14. Birthright by Kathleen Sky
“I am an android.”
Ray Nelson kicked in the door of the second round of Laser Books with a piece of historical fanfiction that took us to the past, the future, the afterlife, and all places betwixt. Today, our next author–pardon me, authoress–steps through that door.
The Laser Books (and indeed sci-fi in general) being such an “old boys club”, it’s a breath of fresh air every time a woman arrives to tell a tale, and to date, Kathleen is only the second female writer to submit an entry to this series, the first being Juanita Coulson‘s terrific novel Unto the Last Generation.
I couldn’t dig up much information on Kathleen. The most comprehensive biography I could find comes from the website Worlds Without End, and it’s pretty thin.
Kathleen Sky is the pen name of Kathleen McKinney Goldin, an American science fiction and fantasy author. Her pen name is her former married name from her marriage to first husband Karl Sky. From 1972 to 1982 she was married to fellow author and collaborator Stephen Goldin.
Most of her fiction is romantic in nature. Her books include Vulcan! and Death’s Angel, two of the earliest original novels based on the 1960s Star Trek TV series.
Sky appeared as an Enterprise crewmember in the recreation deck scenes in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
I’m beginning to see a pattern with these Laser Books authors: many seem to be, or have been, extremely active in fan circles and written much tie-in media for either Star Trek or Wars. And some, like Kathleen, have pretty sparse credits apart from said tie-in work and their contributions to Laser Books.
Which is a damn shame, because as we’ve seen–and will see again today–many of these authors are very skilled.
So, cue up the android memes, let’s talk about Birthright!
Cover
“Big things have small beginnings.”
First off, let me apologize for the state of this cover. Not all the Laser Books in my collection have been properly cared for, and a few are scuffed like this one. One or two have torn covers, and a lot have some of the wear and tear you see here. They don’t look too bad in person, but the HD scanner on my Canon printer isn’t doing them any favours.
Even so, the major elements are intact. The Double Helix worshipped by the android Children of Vat rises like a phoenix behind Miranda, whose inscrutable glare really tells you a lot about her character; she’s no Golden Age sci-fi waif who needs saving.
In the portrait to our bottom-right are two characters, Bron and Andros. Bron is the one with tattoos, and is the android foil to our protagonist (I am reticent to say “hero” because Andros is most emphatically not that).
This is one of Kelly Freas‘s workmanlike covers, and it’s pretty barebones when it comes to representing the story, but there’s one element I want to call your attention to, and that’s the title. The word “BIRTHRIGHT” looms like a tombstone over the cover. It is, in fact, the blackest, bleakest part of the cover. If the rest of the cover filled you with excitement and hope for a gripping space yarn, the font and colour of the title take the starch out of your stride.
It really makes you question whether a birthright is something desirable.
Blurb
Hey, this is another Bakka purchase!
Anyway, blurbtime.
In this towering adventure, Kathleen Sky has created an unforgettable character. Is Andros human or an android created by his scientist-father? Others besides Andros would like to know. The survival of an entire android civilization hangs in the balance. In his desperate search for the truth about himself, Andros discovers what terror means. But neither terror nor love will stop him from finding the answer. He must claim his Birthright.
Kathleen Sky is a storyteller of the first rank.
If I had a nickel for every time this trope has been used in a story, I could retire early.
This is one of the Big Ones, a standby dating back to the earliest days of Ye Auld Scientifiction. It’s a hook that works, despite its total lack of originality. But we haven’t had a story like this in the Laser Books, so… I guess it’s permissible?
Look, I’ve long since learned my lesson that Marketing Guy is strapped for word space and is doing the best that he can. He rarely succeeds in selling me on stories, and the real fun comes in retrospect: reading the story, and seeing how much of it he managed to mention in the blurb. It’s no one’s fault but Harlequin‘s; they draw the lines, and everyone else has to colour inside them.
This blurb probably wouldn’t impress even the most casual sci-fi fan; it certainly doesn’t impress me. But like I said: lesson learned. I’m never going to judge the author(ess)’s work by the blurb.
Story
“Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave.”
Well, lube me up and call me Slick! That was a tightly-written tale!
My College screenwriting teacher, Rob Corbett, said, “There are no bad stories, only stories badly told. For example, if I were to pitch you a story about a little person who travels a thousand miles to throw a ring into a volcano, you’d say, ‘Huh? What? DUMB!’ But Tolkien went ahead and wrote The Lord of the Rings.”
