Our world faces Trump, global warming, the pandemic, and a host of other disruptive game-changers. Heather Murata’s novella ‘Koraalen: Planetary Symbiosis’ makes a change from these troubles.
Murata presents readers with an exquisite planetary analogue of Hawaii. Verdant islands rest in a sea teeming with vibrantly described life. The plot concerns sapient coral, and its communication with the novel’s protagonist Nerissa, an ocean-loving student about to choose ecology as a career. She faces questions: why are the coral reefs dying, and why can’t her team detect any pollution?
It’s not all science: our protagonist sashays from exquisite shopping mall to well-appointed laboratory to sumptuous restaurant while raising a mere ripple of tension. The first argument occurs halfway through the novel, and it’s about a buffet. Aside from a swiftly resolved kidnapping, there’s little suspense. The characters don’t grow or develop, there’s no reason to change, the story usually sees them lounging in pleasant equilibrium. We’re shown hints of ‘something nasty in the water’ and glimpses of two cookie-cutter antagonists, but little disturbs the oceanic calm.
And yet reading this novel was a pleasure. Perhaps I’ve had my fill of real-life tension, perhaps I can admire and envy pleasant characters in a near-utopian setting. Murata’s prose is as lucid as the seas she describes, the two principal characters are engaging, and the talking coral makes a delightful premise.
Ultimately, I wanted more from a novella. There’s enough content for a short story, but Murata pads out Koraalen’s drama with details of interchangeable minor characters, and digressions into exotic meals and descriptions of luxury hotels. Again, this may appeal to readers jaded by continual cynicism, or who plan to bathe in pleasantries, or see characters move from not-knowing to knowing. The latter trope is common in medical or police dramas. However, a few measures of genuine peril would have helped readers engage with the characters, and feel relief when they succeeded. Perhaps one character could reveal an internal flaw. Perhaps conflict helps them overcome this flaw.
Murata focuses on the pleasant, and while the novel isn’t my cup of tea, it’s a cogent story with a convincing theme.
You’ll pay your money and take your choice. If you’ve had a belly full of arguments and bad news, pick up ‘Koraalen: Planetary Symbiosis’.
Kevin Elliott: October 2020.