As in Preternatural, the
story is driven by the "S. oteri", a race of telepathic jellyfish who live
on a distant planet and regularly communicate with Karen.
While the first novel described
the aliens' collective journey to understanding that they are a group of
individuals rather than one mind, this novel shows their new struggle to
comprehend the human perception of time.
How would an alien react
to science fiction?
The fictional Karen wrote
her first book about humanity's first telepathic brush with the extraterrestrial
jellyfish in our own time. Her new book talks about the future as she tries
to depict humanity's first face-to-face contact with the aliens a thousand
years from now.
The segments of Karen's novel
we read draw on a variety of science fiction commonplaces. The crew are
largely telepathic, telekinetics move the ship through space, and we witness
moments of space flight, touchdown and first contact.
As SF readers, we know all
the tropes Karen and her creator are using, but the S. oteri called Fuschia
is confused.
With no grounding in the
genre, or even a concept of linear time, Fuschia wonders how can Karen
write about events happening in the future.
The alien sees Karen as a
threat to what will be and decides to protect time by transporting her
to 11th century England.
Now Karen has a genre problem
of her own. As an SF writer familiar with time travel stories, she knows
that she could inadvertently change the timeline -- but should she act
or refrain from acting?
Elements of metafiction
One key feature of metafiction
is characters who are self-aware of their narrative nature, and Karen fits
the bill perfectly. She is a writer confident in her craft, certain that
she knows how the world and its fiction works.
Karen comments on the SF
situations the aliens throw her into by comparing them to the ones she
has created in her writing. Knowing how the story "should happen" is her
secret weapon against the fictional "reality" she lives in.
It’s a secret weapon with
some quirky limitations, though. Since Karen has always never understood
the physics or likely consequences of time travel, she has avoided writing
about time travel, and so she’s forced to improvise here.
Good metafiction also uses
every aspect of genre and setting conventions to conscious effect.
In addition to exploiting
the usual experiences of being a writer, Preternatural Too makes
good use of the special challenges of SF writing, from media tie-ins to
conventions and the dangers of drinking Romulan Green Stuff.
I really learned something
today
Traveling through time with
Karen, Fuchsia learns the difference between watching action and changing
it -- between reading and writing the world.
Karen’s "reality" is our
fiction, though – Bonanno is teaching us the same lessons about science
fiction that Karen is teaching Fuchsia. Her comments respond to beliefs
and attitudes in contemporary society while still fitting within the literal
bounds of the story.
Metafiction exposes the seams
of fiction, and shows how it represents reality rather than being reality.
By using the technique so well, Bonnano has created a strong double moral
for SF readers.
On the one hand, there are
useful truths to be found in science fiction, and they’re not as esoteric
as science fiction’s detractors may think. But still, when it's all said
and done, SF is "just" fiction, and not to be taken completely seriously.
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