Joyful ... Ambitious ... Devoted to cognitive estrangement, making new worlds whose structures and societies let us see ours with fresh eyes ... A cracking, fast-moving adventure story, with a wilderness-survival plot, love stories, coming-out stories, and a whodunnit ... Reed hasn’t just written a novel about social change and family life, queerness and faith. She’s embedded those ideas into a larger arc about settler-colonial systems.
Reed uses sf as a jumping-off point to examine the interesting and often contradictory way humans see belief, sex, and gender, all while challenging their characters to embrace change both in themselves and in the others around them. A well-built novel for people fascinated in the possible ecologies, linguistics, and societies of other planets and futuristic worlds.
A beautifully written and highly imaginative exploration of culture clash, queer identity, and adaptation. It asks who is willing to transform to meet new circumstances, and how much.
Reed expertly examines themes of queerness and colonialism and offers a thought-provoking critique of marriage amid the barrage of worldbuilding innovations, including plants that birth animals and a soul inhabiting a bag strap. Add in the sprawling cast, and it can be difficult to get a foothold in this unfamiliar world. Still, sci-fi fans who stick with it will be richly rewarded.