A story, regardless of premise, theme, plot, or characters, is made or broken in the telling. There are thousands of incredible novels, video games, and films out there which, if you reduced them to a one-liner, would be laughable–and yet they work.
Execution > Concept
Burn that into your minds, because that is the equation which governs Birthright.
Andros Roarchik is an aspiring space cadet who also happens to be the son of the finest android designer in the galaxy, Dr. Erik Roarchik. When a routine medical check casts doubt on whether or not he’s human, he suddenly finds himself without job prospects and the victim of assault by every Tom, Dick, and Harry at the academy. With his future growing dim, his one hope is to go to his late father’s factory on the planet Mhalkeri and find proof that he is not an android.
Would You Like To Know More?
Those of us who are struggling to make our living in this most terrible Year of Our Lord 2026 would empathize keenly with Andros’s struggle.
With the rise of generative artificial intelligence, writers submitting stories to publications around the world have been confronted with some variation on the following text:
I submit that I DID/DID NOT use AI in the creation of all or part of this piece.
As AI becomes more advanced, I expect such challenges to artists to “prove you are human” will become ever more common.
But when he arrives, he learns that there is a power struggle going on between the acting head of Roarchik’s, a sleazeball named Fitzsimmons, and the androids. Dr. Roarchik, went full Tyrell toward the end of his life, and was moving androids closer and closer to humans, to the point where the two are indistinguishable from one another. The Confederation is terrified of that: they want drones working their mines and spacedocks and chemical plants, not entities which can think for themselves and have feelings.
“‘More human than human’ is our motto.”
–Eldon Tyrell
Andros, whose humanity is entirely in question, finds himself at the centre of this struggle. If he can prove his humanity, he can regain control of Roarchik’s and decide the fate of the androids. If he can’t, he’ll be deactivated. Either way, he’s a challenge to Fitzsimmons’ authority, and must be removed.
Fitzsimmons sics his android aid (andraid? aidroid?) Miranda on Andros with the intent of keeping tabs on him, and distracting him from what’s really going on. But Miranda, far from being a mere lackey, is a member of the android resistance, and the Church of Vat, an emergent religion founded by the androids. Through Miranda, Andros learns that the androids have faith, culture, politics–they are, for all intents and purposes, a people. And yet they are denied personhood by the humans who designed them.
If this were a Golden Age story, told by one of the Old Boys, Andros would be a Moses-like figure come to lead the slaves out of Egypt, but Sky refrains from falling for such plain cliches.
Instead, she makes Andros an insufferable, self-centred prick who couldn’t care less what happens to others. He just wants his humanity confirmed dammit! Except…
… except it’s almost as if someone doesn’t want him to be able to prove he’s human.
Think about that for a sec: if the son of the smartest android designer in the galaxy turned out to be an android, then the only way to claim his birthright would be to gain personhood for all androids–himself included. That’s what Dr. Erik Roarchik wanted: emancipation of his “children”: the Nexus-6–sorry, I mean, Super-Matrix androids.
Andros is no emancipator.
But he could be.
We Need Brains, not Bron!
Bron is a clever element in the story that further casts doubt on Andros’s humanity. He is an android who looks exactly like Andros, hinting that Andros himself is just another model that thinks he’s human.
Now, all androids are supposed to be marked by tattoos that tell the world what they really are, no matter how human they look, but it would’ve been a simple matter for Dr. Roarchik to create an android and just… not apply the tattoo. If he knew his life was ending, and he saw a chance to create an heir which would have a vested interest in protecting androids (assuming he is one), he would absolutely do it.
Bron is a delightful foil to Andros: an android with Andros’s appearance, the love of the Double Helix in his heart… and no chance of guiding his people to a better future, because he is:
- A: Too headstrong
- B: Not human
- C: Involved in schismatic conflict.
In any lesser novel, there’d be some switcheroo bullshit involving Bron and Andros, but Kathleen Sky doesn’t go in for such paltry plotting tricks. Bron is a tool, in every sense of the word, and he gets used and discarded when he is no longer needed.
Of Androids and Politics
One of my favourite things about Birthright is the politicking of the androids. Again, in a Golden Age story, they would present a united front to the humans: one glorious voice crying out “We Shall Overcome!”
But in Birthright, they are, as Elrond would say, “Scattered, divided, leaderless.” The religious fanatics, the rationalists, the scientists, the street gangs, each has their own idea about how to win their freedom from humanity, but no one can agree on a single course of action.
How very… human.
