Join

In Toutonghi’s debut novel, “joins” are entities comprising pooled consciousnesses shared by any number of individuals, or “drives.” The social and interpersonal ramifications of this imaginative form of personhood are duly explored in the first part of this novel, but the going is not easy. The attempts to explain an essentially mysterious process can be tedious, and drives with names such as Chance 6 and Leap 2 are hard to keep track of. Also frustrating is the author’s penchant for eliding the obvious—such as when two drives of a single join are having sex, and Toutonghi ignores the fact that, basically, the join is having sex with itself. The latter half of the book, which focuses on disastrous climate changes on Earth and the chasm that exists between joins and “solos” (those whose consciousness isn’t connected), is much more compelling, presenting two radically differing visions of humanity’s future. Unfortunately, the most intriguing and thought-provoking issues are raised only at the conclusion, and even then, they’re given too-short shrift. (Apr.)