KheAuthor: Alexes Razevich
Immerse Yourself in a New World.
Khe loves her simple life on a farming commune, until she discovers that her gift for pushing the crops is a death sentence. Fleeing across the treacherous wilderness, she makes her way to the city of Chimbalay, searching for the orindles who might save her. But Chimbalay has its own dangers. The Powers are there--the secret rulers who have chosen Khe to be the mother of a monstrous new race.
Neither "man in space" Science Fiction nor classical fantasy, Khe deftly blends elements of both while satisfying those searching for something different in a dystopian novel. Readers looking for solid world-building and fresh and fully-realized characters will especially enjoy this book.
A trust betrayed. A transformation that changes everything.
Sandra's Comments: Told by the title character, this story does a good job of showing us an alien culture from the alien's perspective. It was my pick for best science fiction novel I read last year.
Best SF of 2013? Wow. I'll take a peek at this one then, I'd never heard of it.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds really good. I liked "mother of a monstrous new race." That's where I decided it would go on my wish list.
ReplyDeleteI saw Rusty's comment vis a via spec fic vs literary fiction but didn't get a chance to comment yesterday because: work. So I'll do it on this post.
What I meant was that "Just Exactly How Life Looks" has stories that do not focus on or heavily use speculative fiction elements in them. The focus is on characterization and themes, which to me makes it a "literary" story as opposed to a "speculative fiction" story. "the After", on the other hand, works on themes of love and the afterlife and the basic nature of desire and what might constitute "perfection", but does so in a setting that includes islands floating in space, lightning bolts striking pizza ladies, and William Howard Taft swimming endlessly down in the ocean, which makes it speculative fiction.
A story can have a dragon fighting Martians with a laser cannon, and be literary, or be fantasy without any of those things. And spec fic can be literary, too, but we use labels to try to give people an idea of what they are getting inside. Just as putting the words "a novel" on your book cover denotes that it is a certain kind of novel, putting "speculative fiction" or "sci fi" or "fantasy" or "literary" into the description carries connotations.
People who read this blog might expect superheroes and dimension-traveling geneticists and demon hunters with Killbot buddies and kid wizards with angels for parents. They won't get those things in "Just Exactly" so I wanted people to know that.
Angels for parents? Who has angels for parents?
ReplyDeleteThe Sparrow is considered a literary novel. You won't find it shelved with the sci-fi books at the book store.
And when you say "dystopian," do mean dystopian as it originated or how it's used today?