Reading science fiction like it matters since 1989.
New York: Del Rey, 2015; $15.00 tpb; 336 pages
The Barbadian writer Karen Lord has one of those wonderfully diverse resumes so necessary to building a reputation as a science fiction writer, having worked as a physics teacher, a diplomat, a soldier, and an academic with a PhD in the sociology of religion. Her first novel, the fantasy Redemption in Indigo (2010), based on a Senegalese folktale, won a number of prizes and was nominated for a World Fantasy Award. Her second book, the science-fiction novel The Best of All Possible Worlds (2013), with its titular reference to Candide, its picaresque plot line, and its almost Le Guinian sensibility, went in a very different direction and was quite a surprise to most readers.
Set in the distant future, Best presented a complex universe in which, in eons past, primitive humanity was placed on four different, specially prepared worlds—Ntshune, Sadira, Zhinu, and Terra—by some ancient alien race and then allowed to evolve on its own with each version of humanity believing that it was the original. Gradually all four civilizations moved into space, setting up colony worlds, some of which are now economically and culturally more important than their worlds of origin, and of course meeting the other versions of humanity. The great tragedy that sparks the action of The Best of All Possible Worlds was the recent, mysterious destruction of Sadira, which left those who were off-world homeless and, since most of them were both male and heterosexual, wifeless. The Sadiri are by nature extremely orderly and reticent, vaguely reminiscent of Star Trek’s Vulcans, though they are not so much emotionless as able to control and channel their emotions into a lifestyle dominated by careful rationality. They had gained a sort of cultural dominance over human space through sheer competence, and someone obviously bore them an genocidal grudge. With Sadira gone and so many of its survivors now shell-shocked and impotent, large political shifts are beginning in human space.
This is all backstory, however. The main plot of Best centers on Grace Delarua, a mixed-race, minor bureaucrat of the powerful Earth colony, Cygnus Beta, who had been assigned the difficult task of traveling around her world looking for women with the proper partial Sadiri genetic heritage to mate with the remaining Sadiri males and reestablish their society on other colonial worlds. Working with Grace is the Sadiri bureaucrat, Dllenahkh, who readily and annoyingly demonstrates the traditional Sadiri reserve and lack of open emotion. Although the climax concerns the abuse of several characters, including Grace, by a relative of hers with dangerous psychic powers, the tale mostly depicts a rather sweet romance with the somewhat battle-scarred Grace and the shell-shocked, taciturn Dllenahkh gradually learning to accommodate each other’s prickly natures and fall in love.
Though they are not The Galaxy Game’s protagonists, the now middle-aged Grace and Dllenahkh have significant roles in the new book, she now a famous diplomat, he a retiring, seemingly not all that practical academic, and Lord’s portrayal of middle-aged married love is endearing. The protagonist instead is young Rafi Delarua, Grace’s nephew and one of the survivors of psychic abuse at his father’s hands (from the first novel). Now grown into his teens, he too is beginning to demonstrate potent psychic powers, and he has been sent away to the Lyceum, a school designed to both nurture his wild talent and control it. The Lyceum really doesn’t suit Rafi, who is generally treated as something of a country bumpkin by his more urban and urbane classmates, though he does make two friends, the well-to-do and eccentric Ntenman and the serious-minded, somewhat dogmatic Serendipity. Rafi’s only other pleasure is wallrunning, a sport for which he seemingly lacks much aptitude but which nonetheless fascinates him. Wallrunning, reminiscent in part of Cirque du Soliel, and in part of the children’s game Chutes and Ladders (with perhaps the team spirit of soccer thrown in), involves an enormous, constantly shifting wall on which players attempt to reach the top while “running” through a series of radically shifting gravity fields. Even the best players fall occasionally, and Rafi falls more than most. Lord spends significant space in The Galaxy Game explaining exactly how wallrunning works, what skills the players must develop, and which tactics are likely to win the day, so much so that at some point any reader is likely to wonder what the heck she’s doing. There is method to her madness, however, as it turns out that Rafi, despite his lack of talent for actually running walls, will use his experience at coordinating with other players in the game along with his psychic abilities for more important purposes (which I’m not going to give away here) and to significant political consequences.
Like The Best of All Possible Worlds, The Galaxy Game is a picaresque. At times it almost seems like a collection of random events in Rafi’s life, though we eventually realize that everything fits together and that Rafi, unbeknownst to himself, is at the center of a mounting political crisis. Lord’s plotting is highly elliptical. She gives us little if any information that Rafi and the other characters lack, making the book at times hard to follow and somewhat confusing. Most of the reviews to be found in places like Goodreads make note of this issue with some reviewers downgrading the book for this reason. If the reader can come to terms with Lord’s style, however, trusting that she knows what she’s doing and that eventually everything will be made clear, the book unfolds as a fascinating mystery set in a universe full of wonders. I enjoyed The Galaxy Game, though I would strongly recommend reading The Best of All Possible Worlds first.
Michael Levy lives in Menomonie, Wisconsin, on Earth.
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