On My Way To Paradise

Dave Wolverton
1989

On My Way to Paradise is an exploration of the journey a kind and compassionate man named Angelo who is living in Panama when he is dragged into violence and loses his home.

Whether or not this is an accurate representation of South American culture I don’t know, but it serves to illustrate the beliefs and behaviour of this group, especially in contrast to the other main culture in the book, which is Japanese.

The story is told in first person, which provides an opportunity to understand what’s going on with Angelo Osic, and also to experience his struggle to understand both himself and the people around him. He is a morphogenic pharmocologist who operates a small shop in Panama.

As soon as the story starts he is confronted by a woman with her hand torn off who demands his help, telling him if he won’t, she’ll die. As a result of helping her, he becomes a murderer and flees earth onto a ship bound for the planet Baker as a mercenary with other South Americans. They have been hired by a Japanese corporation to fight a war on Baker with their rivals.

While Angelo struggles with his morality, the mercenaries are learning how to “be as one already dead”, fighting in the simulators against samurai during their training. Angelo is disturbed that he has always tried to serve his society and be a good man, yet he is now in a society of murderers, so does this make him evil? Can a man serving an evil society be good by following its customs, or should he go against his society?

The South Americans include chimeras, genetically upgraded humans with exaggerated territorialism, and Angelo’s encounters with them challenge his ideas of humanity and compassion. Within his own small team there are tensions between the chimeras and the humans and understanding why leads him to believe that he has lost his capacity for compassion.

He cannot resolve or understand his differences with either the Japanese samurai or the inhuman chimeras. Abriara, the female leader of his team particularly disturbs him, as he tries to show her a different side of humans to the one she has been exposed to, yet finds himself losing his capacity for compassion.

He feels manipulated and can’t understand why he has suddenly developed a capacity for violence that he had never felt before. He discusses this problem with a chimera named Perfecto, who has bonded to him due to a genetic trigger set off by Angelo’s appearance. Perfecto believes that all evil comes from territorialism, that all things that people do wrong to each other are because they are invading each other’s territory and that chimeras, with their heightened territorialism, are the only ones who truly understand this.

This is a fascinating story with novel concepts blended with the familiar in a way that makes even life aboard a space ship full of mercenaries seem realistic and commonplace. There are many incidents that demonstrate a strongly ironic humour and it easy to get immersed in the situation and relate to Angelo’s emotions.

There are a few twists in this story, and some odd byways to the story too, I’d highly recommend it.