But if, like me, at this point, you’re asking, “Why the hell was Roarchik so obsessed with making the androids such independent thinkers?”
Once again, Kathleen demonstrates her storytelling chops.
Drina
For Dr. Erik Roarchik, creating a new race was an intellectual exercise; for his partner Drina, it was a megalomaniacal imperative.
Drina has to be one of the most fucked-up characters yet seen in the Laser Books. She is the mother of Andros, but she considers–as Roarchik did–the androids to be her true children.
Yes, Andros is human. As Drina says, it’s in his name: “andros” in Ancient Greek means “behold, a man”. She was the one who hid the documents who proved Andros’s humanity. She put him through hell just so he would come to Mhalkeri, get to know the androids–even fall in love with one, Miranda, and become their greatest advocate, so that, when he finally did prove his humanity, it would be as a defender of androidkind.
And Drina’s plan works flawlessly. All it cost was Miranda’s life, Bron’s , and that of countless other humans and androids.
Drina is obsessed with the creation of an entirely new race, of being the mother to that race, and she is utterly lacking in conscience. She is the kind of person who was lynched at the end of World War II–but here, she gets everything she wants.
Conclusions and Recommendations
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.”
–Roy Batty, Blade Runner
I haven’t even had time to talk about the most horrifying scenes: the humans burning the android Nurseries, the riots in the streets, the lynch mobs, the death of Miranda. Suffice to say, Kathleen isn’t pulling any punches when it comes to violence and strife. She gets away with things I thought for sure were impossible in the Laser Books.
My Goodreads Review
There is a tendency for stories about AI and androids to devolve into anti-slavery narratives, which have not only been done to death, but are at best a superficial way of engaging with topics like artificial intelligence and machine life. And while Kathleen Sky is not exempt from this, she subverts expectations just enough to create a truly compelling, dark, and believable tale of a people fighting for their right to life. I am awarding this story four stars; the absence of a fifth is strictly because this story plays with an aged and well-used trope. Sky has proven her excellence.
I’d like to underline the word “believable”. Since this is an anti-slavery story, and if you’re even slightly aware of the history of the Civil Rights Movement in Canada and the States, you know exactly how cruel humans can be to other humans who, due to melanin variations and evolutionary pressures, have darker skin.
Now imagine that those other humans… were not human at all. They were, in fact, not born of womb. How much worse would our cruelty be? How much greater licence would we give ourselves to inflict pain, if we knew for sure the beings we were hurting were not human?
This is an idea as old as the science fiction genre, but Sky illustrates it to devastating effect. There were points I actually had to stop reading for a minute to process the horror of what I was seeing.
I perceive a pattern among our female Laser Books contributors: both Juanita Coulson and Kathleen Sky have written cutting social commentaries that command the reader’s attention. Their books, so far, are praiseworthy and nuanced in ways most of the other Laser Books haven’t been, and I can easily commend them to modern audiences.
I can’t even make jokes about them! These women step up to the plate, knock it out of the park, and head home. We need more of this, dammit!
We must bid farewell to Kathleen Sky for now, but she will be back for 38. Ice Prison. A long wait, I know, but in a very short time, Juanita Coulson shall be gracing us with 20. Space Trap.
Looking forward to seeing you ladies again.
Who’s Next?
George Zebrowski‘s comin’ in ice cold with… wait a minute…
*squints*
Is that… John Wilkes Booth?
Well… this is awkward; I just dedicated 2500 words to talking about great emancipators.
*Raises voice* Hey, L., honey? Yeah, sorry, we can’t go to the theatre next week!
… ‘why’ you ask?
Oh, um… just take my word for it…
Blurb
A UN research team has been sent to the Antarctic to investigate strangely patterned radio signals. Expecting a buried transmitter, the team is awestruck by what they discover hidden beneath the polar ice. But it doesn’t remain hidden for long! The team is soon hurtling through space on an adventure that is as incredible as it is frightening. George Zebrowski, author of The Star Web, is a Nebula Award Finalist. His first novel, Omega Point, published in 1972, has already been translated into six languages.
I have a really good feeling about this. Nothing bad ever happened to a science team that went to Antarctica in a science fiction story!*
*Would You Like to Know More?
Why in Satan’s glorious name haven’t the studios let this man make his At the Mountains of Madness movie? Do you schmucks not realize that that would be a money-making machine?
Guess it’s true what John Cleese says: “Ninety percent of people in their chosen field have no clue what the fuck they’re doing.”
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