On 12/08/24 09:57, James Nicoll wrote:
Best Novel: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (Tordotcom, Orbit UK)
I enjoyed it initially with several complaints but might have thrown it
at the wall about half way through if it hadn't been a Hugo Award
winner. I have not read the other contenders but the standard of
writing, the lack of a science background evident in limited vocabulary
and frequent difficulty to suspend disbelief did not even hint at award nomination.
Umpteen galaxies with several aliens are controlled by the "Wisdom", an
alien AI self-developed over thousands of years which destroyed Earth
and its fourteen billion remaining inhabitants. Our female white
protagonist is a fascist freedom fighter living outside the Wisdom's
influence with just thousands of other humans though there is a planet, predominantly human in some other solar system.
Here is some science.
Irris is a scioactive substance vital to the construction of the
gigantic shadow engines. In its unprocessed form [it] is highly
volatile, particularly in the subreal dimensions which Wisdom systems
rely on.
"The Wisdom was a transtemporal and pandimensional intelligence capable
of shaping the fates of trillions."
“It would help if anyone, literally anyone in the entire universe,
understood how the Wisdom really works.”
[The Wisdom could be and was controlled by aliens and humans but the
handwavium was very strong there.]
Here is some political comment.
...self-described democracy. Outsiders, and some human dissidents,
consider this an empty label; although human government includes
democratic elements (indeed it is hard to find times when humans are not
voting for something) these are, by and large, window dressing.
Humans themselves will cynically point out that no popular vote is ever
taken unless those in power already know what the answer will be.
[Which all had little reference to the story - just background.]
The social comment is even worse. It began as several fantasies do, with
our youthful racist, homophobic, fascist protagonist being the fastest,
the most skilled fighter and the cleverest female trainee.
Co-incidentally her brother filled the same role for males. Both
characters were shallow with the abrupt change in Kyr ludicrous. A third
of the way through, page 150, we learn the brother is homosexual and 120
pages later, that the protagonist has lesbian inclinations. There is no
porn but this data was not necessary for the plot nor the characters and
there was little discussion of racism, sexism or anything much.
The "Wisdom" is literally a God in a machine, one that makes frequent appearances. Even though the themes were treated simplistically and the characters shallow and immature, I am generously giving it two stars.
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