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THE NOVELS OF JOHN SUNDMAN
Michael Allen
mikel01@globalnet.co.uk
John Sundman has written three science-fiction novels (perhaps techno-punk is a more precise description of them). This document contains my reviews of all three:
The Pains
(published 2008) – reviewed 12 February 2009
Cheap Complex Devices
(published 2002 ) – reviewed 6 July 2006
 Acts of the Apostles
(published 1999) – reviewed 24 May 2006The second two reviews originally appeared on my blog,Grumpy OldBookman.Michael Allen12 February 2009
 
The
 
 Pains
by John Damien Sundman
Illustrated by Cheeseburger BrownReviewed 12 February 2009
The Pains
is John Sundman’s third novel, the first two being
 Acts of the Apostles
and
Cheap Complex Devices.
This third book comes with a set of admirable illustrations by Cheeseburger Brown.All three of Sundman’s books are somewhere between excellent and brilliant,in their way; but whether you will enjoy them or not depends, as usual, onyour personal tastes. Perhaps the main purpose of this review is to give youenough information to decide whether you would like to read this one. For myself, I have greatly enjoyed all three of the novels, and I much admire theauthor’s talent.Let us begin with categorisation. If this book was in a library, where would it be shelved? Under Science Fiction, probably, because that’s a broad church, but the author would prefer, I think, to describe it as an example of techno punk. And what is that, pray? The answer, taken from the author’s pressrelease, is that it’s a form of fiction ‘which grapples with issues such as therole of technology as a destructive force, the devolution of moderncivilization, and the threats posed by socio-religious cults in a 21st-centuryglobal culture linked by the Internet.’Perhaps the best way to describe the book is to say that it takes place in 1985(or so) in a parallel universe. This is a world in which Jesus Christ has never  been heard of, but Fred Christ definitely has. Whereas Jesus was crucified on across, Fred was hanged. The cross, as a symbol, has no power in this world, but the noose does. Oh, and Ronald Reagan is Minister of Awareness; he playsthe role of friendly Uncle Ronald. And the nation Freemerica is ruled by TheParty.What we have here is a novel which doesn’t just tell a story. It consciously anddeliberately sets out to make you think, as opposed to just feel. It wants you tothink, for instance, about whether religion is a force for good or evil, or whether it’s both, depending on who’s in charge. The book makes wellsignposted references to George Orwell’s
1984
, a book which Wikipedia (aninternet source, and therefore infallible) describes as a classic dystopian novel:i.e. it describes a possible state of affairs which the author earnestly wishes towarn us against.The principal character in
The Pains
is Mr Norman Lux. He is a trainee priestin the Society of Fred, a Jesuit-like body with some of the same disturbingcharacteristics as the real Jesuits. Norman is an unfortunate individual whofinds himself suffering agonising pains – pains which he believes areexperienced by a trainee priest such as himself in proportion to the danger toanother person’s soul; and, what is more, the fate of that other person is tied tothe fate of the world. The sufferer of such pains is, whether he wishes to be or not, a kind of saviour. He can only save himself if he saves the endangeredsoul, and thus saves the world.
 
It is one of John Sundman’s eccentricities, if that’s the right word, that hegives himself a different middle name, or set of initials, for each book. Thus
 Acts of the Apostles
was written by John F.X. Sundman,
Cheap Complex Devices
 by John Compton Sundman, and this one by John Damien Sundman.One famous Damien, or Damian, was, of course (how could you haveforgotten), one of a pair of healing twins who died for their Christian faith inthe third century. But Damien was also the lead character in a 1976 horror movie, in which a small boy of that name was revealed to be the Antichrist. Idon’t know whether any of that is relevant to
The Pains,
 but you might wish tothink about it.
The Pains
is a short book, and it invites you to ask questions and expects youto have an enquiring mind. You may or may not think that that is a reasonable(or even necessary) thing for a novel to do. By the time I reached page 53, Iwas asking myself, for example, whether this book is a critique of contemporary American society in general, and of its foreign policy in relationto Iraq, in particular.In these unenlightened times, you may have escaped being taught Latin atschool, and you therefore may not know that Mr Norman Lux’s surname is theLatin word for light. I recently attended a Church of England service atCandlemas; this took place in a mediaeval church which was lit solely bycandlelight, and the service was constructed around the concept of Christianityas embodying a light which will save the world. As a result, I am inclined tothink that Mr Lux’s name was not picked from the phone book at random.Other leading characters in
The Pains
also have names which give rise toquestions. There is a female scientist by the name of Dr Xristi Friedman; her academic specialism is cryobiology; i.e. low-temperature biology. Thechancellor of her university seems to think that she is just the right person totake charge of a collection of severed heads which have been deep frozen. Oneof those heads just might be – possibly, maybe, perhaps – the head of thehanged Fred Christ.There is also reference to a certain Templeton Cheney (another surname whichmight ring the odd bell), and this Cheney may or may not have been involvedwith the Mindpixel project, a project which existed, for a while, in our owndear universe, never mind any parallel ones. A certain Pete Seeger also appearsin these pages, where he seems to be regarded as a left-wing commie bastard,which is much the way that the real-life bearded folk-singer of that name wasregarded in our own time – at least by those of a right-wing persuasion. Others just thought he played a pretty good tune and had some concern for other  people besides himself. Oh, and there’s a character called Sundman, too.When I got to the last few pages of this novel I began to wonder whether theauthor has been driven mad by eight years of Bush and Cheney, and what theyhave done to his country. By ‘driven mad’ I don’t mean that he has ended up paranoid, or sit-in-a-corner-and-talk-gibberish kind of mad. I just mean that,
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