Idlewild (book)
Encyclopedia
Idlewild is a science fiction
novel by Nick Sagan
, published in 2003. It is the first of a trilogy, with sequels Edenborn
and Everfree. The story is split between two settings: the middle of the 21st century (told through interludes and distinguished from the main story by italics) and a generation later. It is a picture of the last ten people on earth, a near-complete pantheon of gods and goddesses, and thus may be regarded as legend or mythology.
called Black Ep has rendered all of humanity infertile, and causes people to die. It went undetected by hiding in the human genome
itself. Humanity, realizing that the end of the world is imminent, promptly unites in a show of universal brotherhood, but they are too late. However, in the lab of a major German-American genetic research facility, a group of scientists (referred to throughout the interludes as The Southern Gentleman, Blue, and Halfway Jim) are working on a project which may save humanity. The project involves raising ten genetically altered
children in immersive virtual reality (IVR), since nobody would be left to raise them. To test the efficiency of the software, Halfway Jim uses his masterpiece work, a program designed to be as close to a real child as possible, to run through the virtual lives the children will lead. Out of sentimentality, Jim's dying act is to integrate this program, which he names Malachi, into the virtual reality environment.
After a short period of time, he regains motion, but no memories. Over the next few pages, he is faced with flashing lights, disembodied voices, a cathedral, teddy bears nailed to wooden posts, graveyards, the realization that he is both alone and that his world is impossibly small, and terrifying creatures known as Nightgaunt
s, before meeting with Jasmine, a 'human' who identifies him as Halloween.
As the book progresses, Halloween realizes where he is. He's in a virtual reality
school that his parents have sent him to. Upon completion of the school, each student will receive both a scholarship to go through college and a position in a prestigious medical company called Gedaechtnis Corporation. The ten students are Mercutio (Adam), Pandora (Naomi), Simone, Isaac, Lazarus, Vashti, Tyler, Champagne (Charlotte), Fantasia (Gina), and Halloween (Gabriel) himself. Fan, Merc, Hal, and Ty are considered the "clods" while Simone, Isaac, Laz, Vashti, Cham, and Pan are the "pets". Where pets study and follow all of the rules, clods do the opposite. The digital teacher of the school is named Maestro, but the clods call him Maeshtro and do not respect or care for him. Each student is given a digital world that they may edit to their liking; this is where they 'live' while in IVR and where Halloween first finds himself at the beginning of the book. They are also assigned a "Nanny," a digital being that can help a student with anything they need help with. For example, when Halloween realizes that Jasmine is not real, he asks Nanny to bring her back to life (she died in a fight against Fantasia), and Nanny does so. Because of Halloween's suspicions that he may have killed Lazarus, he does not confide in anyone for a long period of time.
Mercutio asks Halloween if he'd like some food, and they decide to dine at the Taj Mahal
. Mercutio begins to order a steak, but halfway through his order, the entire world freezes up. Merc has triggered a jammer
so that he and Hal can escape IVR, and they both wake up in their beds in the school. They decided to visit their favorite diner, Twain's, and enjoy a nice meal before Merc decides to head back to IVR. Halloween, however, chooses to call his parents and report that he is dropping out. After a tough time with both his parents and Ellison, the school's headmaster (and the man Maestro was modeled after), Halloween is sent back to IVR.
At her request, Halloween goes to visit Simone, who also believes that something happened to Lazarus, although she is not sure what. The school claims that he has graduated, but Simone and Hal don't believe that. Hal agrees to help Simone determine what happened to him, so they both travel to Laz's last known IVR location — his own domain. Hal still believes that he was the one who killed Laz, but since he loved Simone, he would have done anything for her. However, Simone keeps talking about how she loved Laz, because before he had left, they had been going out.
In what is almost a legendary event, like the Last Supper
, Halloween throws a party on what turns out to be the last night the students spend together in IVR. At the party, Mercutio breaks the rules, which brings the governor program Maestro to the scene. Using a prepared code, Mercutio breaks the system. With information gathered in the course of his murder investigation, Halloween is able to get out of the broken system, to what he assumes will be the Idlewild IVR Medical Academy in Michigan.
Instead, he finds out that his entire life has been spent in a pod. The periods of time he spent out of the school were periods of virtual reality just like the personal domains and virtual schoolhouse he knew. The ten students of the school - five boys and five girls - are divided between four different locations in Europe and America, with another in space, guarding against the possibility of some catastrophe. Halloween and Fantasia break out of their facility, steal a car, and decide to wake up one of their friends, not being able to wake the others due to the distance between the pods. In the meantime, Halloween goes back to speak with his classmates and finds Tyler suffocating to death in Champagne's domain. Back in the real world, he decides to go to Idlewild HQ, the American headquarters of the real Gedaechtnis Corporation located at the real-world address of the virtual school (in Idlewild, Michigan
), to release their other friends. There they are attacked by the real murderer - Mercutio. He refuses to explain his actions, telling Halloween only that he has won. They battle, and Mercutio is fatally shot. Afterwards, Halloween finds Mercutio's strange log. His last cryptic messages imply he wanted to kill his virtual siblings to rule alone, and that he alone should survive to breed.
