Thanksgiving Wishes for You

May your hearts be blessed with an abundance of love, this day and always.

Today's Moment of Art

Patrick Downie, 1854-1945 

Short Book Reviews: First-Rate Multiple POV Space Opera

The Cruel Stars, by John Birmingham (Del Rey)

The popularly conceived optimal number of point-of-view characters changes with the times, everything from only a single, first-person protagonist to a cast of thousands, er, dozens. I love how multiple points of view, even those that seem to be unrelated at the beginning, come together, and John Birmingham’s The Cruel Stars falls squarely in that category. The story begins with a handful of characters who seem to have little in common, except living in the same universe, in which humans have populated planets across the galaxy: a young lieutenant in one of the space navies, a princess of a planet’s ruling family, a curmudgeonly astroarchaeologist, and a space pirate. When the Human Republic, long defeated and exiled for their extreme opposition to any modification of “natural” humans – either by tech or genetic modification – attacks, their first move is through the galactic network linking everyone who’s logged in, essentially frying their brains and turning them into psychotic cannibals. With the leadership and aristocracy decimated, our disparate characters end up among the few competent people who are unaffected. Especially moving was the ship’s digital Intellect, who walls off and then essentially sacrifices themself, rather than spread the contagion to their human shipmates.

This space opera entertains endlessly with skillfully handled dramatic tension and first-rate world building.

Today's Moment of Art

William Bliss Baker, 1860 - 1886 

Short Book Reviews: The Princess Bride Meets Princess Leia on a Space Station with Magic

How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse, by K. Eason (DAW)

The blurb for this entertaining coming-of-age in a weird mix of space opera and magic reads, The Princess Bride Meets Princess Leia. While I appreciate the ease of film references, I found the book more strongly reminiscent of Frank Herbert’s Dune. Most of the action takes place on a space station habitat rather than a desert planet, but many of the cultural and world-building elements are eerily similar. The young heroine (named Rory out of family tradition) is, like Paul Atreides, the heir to the throne. She’s protected and educated by a pair of extraordinary, dedicated teachers. From a early age, she learns not only personal self-control but the nuanced maneuvers of controlling others. And, like Paul, she’s caught up, in over her depth, in a complicated interplanetary struggle. In Rory’s world, however, computer nets are controlled by hexes and spells, and at her birth, fairies granted her various gifts, including the ability to detect falsehoods. This is indicated in the text by offset italics of what the person is actually thinking, with often humorous results.

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A peace treaty between Rory’s widowed mother and the scheming villain who murdered her father locks her into a betrothal (to a prince whose only public appearances are by his short-lived, imbecilic clones) and exile on the afore-mentioned space station. Cut off from her teachers, she’s forced to find new (and surprising) allies and most of all, to come into her own power. I love that she makes mistakes, and that her opponents are formidable. The risk to her, the people she cares about, and her home world are equally daunting.

Enormous fun. Highly recommended.