mataglap -- an Indonesian word meaning "dark eye" or, probably, "dilated eye." It is an indication that someone is about to go berserk and start killing people at random. Used in Walter Jon Williams' novel Aristoi as the name of a berserk form of nanotechnology that devoured the planet.

You can e-mail Mataglap SF at mataglap@yahoo.com

 
I've always liked Nancy Kress's work, I think she almost always hits the right combination of an interesting science premise taken from current research and characters whose lives are changed by that science.  This book continues in that mode, although the balance is weighted more in favor of the characters.  Told from multiple viewpoints, the story concerns the Atoners, Earth's first encounter with an alien species who have already shown up and made things happen when the book begins.  They don't reveal themselves to humans, but ask for volunteers to travel out into space to other planets which they colonized thousands of years ago with genetic material taken from Earth at the time.  But something happened back then, and they won't say what, the Atoners want the volunteers to figure it out through their interactions with these alien races with whom we share a common ancestor.

The book focuses primarily on three of the volunteers who made up one of the teams.  Cam is a young, impulsive woman, Lucca is a rich Italian with some sort of sociology or anthropology background, and Soledad is a city girl who stays in orbit while the other two each investigate a different planet around the same system.  The races that Cam and Lucca encounter are very human-like but have developed completely alien cultures, and Cam in particular ends up dealing with a warlike group that is very ritualistic and seems to have little regard for human life.  Things end up in sort of a mess, and the Atoners secret is revealed in the process.  Everyone heads back to Earth, other groups having found the same results in a variety of ways.

The rest of the story deals mostly with the aftermath back on Earth for these "witnesses" who made the trip.  Their lives have changed dramatically as they are constantly hounded by the media for more information on what they saw, but the Atoners have basically clammed up and haven't been heard from for months.   In addition the witnesses are threatened by extremist groups, some go into hiding or through a change of identity, and all are basically depressed and haunted by what they experienced.  Cam is able to make a career out of public speaking, evangeizing the Atoners "message".  But most of the rest just want to be left along.  Finally after several months of this, Cam and another witness Frank head for the moon looking for proof of what they saw, while Soledad meets a nice guy who seems almost too nice and only has Lucca whom she can really trust.  At the end they discover that the Atoners had other projects in place, and the government basically has no control over humanity getting back what they lost.

This book seems more tightly plotted and planned out than much of Kress' work.  There's a certain religious element to the central discovery that is mentioned but doesn't seem to get the attention you would expect.  And the actual science behind what they find is left up in the air too, there are a few theories, but no general agreement as to whether this is some form of telepathy or proof of the afterlife or something in between.  Instead Kress seems to be most interested in how these volunteer witnesses are completely wrung out by the experience, and for a stretch it's a bit depressing because no one is really happy and there's no good way for them to resolve their anxieties.  I suppose that is what ultimately leads them back to confront their experience and try to find some purpose in it all, since none is being provided for them.   In the end, what the Atoners can give back to humanity doesn't seem like it will have that profound of an effect on the world, not as profound as knowledge of the Atoners themselves, which leaves you wondering a little bit what all the fuss was about.  This book seems to be primarily a study in humans encountering an alternate version of themselves that calls into question their and our own definition of what is human.  Definitely worth reading, with enough open areas left for a sequel, Kress delivers yet another well-considered and thought-provoking examination of where we come from and where we could be going.
posted by Mark at 4:44 PM