Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson

I really enjoyed this book. Nalo Hopkinson is a phenomenal writer. I had previously read her Brown Girl in the Ring, a dystopian urban fantasy, last fall and also very much enjoyed that.

Tan-Tan is a little girl growing up on a colony world called Toussaint. Technology is bountiful and productive, with most tasks handled by AI-controlled robots. This leaves the people of Toussaint free to engage in other activities. Tan-Tan's father, Antonio, and mother, Ione, like to fight and then sleep with other people, which results in Antonio challenging one of Ione's lovers to a ceremonial duel. It's intended to be a bloodless affair but Antonio cheats by coating his blade with a poison. He knows that he will be sentenced to exile for the crime but resolves to go on his own terms, and take Tan-Tan with him. They travel via dimensional rift to New Halfway Tree, the prison planet, where there is no technology. Free of the ever-present eye of Granny Nanny, Antonio begins to show his true colors with disastrous results for Tan-Tan.

A lot of this book revolves around privacy. How much AI-governance is helpful, how much is creepy? Should people be left to their own devices if it gives them the opportunity to hurt others? Or should they be constantly monitored for their own good? The book presents these questions obliquely, leaving the reader to form their own answers.

It's also very focused on storytelling. Not just in telling the story of Tan-Tan, but the ways in which legends and myths shape our history as humans. Reading it feels very much like sitting around a campfire being told a nested series of stories that build off of and weave between each other. I'm totally jealous of Hopkinson's ability to do this. It's also written completely in a mix of Trinidadian and Jamaican patois. Personally, I think it added to the oral history atmosphere but some people might find it jarring.

As a warning, this book deals with some very dark events like rape and child abuse. I don't want to spoil the story, but I do want to give a head's up.

Comments

The Outsourcerer's Apprentice by Tom Holt

I don't know if I would call this a sequel but it is set in the same universe as Doughnut and When It's A Jar so it's definitely related. Benny just wanted to take a break from studying for exams by escaping into YouSpace for a while. Unfortunately, he has lost his doughnut and is trapped as Prince Florizel in a world that is falling apart. The Wizard who controls everything has been outsourcing all the magical labor for his own ends to different dimensions which has begun a ripple effect towards destabilizing the entire plane. Now, Florizel and his reluctant subjects Buttercup, a Red-Riding-Hood sick to death of having to kill talking wolves everyday, and Turquine, a knight suddenly curious about the increase in dragons and what that means for his union, must confront the Outsourcerer once and for all. Tom Holt is probably the next spiritual successor to Terry Pratchett in terms of humor. This series blends quantum mechanics, macroeconomics, and fantasy ...

Black Wolves by Kate Elliott

I love seeing the words "First in a New Series" on books, don't you? After having been disgraced by the murder of his king, Captain Kellas of the Black Wolves has accepted retirement, content to live with his beautiful wife and raise his grandchildren. Then reeve Marshal Dannarah, sister to the king, comes to him with a secret mission. She believes there is a plot to kill her nephew, the current King Jehosh. Meanwhile, Sarai, an outcast among her people, offers herself in marriage sight unseen to an outsider of her clan, unknowingly involving herself in the politics of two rival queens. The lives and paths of disparate individuals will cross and knot in unexpected ways as plot and counterplot play out. This is actually a follow-on series to Kate Elliott's Crossroads trilogy. As I was reading this, I kept having those moments where I remembered this character or another from the first trilogy. I wish I had gone back and re-read the Crossroads, jus...

Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier

Did you ever pick up a book only to realize that you've read it before but so long ago that it's just outside of what you remember? Happened to me with this book. I started reading it and it felt so familiar that I scoured my shelves thinking that I had bought it before. I couldn't find it and then I wondered if I was going crazy but I knew way too much about the book, including the resolution of the central mystery. I can only conclude that I bought it, didn't like it, gave it away, and then rebought it. The good news is that I liked it much better the second time, even if I did end up skipping all the parts not featuring the two main characters. Blackthorn was facing an ignominious death in prison at the hands of a corrupt nobleman when a fey mysteriously arrives and offers her freedom if she will forgo vengeance for seven years and also agree to help anyone who asks her for it during that time. She is unhappy with the idea but agrees, esca...

The Literary Lucy

Search This Blog