Halloween "graduates" all of the remaining students, waking them up from IVR. They decide to fulfill Gedaechtnis' plans for them to rebuild the world, but Halloween rejects the plan. The book ends with Halloween standing in the woods of Michigan
, angry at the world for robbing him of his illusions, the girl he loved and his two best friends.
, Lazarus
died and was resurrected by Jesus
.
The character Mercutio has significant similarities to his counterpart in Romeo and Juliet
. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio
curses both his friends and enemies when he realizes he is about to die, just as in Idlewild, Mercutio goes after both the clods and the pets.
Mercutio's real name is an allusion to Adam the first man according to the Abrahamic religious tradition, especially given his plan to kill all his male classmates ("He who succeeds, breeds").
, was published in 2004. A second sequel, Everfree, was published in June 2006.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by Nick Sagan
Nick Sagan
Nick Sagan is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of the science fiction novels Idlewild, Edenborn, and Everfree, and his screen credits include episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager...
, published in 2003. It is the first of a trilogy, with sequels Edenborn
Edenborn
Edenborn is a 2004 novel by Nick Sagan. It is the sequel to Idlewild, and takes place 18 years after that book. The sequel to this book and the final installment of the trilogy is Everfree.-Plot summary:...
and Everfree. The story is split between two settings: the middle of the 21st century (told through interludes and distinguished from the main story by italics) and a generation later. It is a picture of the last ten people on earth, a near-complete pantheon of gods and goddesses, and thus may be regarded as legend or mythology.
Interludes
The story told in the interludes is set in the middle of the 21st century. Here, a retrovirusRetrovirus
A retrovirus is an RNA virus that is duplicated in a host cell using the reverse transcriptase enzyme to produce DNA from its RNA genome. The DNA is then incorporated into the host's genome by an integrase enzyme. The virus thereafter replicates as part of the host cell's DNA...
called Black Ep has rendered all of humanity infertile, and causes people to die. It went undetected by hiding in the human genome
Human genome
The human genome is the genome of Homo sapiens, which is stored on 23 chromosome pairs plus the small mitochondrial DNA. 22 of the 23 chromosomes are autosomal chromosome pairs, while the remaining pair is sex-determining...
itself. Humanity, realizing that the end of the world is imminent, promptly unites in a show of universal brotherhood, but they are too late. However, in the lab of a major German-American genetic research facility, a group of scientists (referred to throughout the interludes as The Southern Gentleman, Blue, and Halfway Jim) are working on a project which may save humanity. The project involves raising ten genetically altered
Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...
children in immersive virtual reality (IVR), since nobody would be left to raise them. To test the efficiency of the software, Halfway Jim uses his masterpiece work, a program designed to be as close to a real child as possible, to run through the virtual lives the children will lead. Out of sentimentality, Jim's dying act is to integrate this program, which he names Malachi, into the virtual reality environment.
Plot
A young man wakes up with no memory of who he is, where he is, or anything about his life and is initially unable to move. He knew only three things — he was a young male student, someone was trying to kill him, and Lazarus was dead. He didn't even know who Lazarus was.After a short period of time, he regains motion, but no memories. Over the next few pages, he is faced with flashing lights, disembodied voices, a cathedral, teddy bears nailed to wooden posts, graveyards, the realization that he is both alone and that his world is impossibly small, and terrifying creatures known as Nightgaunt
Nightgaunt
Nightgaunts are a fictional race in the Cthulhu Mythos and is also part of H. P. Lovecraft's Dream Cycle. The creatures appear in the poem "Night-Gaunts" and the novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, both by Lovecraft...
s, before meeting with Jasmine, a 'human' who identifies him as Halloween.
As the book progresses, Halloween realizes where he is. He's in a virtual reality
Virtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
school that his parents have sent him to. Upon completion of the school, each student will receive both a scholarship to go through college and a position in a prestigious medical company called Gedaechtnis Corporation. The ten students are Mercutio (Adam), Pandora (Naomi), Simone, Isaac, Lazarus, Vashti, Tyler, Champagne (Charlotte), Fantasia (Gina), and Halloween (Gabriel) himself. Fan, Merc, Hal, and Ty are considered the "clods" while Simone, Isaac, Laz, Vashti, Cham, and Pan are the "pets". Where pets study and follow all of the rules, clods do the opposite. The digital teacher of the school is named Maestro, but the clods call him Maeshtro and do not respect or care for him. Each student is given a digital world that they may edit to their liking; this is where they 'live' while in IVR and where Halloween first finds himself at the beginning of the book. They are also assigned a "Nanny," a digital being that can help a student with anything they need help with. For example, when Halloween realizes that Jasmine is not real, he asks Nanny to bring her back to life (she died in a fight against Fantasia), and Nanny does so. Because of Halloween's suspicions that he may have killed Lazarus, he does not confide in anyone for a long period of time.
