hardcover, 282 pages
Published June 29, 2020 by Akashic Books.
Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world. Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South.
For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot--if she's willing to sow the seeds of civil war.
once again, an amazing story with beautiful characters and some decent queer representation that ends the moment i would love it to start instead.
what happens after the great villain is defeated? please, tell me! let's write it together!
the back of the book compares the Matilda to the antebellum southern US, in space, but that's far from being an adequate comparison. instead it seems to me an honest portrayal of a possible future—certainly unlikely or impossible in many respects, but in all important ways uncomfortably truthful.
it's not a cheerful story, but it never drags because of this; it is persistently lively. it doesn't inspire despair: there's always a core of resilience even when hope is scarce.
I look forward to reading more of their work.
The greatest strength here is the character writing. Different characters, starkly and distinctively portrayed. The characterization kept me reading to the end. Some weirdness with pacing/continuity, but this was the author's debut novel. I can't tell if it was an intentional tool to portray the neural atypical nature of several characters or just inexperience.
If you are widely read, you won't find anything new in this book. It is going to remind some people obviously of Snowpiercer. Warning. Snowpiercer spoiler:
This is Snowpiercer light, with everyone at the bottom of ship/back of train being people of color. Snowpiercer light, because they have many decks filled with varied crops on this generation ship. Horrid discrimination and abuse, with the lower/colored classes doing most of the manual labor (which for some reason this incredibly high tech generation ship does not automate), but lighter than Snowpiercer as the upper decks are not …
The greatest strength here is the character writing. Different characters, starkly and distinctively portrayed. The characterization kept me reading to the end. Some weirdness with pacing/continuity, but this was the author's debut novel. I can't tell if it was an intentional tool to portray the neural atypical nature of several characters or just inexperience.
If you are widely read, you won't find anything new in this book. It is going to remind some people obviously of Snowpiercer. Warning. Snowpiercer spoiler:
This is Snowpiercer light, with everyone at the bottom of ship/back of train being people of color. Snowpiercer light, because they have many decks filled with varied crops on this generation ship. Horrid discrimination and abuse, with the lower/colored classes doing most of the manual labor (which for some reason this incredibly high tech generation ship does not automate), but lighter than Snowpiercer as the upper decks are not literally cannibalizing the lower decks, and while abuse is rampant, some lower deck people do have meaningful jobs/careers of a sort.
I suppose the primary goal of this book must have been to portray rampant violent trauma and how that locks people into a cycle where more trauma and abuse continues to occur:
It seemed utterly unrealistic that The General, so incredibly revered as the Hand of God by the entire ship, would refrain from taking power when his uncle died. He was SO dreading the new level of cruelty, but didn't make a move, despite his aristocratic upbringing. We are told he has also been horrifically abused in his past, but it seems not quite believable that a character of tremendous intellect and true religious devotion to doing good, in a position of close inheritance to the throne as it were, wouldn't make any moves to take power in order to prevent great cruelty an evil.
Also, did not enjoy the very abrupt ending.
