Last Human is a decent large-scale Red Dwarf adventure, but the changes in prose style, characterisation and narrative structure leave it oddly detached from the previous novels.
PLOT
After retrieving Lister and Kochanski from Backwards World, the crew try to return to Red Dwarf through the Omni-Zone, but accidentally wind up in a parallel reality where Lister is being put on trial. At Kochanski's pleading, Lister agrees to rescue his other self, unaware of his true nature...
ANALYSIS
Following the massive success of the first two Red Dwarf novels, it was a no-brainer for Grant Naylor to continue the series. They signed a contract for two more. Unfortunately, during the writing of the third book - tentatively named as The Last Human - the relationship between Rob Grant and Doug Naylor broke down irreparably and their partnership ended. With the contract still looming over them, the two agreed to write the last two books separately. This resulted in a rather interesting and unique piece of literary history as Grant and Naylor's books were both written as a sequel to Better than Life independently of each other. For fans, it's a sadness as the two writers are undeniably weaker apart, but it's also a rich oppurtunity to study each one's preferences separately and explore their contributions to the Grant Naylor writing team.
So today, we're looking at Doug Naylor. The first thing that becomes apparent is that while Grant and Naylor had obviously worked together to write the previous books, it was Grant who put pen to paper, so to speak. Naylor's writing style is a huge departure from what we've come to know. It's much more utilitarian. The humour is greatly downplayed, and seems to come primarily from the dialogue rather than farcical descriptions. Characterisation is similarly muted, with the crew mostly reduced to basic caricature versions of themselves (although there are exceptions). Lister's struggle to get back home is technically still the overarching goal, but the vast majority of the book is one massive detour. And it's a detour that has no emotional weight whatsoever because it is all focused around Evil Lister, who serves poorly as the book's main antagonist.
In theory, an evil version of Lister could be amazing, but there is no depth to him. He's just a moustache-twirling nuisance. So all that time spent on rescuing and then fighting him feels like a complete waste of time. The only other major plotline - the crashed ship Mayflower and Rimmer's son - exists to set up a happy ending for the crew. I'm mixed on that ending. I feel like it's not entirely in the spirit of Red Dwarf for things to just work out so perfectly. Rimmer triumphing over his neuroses is still definitely an exciting moment, though. All in all, though, Last Human lacks the forward momentum and cohesion of its predecessors.
Another change is in the way the book adapts TV show material. Instead of weaving the episodes together into a single storyline and expanding on what was onscreen, Naylor lifts specific scenes word-for-word and puts them in an entirely different context. So it's less like getting classic Red Dwarf stories on the page and more like reusing good skits to boost the page count.
Last Human is not all bad, though, far from it. The book carries a kind of pulpy 1960s Star Trek tone that is perfectly fun on its own merits. I enjoyed having the crew confined to Starbug, jaunting from planet to planet much like in Series VI and VII. Of all the books, this is probably the easiest to just pick up and enjoy for its episodic nature, which in a roundabout way makes it the closest you can get to the experience the show gives you. I also appreciate that Doug added a lot of original content to this book. As I mentioned above, previous Red Dwarf books were expanded adaptations. But this one has its own totally new story, characters, worldbuilding, and a lot of it is really interesting stuff.
It's also the only Red Dwarf story that explicitly tries to conclude the saga, and both Rimmer and Lister are given exactly the kind of sendoff they deserve. You can feel Doug's love for them, and for the fans. I appreciate that.
CHARACTERS
Kochanski was a huge surprise for me, just for how little she's developed. The first two books were incredibly extensive about the inner lives of all its characters, even minor ones like Saunders and McIntyre. And of course the bigwigs like Rimmer and Lister were so fleshed out that you knew them inside and out. Although Kochanski was featured in those books, her role was always to be an intangible prize for Lister to reach for, something that keeps him going beyond sanity. She wasn't given dialogue or much in the way of personality, because the whole point of her was to be this abstract idea.
But now she is a major character and I have no idea what that character is supposed to be. We never learn how she feels about her death, or about being resurrected three million years later in a backwards reality, or that she was only brought back for the sake of Lister, a man she dated for a few weeks and then dumped. She's just part of the team now, and in love with Lister for reasons that are never explained. It's disappointing. Kochanski also doesn't seem to have acquired the personality traits of either of her TV incarnations (the cocky Clare Grogan or the neurotic Chloe Annett). All we really get about what kind of person she is that she's become the de facto leader of the group because of her competence and rank.
Kochanski doesn't seem too shallow in comparison with the rest of the group, though, because everyone's personalities have been sanded down. Gone are the insightful deep dives into people's thoughts and psyche, gone is the character-driven storytelling. I don't actually begrudge that too much, because we already have such a wealth of backstory for them - and the simpler style does suit the pulp sci-fi tone the book is going for - but it does leave everything awfully two-dimensional.
Kryten has one moment to shine, when he decides to become human. It's an adaptation of DNA, which would be fine if the novel version of Kryten had ever expressed an interest in being human. He didn't. While we learn quite a lot about Kryten's personality in those books, he doesn't have the arc that the TV version did, so him suddenly wanting to be human comes completely out of nowhere and doesn't fit.
Rimmer's noble sacrifice fares a bit better, although you really have to rely on the pathos that Grant and Naylor gave him in the previous stories. Because in this one, all he does is mope about not being in charge anymore. I'm also not super keen on the idea of giving him such a heroic exit. It is nice that he grew, but it feels out of touch with the melancholy, realistic tone these characters used to have.
NOTES
- The episodes Psirens, DNA and Emohawk are loosely adapted, and certain scenes from Legion are used as well.
- There is some Rob Grant material (or at least ideas) in the book, as this was the story that he and Naylor were going to write before Grant left the partnership.
- I find it interesting how there's such a dramatic sci-fi/Mad Max tone to everything in Cyberia, as it feels so disconnected from everything else Naylor has done with the franchise. Either on his own or with Grant.
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