Mercutio asks Halloween if he'd like some food, and they decide to dine at the Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal is a white Marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal...
. Mercutio begins to order a steak, but halfway through his order, the entire world freezes up. Merc has triggered a jammer
Jammer
Jammer may refer to:* Jammer keyboard* Jammer, a device used in radar jamming and deception, a technique in electronic warfare to inhibit or halt the transmission of signals* Swim jammer, a type of male competitive swimwear...
so that he and Hal can escape IVR, and they both wake up in their beds in the school. They decided to visit their favorite diner, Twain's, and enjoy a nice meal before Merc decides to head back to IVR. Halloween, however, chooses to call his parents and report that he is dropping out. After a tough time with both his parents and Ellison, the school's headmaster (and the man Maestro was modeled after), Halloween is sent back to IVR.
At her request, Halloween goes to visit Simone, who also believes that something happened to Lazarus, although she is not sure what. The school claims that he has graduated, but Simone and Hal don't believe that. Hal agrees to help Simone determine what happened to him, so they both travel to Laz's last known IVR location — his own domain. Hal still believes that he was the one who killed Laz, but since he loved Simone, he would have done anything for her. However, Simone keeps talking about how she loved Laz, because before he had left, they had been going out.
In what is almost a legendary event, like the Last Supper
Last Supper
The Last Supper is the final meal that, according to Christian belief, Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper provides the scriptural basis for the Eucharist, also known as "communion" or "the Lord's Supper".The First Epistle to the Corinthians is...
, Halloween throws a party on what turns out to be the last night the students spend together in IVR. At the party, Mercutio breaks the rules, which brings the governor program Maestro to the scene. Using a prepared code, Mercutio breaks the system. With information gathered in the course of his murder investigation, Halloween is able to get out of the broken system, to what he assumes will be the Idlewild IVR Medical Academy in Michigan.
Instead, he finds out that his entire life has been spent in a pod. The periods of time he spent out of the school were periods of virtual reality just like the personal domains and virtual schoolhouse he knew. The ten students of the school - five boys and five girls - are divided between four different locations in Europe and America, with another in space, guarding against the possibility of some catastrophe. Halloween and Fantasia break out of their facility, steal a car, and decide to wake up one of their friends, not being able to wake the others due to the distance between the pods. In the meantime, Halloween goes back to speak with his classmates and finds Tyler suffocating to death in Champagne's domain. Back in the real world, he decides to go to Idlewild HQ, the American headquarters of the real Gedaechtnis Corporation located at the real-world address of the virtual school (in Idlewild, Michigan
Idlewild, Michigan
Idlewild is a vacation and retirement community in Yates Township located in a small rural northwestern part of the U.S. state of Michigan near the southeastern border of Lake County...
), to release their other friends. There they are attacked by the real murderer - Mercutio. He refuses to explain his actions, telling Halloween only that he has won. They battle, and Mercutio is fatally shot. Afterwards, Halloween finds Mercutio's strange log. His last cryptic messages imply he wanted to kill his virtual siblings to rule alone, and that he alone should survive to breed.
Halloween "graduates" all of the remaining students, waking them up from IVR. They decide to fulfill Gedaechtnis' plans for them to rebuild the world, but Halloween rejects the plan. The book ends with Halloween standing in the woods of Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, angry at the world for robbing him of his illusions, the girl he loved and his two best friends.
Overt Symbolism in Idlewild
In the Gospel of JohnGospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
, Lazarus
Lazarus of Bethany
Lazarus of Bethany, also known as Saint Lazarus or Lazarus of the Four Days, is the subject of a prominent miracle attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus restores him to life four days after his death...
died and was resurrected by Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
.
The character Mercutio has significant similarities to his counterpart in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio
Mercutio
Mercutio a fictional character in William Shakespeare's 1597 tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. He is a close friend of Romeo, and Romeo's cousin Benvolio, and also a blood relative to Prince Escalus and Count Paris. As such, being neither a Montague nor a Capulet, Mercutio is one of the few in Verona...
curses both his friends and enemies when he realizes he is about to die, just as in Idlewild, Mercutio goes after both the clods and the pets.
Mercutio's real name is an allusion to Adam the first man according to the Abrahamic religious tradition, especially given his plan to kill all his male classmates ("He who succeeds, breeds").
Sequels
A sequel, EdenbornEdenborn
Edenborn is a 2004 novel by Nick Sagan. It is the sequel to Idlewild, and takes place 18 years after that book. The sequel to this book and the final installment of the trilogy is Everfree.-Plot summary:...
, was published in 2004. A second sequel, Everfree, was published in June 2006.
Bibliographical information
- ISBN 0-399-15097-8: U.S. Hardback (Putnam Publishing Group)
- ISBN 0-451-21206-1: U.S. Paperback (New American Library)
- ISBN 0-593-05190-4: UK Hardback (Bantam Press)
- ISBN 0-553-81597-0: UK Paperback (Bantam Press)