The Fifth Head of Cerberus is a complex novel told through three very distinct, but linked short stories. These are all set on the twin planets of Sainte Anne and Sainte Croix, colonised from France on Earth, but now very much independent. The original inhabitants of Sainte Anne, whose mode of production was a nomadic, hunter-gatherer type, vanished soon after the colonists arrived. Likely driven extinct, but according to some thinkers, their ability to shape-shift actually saw them take over the identies of the colonists meaning the actual planet's inhabitants are the original indigenous population.
The first story is set in the somewhat steampunk Victorian atmosphere of a brothel on Sainte Croix. The narrator tells the story of his boyhood, under tutaluge from a mechanical teacher, and with only the most distant of attention from his father the wealthy brothel owner. There he eventually discovers that he is not his father's son, but a clone. Killing him he is imprisoned, but eventually takes over his father's position and wealth. It is implied its happened before. The anthropologist who provides the clue to his real nature returns in the final story in the series.
The second book tells the story of the indigenous people, through a dreamlike and very alien account of the arrival of the colonists - though this is very much the final part of a longer account that is mostly focused on the hunting of food, and attempts to evade the dangerous marsh people.
The final tale, that of the fall of the anthropolist from part one, is an account of this man's attempt to understand and locate any information on the original inhabitants. His expedition and experiences are told through fragments from taped interviews, newspaper clippings and the remains of his journal - as well as the police recordings of his imprisonment when tried for being a spy. But it seems likely that the anthropologist at the end of the story, and indeed at the end of the book, is not the same person who he was at the start.
This summary is important because the book is confusing and some of the important detail that links the stories and tells the overarching account is easily missed, particularly as the final section is told in fragments. The reader needs to work hard and I was not invested enough in the book to keep track of the various hints to the bigger narrative. This is not escapist science fiction - this is a very clear example of the genre as literature, and if you aren't prepared you'll miss out on what is actually quite an interesting novel about colonisation, identity and indigenous experience under settler colonialism.
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