My life in books

The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord begins several years after her previous science fiction novel, The Best of All Possible Worlds, and builds on the both the galaxy-wide consequences of the near-genocide of the people of Sadiri and the personal fall-out of the physical and telepathic abuse of the young Rafi Abowen by his father.

In the years since the devastation of Sadiri, its people have become fragmented, refugees seeking new homes have become immigrants trying to maintain the important elements of their heritage while adapting to new circumstances. The death of Sadiri - the planet which had served in many ways as a keeper of order among the various planets - has also destabilised the balance of power among the remaining major planets/cultures.

Young Rafi, nephew of Grace Delarua, the protagonist of the previous novel, has inherited the powerful psi abilities so wrongfully used against him. Living on Cygnus Beta, where telepathy is both rare, at least among the non-Sadiri population, and perceived as dangerous, Rafi has been sent to the Lyceum, where children with such abilities are taught - and observed, and assessed as to their potential danger to the community.

When Rafi runs away from the Lyceum, his family arranges for him to spend time on the planet Punartam, where telepaths are common and those with the kinds of gifts Rafi has have the potential to rise to the heights of society. He goes in the company of Ntenman, a friend from the Lyceum who has connections on Punartam.

What appears to be the story of how Rafi acclimatises to, and eventually finds his place in, Punartan society - partly through the recognition of his gifts and partly through his deep engagement with a game that involves team maneuvers on a Wall where gravity is in constant flux and the Wall itself is always changing its physical configuration - makes a sudden shift near the end of the book, where Rafi - and his growing social network - is revealed to be intimately connected with the shifting power relations between the planets. The game of Wall-running is both metaphor for the political and economic turmoil, and a necessary part of the plot, a crucial step in the plan for re-stabilisation.

Lord weaves multiple strands of story together while building multiple cultures on worlds and exploring issues of migration and immigration, culture shock, accommodation and assimilation, the nature of social credit and complex commercial networks, and the role of diplomacy and intrigue in managing and manipulating a complex political system that has seen too much of the damage of full-out war to want to return to that.

Thought-provoking and engaging, with a definite promise of more to come in future books.

Jennifer Pelland, Machine

Celia is dying from a disease that current medical science cannot cure. But in Celia's time, she has a choice, albeit a controversial one, with many strictures and controls. While she waits for a cure to be discovered, her failing body of flesh is frozen, while her consciousness is transferred into that of a bioform artificial body. What follows is a thoughtful investigation of identity, the connection between body and mind, gender, otherness, and power-over. Is Celia still Celia, or is there more to us than our thoughts, feelings and memories? And if she is, then who is Celia now that she is in a body of artificial construction that can be modified in appearance, colour, in gender (male, female, both, neither). Is she human, or less, or more - or simply other? And how do others see and understand her existence in this new form? Pelland tells a dark story here, with no easy answers - but I recommend it wholeheartedly.


Johanna Sinisalo, Birdbrain

One might call Birdbrain an ecological horror story. The main narrative follows two people, one an experienced and possibly over-confident cross-country hiker, the other a novice, as they tackle one of the most difficult trails in Australia. The two are lovers, recently met and not fully bonded. The account of their journey is interspersed with brief passages from the thoughts of an increasingly disturbed and violent urban youth and excerpts from Conrad's Heart of Darkness. As the book - and the hikers' journey - progresses, so does the sense of a subtle and increasingly intelligent volition running through the natural world the hikers traverse, one that is not kindly disposed toward the humans who have invaded its deepest recesses, leaving behind destruction and debris.



Karen Lord, Redemption in Indigo

A first novel from a writer to watch out for. As much about storytelling as it is about telling a story, the narrative line of the novel is based on a Senegalese folk tale of a woman chosen by the trickster spirit to carry the magical Chaos Stick, recently taken away from a powerful indigo-skinned spirit who misused its power, but wants it back and will try anything necessary to get it. Both learn important lessons from their interaction. Beautifully written.



Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death

It's hard to know exactly what to say about Okorafor's first novel for adults. It's powerful. It's unsettling. It's amazing. It's not easy to understand. It's a magical mystery quest with a strong female protagonist who has a great task to perform, and a terrible destiny to fulfill. It adresses uncomfortable, unconscionable things like genocide, rape as a systematic weapon of war, female genital mutilation. It's about revenge, and renewal. It examines ways of finding strength in female friendships and ways of finding balance between heterosexual lovers. It's about overcoming prejudice and following your path, reconstructing your past and accepting your future.

It's something you really have to read to understand, and something you really ought to read because understanding what it has to say is important.