Happy Holidays - Reincarnation, Magical Schools and Evil Cult Aliens
Reviews of Another Life by Sarena Ulibarri, Seeds for the Swarm by Sim Kern, and Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton
Happy Holidays!
Review: Another Life by Sarena Ulibarri
What if we could not just prove reincarnation exists, but trace past lives in people’s DNA. Diego has worked out how to do just that. People are getting their past lives read for the fun of it, much like showing off one’s 23 and Me results.
Galacia is the strong willed mediator and leader of her community of “solarpunks” who live in a partially flooded Death Valley, generated by a water pipeline.
But her results show her to be the reincarnation of the guy who promised everyone a way off the planet, the most reviled figure of her time. I mean, people hate this guy as much as Hitler.
If this comes out, can she still lead her community? And how does she deal with the identity crisis.
It’s about redemption and not judging about the past. It’s also solarpunk in intent and feel and a beautiful story of community, and about how even reformed police might not be such a great idea, just saying.
The technology and reincarnation stuff isn’t very feasible. Everything else, however, is. Galacia is a fascinating and flawed protagonist who has to learn to step back and start to let the younger generation fly.
Ulibarri is one of the major figures in the solarpunk movement, both as a writer and as an anthologist, so anything she does in this realm is worthy of note.
Recommended to solarpunk fans everywhere.
Review: Seeds for the Swarm by Sim Kern
Solarpunk meets cyberpunk meets a “magical” school. Rylla is from Texas, which is now one of the Dust States…where the water crisis has made the land unlivable. This compares with the Lush States in the north and east.
You can’t just move from one to the other. When Rylla stands up in her state’s governing body (with the representatives openly owned by corporations) she is head hunted by the elite school Wingates, which has the stated goal of bringing together brilliant young people in the hope they will come up with ideas to solve the world’s problems.
Meanwhile her brother, Tyler, has become a scrounger living on the edge of societies.
And not everything at Wingates is as it seems.
This book brings in, in addition to cyberpunk and solarpunk and the school conceit, a slight hint of modern YA dystopia. Although Rylla is old for a YA protagonist at 18, she feels very much like a teenager. But at the same time the adults cannot be trusted. None of them. It’s unclear whether the teenagers can.
The book is the first in a series and leaves Rylla in a difficult situation. Who can she trust? Who are the real bad guys? Is Wingates really evil? (A: Likely).
The author flirts with the classic love triangle but ultimately resists the temptation to make it about that. They are clearly a highly skilled author (and have an entire section where they take off rich people nostalgia and RenFaires beautifully. It’s a little marred by the fact that they don’t seem to know much about horses).
I very much enjoyed this book even if it gets into YA tropes in a few places. Recommended for people who really do enjoy the current crop of YA SF, climate fiction, and a very cool queer character.
Review: Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton
Hamilton is one of the masters of the weird space opera. Salvation ties together multiple threads, but not always expertly…I did sometimes lose track of when I was.
Humans have developed portal technology. Cars, trains, and planes are all obsolete (although you can sometimes still call a cab for short trips). You can step through a portal from New York and come out in Paris…or on the newest extrasolar colony.
Speciation has begun, with the Utopials (who are trying to build Fully Automated Luxury Communism) genetically engineering their children to cycle between male and female every 1000 days. This might be a nod to Le Guin, in terms of the specific route they take.
And a ship full of religious fanatics has offered Earth medical miracles in return for something we have plenty of…a small amount of plasma from the sun to power their onward flight.
Spoiler alert: They’re evil.
I found this book entertaining but for one thing, which constitutes a content warning.
OMG the gender essentialism. The Utopials have gotten rid of gender (but not class, they’re a meritocracy…in theory).
But in order to fight they bring it back because being permanently male is an advantage in combat.
This is written in a way that implies the author believes it. They also genetically engineer a super smart subspecies…that’s all female. Girls are smart, boys are aggressive.
Really, Peter? Have you been hanging out with J.K. Rowling lately?
Although to be fair, Hamilton does counter this by writing two seriously badass female assassins. So he probably doesn’t believe it. There’s no indication he’s a transphobe. But he could have softened it by having one character somewhere who’s gender doesn’t match their biological sex. The Utopial omnias…it’s their gender and they don’t seem to experience dysphoria when they cycle.
It’s not so much transphobic as…does the man have any trans friends?
And yes, this did take away from my enjoyment of what was otherwise a very good book. Not enough that I’m not going to finish the trilogy, though.