than on "A Walk in the Sun," and if Bottino's reading is stiff, at least it is easy to understand his words without having to rewind the tape, as was the case on "Slow Birds."

The first story on this tape is not the title story, but rather "One Perfect Morning, with Jackals." This story, one of the last published, is set earliest chronologically and tells the story of Koriba's last morning on earth before leaving for Kirinyaga. Infinivox placed this story at the beginning, as does Resnick in the novel form of Kirinyaga. Unfortunately, I think doing so does a great dis-service to the story cycle as a whole and to Koriba's character in particular.

As I read the stories in their original appearances, Koriba's character began as something of an hero: a man trying to maintain his own culture in the face of both internal and external threats. As the stories progressed, his flaws became more apparent and he moved from being an hero to being a tragic figure. "One Perfect Morning, with Jackals" focusses on Koriba's character flaws. Rather than beginning the cycle as an hero, he begins as an hypocritical and didactic character.

Of course, "One Perfect Morning, with Jackals" is prologue to the series as a whole which gets under way with "Kirinyaga." It has been ten years since I first read "Kirinyaga" and the story of Koriba's attempt to fend off European interference in Kikuyu culture is as powerful now as it was then. One of the strengths of the story are the different levels on which it can be read (or listened to).

The plot is reasonably simple. The Kikuyu have left earth for an artificial world named Kirinyaga, which has been created to resemble the African savannahs as much as possible. On Kirinyaga, they are supposed to have complete autonomy. However, when Koriba, the witch doctor, kills a child who was born under a curse, the Europeans feel they must interfere. Koriba tries to fend off European interference while maintaining his own people's support for their customs.

"Kirinyaga" explores what it means to belong to a particular ethnic group. Koriba dictates (in his own mind, at least) who is and is not a Kikuyu. At the same time, Resnick is examining cultural interference. Are the Europeans correct in trying to stop the Kikuyu from killing children who are born "cursed," or should they respect a foreign culture which is doing something anathema to them. The plot of "Kirinyaga" is simple. The issues "Kirinyaga" raises are complex.

That this tape stands up as well as it does is a testimony to the power of Resnick's writing. Less powerful works would have been destroyed by Bottino's voice. With luck, Infinivox will manage to find better readers for subsequent volumes of the Tales of Kirinyaga, readers whose voices can do justice to the fabulous story-telling quality of Resnick's words.

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