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Monday, March 17, 2014

Dust

Elizabeth Bear's Dust:

A generation ship breaks down and starts orbiting a dying sun, the inhabitants split into factions that start struggling for control of the ship--or just their personal fiefdoms--as the centuries drag on.  This falls into a genre I've never quite gotten, science fiction that explicitly chooses fantasy trappings.  Societies have a medieval structure with inheritance among families and knights going on quests, while genetic engineering and nanotech provide miracles and mythical beings and computer subprograms are like gods.

I continue to like Bear's writing and there are some nice narrative tricks around how things are perceived, plus an interesting take on the differences between love, trust and desire in relationships.  But for me probably not worth continuing with the series.  Certainly I'll exhaust some of her other works (including the excellent Eternal Sky series) first.

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