ALETHEIA

by Michael Karlsen-Williksen

Rating: ****

When a Norwegian LOFAR (low-frequency array) operator working a night shift in 2042 captures the pulsing signal -273.15, the temperature of absolute zero and the death of all thermal motion, from the Luyten b sector deep among the stars, the world is thrown into panic. Is it a response, a warning, or something worse?

A mission to silence Earth’s probes and intercept the message using the starship ALETHEIA, piloted by the highly advanced AI program NOUS, is decided on. A human presence is required for optics, and the Norwegian operator is chosen. Will the astronaut find another civilization seeking contact, or is the real existential threat on the ALETHEIA with him?

ALETHEIA opens with a hauntingly atmospheric prologue set in a dilapidated Norwegian harbor town in the late 90s, then jumps to the mid-twenty-first century and beyond.

Karlsen-Williksen’s finely detailed prose is taut with creeping unease and freighted with melancholy from the beginning. The astronaut, whose name is not disclosed until three-quarters through, cuts a lonely, interesting figure, oddly detached from those around him, and, initially, emotionally distant yet searching.

As the astronaut embarks on the mission with NOUS, the futility of his accompanying the elite AI system becomes horrifyingly obvious. He is a meaningless presence both on the ship and back home on Earth. Karlsen-Williksen writes with harrowing density as the astronaut begins to realize the extent of his superficial existence while navigating daily life aboard the ALETHEIA with NOUS. It’s raw, visceral, and absolutely addictive reading.

The voice of NOUS is replicated with eerie precision that never tips into prototypical droid-speak. There are whispers of a sentient agenda beneath its philosophical monologuing, which is intellectually sophisticated and crammed with subversive insight.

Karlsen-Williksen carefully builds toward the narrative's action and thrust, which is not as straightforward or expected as the AI simply developing a directing mind and will. The plot takes the reader and the astronaut much further than that, with several unpredictable and entirely plausible twists and turns within context.

Occasionally, the pace is a little lethargic with some areas of repetition, but the mesmerizing quality of Karlsen-Williksen’s writing and the theories it expounds are riveting enough to negate the odd slow in momentum.

Karlsen-Williksen has produced a quietly terrifying, provocative work of cerebral science fiction that unfolds with cold intensity and resonates with chilling prescience.  Highly recommended.

Originally written for IndieReader.com. Reposted with permission.

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