Elizabeth Bear, "Dust"
Dec. 24th, 2007 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbBook 187, Fiction 177
177. Elizabeth Bear, Dust.
I haven't had this much fun reading a book in forever.
Perceval is a maimed knight. Rien is her sister, a princess raised as an orphan servant. The world they live in is a dying ship, trapped beside an unstable star, inhabited by warring peoples in broken habitats and the broken fragments of struggling angels. And the fate of the world depends on them.
...Which is a simplification, of course. But with Bear's books it's always more complex than that. This one's part quest, part thriller, part coming-of-age. It's tragic and funny and ruthless and gentle all at once, peopled with real, complex people and more Cool Shit (tm) than you can shake a stick at. (There is a basilisk. And an angel of intership communication. And an angel of life support services. And a library of trees.)
And the only way out is through.
And the ending is so entirely, heartbreakingly, utterly right, it made me want to laugh with glee and cry, all at once.
Like most of Bear's books, it got me right where I lived.
I'm noticing what seems to be a theme, though. (Besides the broken people making the best out of their wounds, of which if you ask me? Fiction could do with a good few more.) But either the pattern-recognition part of my brain is going overtime, or one of the threads that link Bear's books together is, to borrow someone else's words, that the only thing worse than a battle lost is a battle won. No one comes out unchanged, and even 'victory' isn't pretty.
Also, fallen angels, man. I think I could point to a fallen angel or two (for certain values of 'angel' and certain values of 'fallen') in every one of her books I've read.
Which is good, because I think I've something of an angel kink, for fiction.
...And after the digressions are over: great book. My favourite this year, and in the few days left, I don't think that's going to change.
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matociquala? Thanks. I didn't know how much I wanted to read a book like this, until I did. :)
177. Elizabeth Bear, Dust.
I haven't had this much fun reading a book in forever.
Perceval is a maimed knight. Rien is her sister, a princess raised as an orphan servant. The world they live in is a dying ship, trapped beside an unstable star, inhabited by warring peoples in broken habitats and the broken fragments of struggling angels. And the fate of the world depends on them.
...Which is a simplification, of course. But with Bear's books it's always more complex than that. This one's part quest, part thriller, part coming-of-age. It's tragic and funny and ruthless and gentle all at once, peopled with real, complex people and more Cool Shit (tm) than you can shake a stick at. (There is a basilisk. And an angel of intership communication. And an angel of life support services. And a library of trees.)
And the only way out is through.
And the ending is so entirely, heartbreakingly, utterly right, it made me want to laugh with glee and cry, all at once.
Like most of Bear's books, it got me right where I lived.
I'm noticing what seems to be a theme, though. (Besides the broken people making the best out of their wounds, of which if you ask me? Fiction could do with a good few more.) But either the pattern-recognition part of my brain is going overtime, or one of the threads that link Bear's books together is, to borrow someone else's words, that the only thing worse than a battle lost is a battle won. No one comes out unchanged, and even 'victory' isn't pretty.
Also, fallen angels, man. I think I could point to a fallen angel or two (for certain values of 'angel' and certain values of 'fallen') in every one of her books I've read.
Which is good, because I think I've something of an angel kink, for fiction.
...And after the digressions are over: great book. My favourite this year, and in the few days left, I don't think that's going to change.
matociquala? Thanks. I didn't know how much I wanted to read a book like this, until I did. :)
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no subject
Date: 2007-12-24 10:07 pm (UTC)She broke my heart with the end of this book, ripped it out and stomped on it.
It is my very favorite of her books.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-24 10:09 pm (UTC)Precisely that.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-24 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-24 10:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-25 10:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-25 04:20 pm (UTC)