The Expert System's Brother

The Expert System's Brother is a 2018 science fiction novella by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It was followed by a sequel, The Expert System's Champion, in 2021. The novel is set in a far future in which humankind has lost much of its history. The characters rely on "expert systems" for technological and social guidance.

The Expert System's Brother

Author	Adrian Tchaikovsky
Language	English
Series	Expert Systems
Release number	1
Genre	Science fiction
Publisher	Tordotcom
Publication date	17 Jul 2018
Publication place	United Kingdom
Pages	176
ISBN	9781250197566
Followed by	The Expert System's Champion

Plot

The story takes place on a world settled by humanity hundreds of years ago. Humans have gradually lost knowledge of their history and live with limited technology. Village leaders may be possessed by "ghosts", giving them defined roles such as architect, lawgiver, or physician. The spirits’ hosts are chosen by the tree that controls the village; ghosts are injected into humans via the venom of specialized wasps. These possessions are understood by the characters to be supernatural, but the reader understands that they are remnants of technology left by the planet’s original settlers.

Handry is a citizen of the village of Aro. When Handry is thirteen, a man is banished from the village and is sentenced to Severance. This biochemical process causes the subject to become unable to eat normal food. Severed people will eventually die from starvation or poisoning. Handry accidentally touches the Severance potion, becoming partially Severed himself. After this incident, he is often ill and has difficulty eating without vomiting. The community begins to view him with distrust.

Three years later, Aro’s doctor dies. The village tree chooses Handry’s sister Melory as the new host for the doctor’s ghost. Handry asks the doctor/Melory to heal him. Instead, the ghost deems him incurable and orders his full Severance. Melory fights the ghost’s influence for long enough to allow Handry to flee safely.

Handry wanders through the wilderness, stealing food and supplies from other communities. He eventually meets a Severed man named Shaskin, who has somehow survived without starving. Shaskin considers himself to be a priest and believes that Severed people represent true humanity. Shaskin brings Handry to the "house of their ancestors," which is a grounded spaceship. He tells Handry that the original planetary settlers could not eat the food on their new world; instead of changing the world, they modified themselves. They created the "ghosts", also called "expert systems". These systems were initially intended as guides, but human culture has gradually deteriorated and they are now subservient to their systems instead of using them as tools. Shaskin believes that their ancestors made terrible mistakes by abandoning their identities as "true" humans.

Melory leaves Aro, hoping that she can fight her expert system and convince it to heal Handry. She tracks Handry to the spaceship and is captured. Shaskin plans to force the ghost-doctor to teach him Severance, which he will use on all people to return them to their natural state. A prison guard attempts to beat Melory; Handry stabs the guard to death. Handry rescues his sister from her cell. Melory uses her expert system to take control of the spaceship’s computers. She uses a robot to kill Sharskin.

Melory and Handry take control of the ship. They recognize that Sharskin’s beliefs were flawed, but not entirely wrong. They plan to share the knowledge of the spaceship with other villages in the future.

Major themes

Paul Weimer of Reactor notes that the novella contains a discussion about the best way for humanity to form a relationship with a foreign environment. Each of the novella's major characters represents a different philosophy in this three-sided debate.

Do we adapt ourselves fully, as Melory has; reject the world we are faced with, as Sharskin counsels; or do we find a way to compromise, adapt, and belong, even as the world has partially rejected him, as in the case of Handry? This three way cross of points of view is tied to a spectrum of the three key characters’ relationships with science and technology: In the case of Melory, using technology blindly, and in fact being used by it. In the case of Sharskin, attempting to overwhelm it and suborn it to purposes never intended. And in the case of Handry himself, seeking to understand it.^[1]

Weimer further notes that the novella is participating in the "long genre conversation." Weimer defines this as "the idea that stories and novels are written in dialogue with each other, and their ideas." In Weimer's view, The Expert System's Brother is in dialogue with other works about colonization, such as Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson, Flux by Stephen Baxter, and Surface Tension by James Blish.^[1]

Reception

Adrienne Martini of Locus praised Tchaikovsky's complex worldbuilding despite a short page count. Martini notes that "Handry’s tale takes the shape of an archetypal coming-of-age structure, [but] what makes it compelling reading is the world Tchaikovsky has built." The review also praised the book's pacing, stating that the "mystery of how the system works and what the Severance does is the engine of this story – and it’s one that purrs right along thanks to Tchaikovsky’s skill."^[2] Also writing for Locus, Liz Bourke commented on the ways in which Tchaikovsky plays with genre expectations. According to the review, "the title of The Expert System’s Brother makes one expect a cyberpunk world, but the landscape initially seems like that of fantasy. Gradually, the reader becomes aware that what seems like a fantasy setting is in fact [sic] science fictional one..."^[3]

Paul Weimer of Reactor further commented on the blending of fantasy and science fiction elements within the work. Weimer notes that the novella starts off with a setting reminiscent of a standard fantasy story: "Primitive village, strange customs, a young protagonist, and mention of ghosts set the reader onto the path of thinking that this is a fantasy tale. The protagonist accidentally performs a transgression that ostracizes him from the community, and eventually is exiled from the village of his birth to go on a journey of discovery across a fantastic and unknown landscape." Weimer then notes that the insertion of italicized phrases such as "Secondary decontamination onset" can clue the reader in on the fact that the story is meant to be a science fiction tale; gradually, as more information is revealed, the reader's sense of genre shifts.^[1]

Sandi Jones of School Library Journal recommended the novella for "mature fans of dystopian literature" and recommended it as "a worth addition to high school science fiction collections." Jones felt that Handry's first-person narration, which is styled "as if told in an oral tradition" might be off-putting for some readers, but that " the author compensates for it with the wonderfully evocative setting—full of trees, wasps, and strange monsters."^[4]