Kelly Robson: Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach

Kelly Robson’s novella Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach takes place partly in a post-apocalyptic future where humans live in habitats, some on the Earth’s surface, some beneath, and where those who survived climate disruption and plague, among other things, live through the benefit of advanced technologies - including the ability to travel into the past - but in often borderline existences. Some humans have been mutated by the plague; others are dependent on specialised prostheses to function; some appear to be what we would still thing of as fully human.

Minh, a private contractor and specialist in multiple fields, most having to do with water systems and ecologies, has won o competition for a unique and exciting project - to travel into the past to do a complete survey of the Tigris-Euphrates river valley. Her three person team - herself, Kiki, and Hamid, accompanied by Fabian, a ‘tactical historian’ supplied by the time travel organisation, will rely on the most advanced tech - satellites, probes, all manner of mobile monitoring devices, to collect the first wave of data.

Intercut with the narrative of the team’s preparations and journey back in time, and the beginning of their work, is a second narrative, the story of Shulgi, the king of the Mesopotamian state of Ur, who faces a political crisis when new stars appear in the sky, and strange flying creatures are seen across the land. At first the high priestess Susa, the only power that rivals his in the kingdom, names these an evil omen and calls for Shulgi’s death to appease the gods, but after a time she withdraws into the temple and begins to issue strange orders. Shulgi, meanwhile, prepares to face whatever the omens bring, for it is the role of a king to protect his people.

What happens when the inevitable interaction occurs is unexpected, and showcases both the best and the worst of human nature, past and future. A profoundly thought provoking work.

Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda: Monstress Vol. 3, Haven

Haven is the third volume of collected issues of Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s brilliant, beautiful, and disturbing graphic narrative, Monstress. Maika Halfwolf and her companions, Kippa the Arcanic fox-child and Ren the cat, are for the moment safe in Pontus, an independent city-state where refugees from all over the Known World have gathered. Pontus is protected by a magical shield, an artifact created by Maika’s ancestor, the Shaman Empress. But the shield was deactivated after the war, and it needs one strong in the Shaman Empress’ blood to reactivate it. The rulers of Pontus offer Maika a deal - permanent sanctuary if she will activate the shield for them. Maika continues to struggle against the blood and power cravings of the creature, Zinn, the Monstrum summoned - and beloved and loving in return - by her ancestor, that dwells within her.

As usual, Takeda’s art is breath-takingly beautiful, intricate, and evocative. Liu’s story continues to give us more clues into Maika’s past, the line of the Shaman Empress, and the mysterious mask, a fragment of which is in Maika’s keeping.. We also discover more about the Cumeae, and how deeply they are controlled by the Monstrum, siblings of Zinn, and their desire to bring about another war.

The complexity of the story and the worldbuilding behind it continues to wrap me up and carry me away to a fully realised other world with each installment I read. Also profoundly important to this story is the deep intention of the authors to make this a story that recognises the ones who are too often forgotten - the refugees, the damaged, the wounded, the victims of all the political games and the conflicts between the powerful who seek only more power, while the people who suffer in their battles want only to live in peace and happiness. And then, there’s the unavoidable fact that every person of importance in this story is a woman. Where so many other texts make women invisible, or limit the women who matter to the story to a rare handful, Liu and Takeda make virtually every plot point in this story turn on the actions of a woman. This in itself would make Monstress a very special text, but when there is so much more on top of this... I admit I’ve not exactly been an rabid consumer of graphic narratives, but this is easily one of the best I have seen.

Aliette de Bodard: The Tea Master and the Detective

Aliette de Bodard’s novella The Tea Master and the Detective is set in her secondary Xuya universe, and is both an intriguing mystery tale (with a crusty and damaged consulting detective who carries more than a hint of the original of that profession in her character) and a powerful story about finding truth and facing fear.

Long Chau calls herself a consulting detective. She has a murky past, and a mind that naturally turns toward deduction. She investigates that which interests her, whether she has a client or not. And at the moment, she is interested in what happens to the body of a person left in deep space - the unreal dimension through which shipminds - formerly human intelligences integrated into the bodies of transport ships - can carry people quickly from one place in the galaxy to another without passing through real space. But Long Chau, like most humans, does not function well while in deep space. To counteract its effects, most people turn to a tea master - a person trained to create a blend of substances to be consumed as a tea that stabilises their minds in deep space.

The tea master that Long Chau seeks out is a shipmind, known as The Shadow’s Child. Once a military vessel, she was lost in an accident in deep space, her crew dead, and her psyche deeply affected, as even that of a shipmind will be after too much time in deep space. Dismissed from the military, unable to enter the deeper parts of deep space because of her trauma, The Shadow’s Child has become a tea master, her specialised blends enabling embodied humans to function in a space she can no longer trust herself in.

The slow development of a partnership, even, eventually, a friendship, between these two very damaged people as they combine their talents to solve a mystery concerning the body they find in the edges of deep space is a marvellously crafted, and emotionally delicate negotiation.

And as an added bonus for Sherlock Holmes fans, you can always count the ways in which Long Chau and The Shadow’s Child are like Holmes and Watson.