Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
(Terra Ignota, Book 1)
Released: May 10, 2016 | Genre: Science Fiction
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Mycroft Canner is a convict. For his crimes he is required, as is the custom of the 25th century, to wander the world being as useful as he can to all he meets. Carlyle Foster is a sensayer--a spiritual counselor in a world that has outlawed the public practice of religion, but which also knows that the inner lives of humans cannot be wished away.
The world into which Mycroft and Carlyle have been born is as strange to our 21st-century eyes as ours would be to a native of the 1500s. It is a hard-won utopia built on technologically-generated abundance, and also on complex and mandatory systems of labeling all public writing and speech. What seem to us normal gender distinctions are now distinctly taboo in most social situations. And most of the world’s population is affiliated with globe-girdling clans of the like-minded, whose endless economic and cultural competition is carefully managed by central planners of inestimable subtlety. To us it seems like a mad combination of heaven and hell. To them, it seems like normal life.
And in this world, Mycroft and Carlyle have stumbled on the wild card that may destablize the system: the boy Bridger, who can effortlessly make his wishes come true. Who can, it would seem, bring inanimate objects to life...
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Too Like the Lightning and its sequel, Seven Surrenders, were originally written as one continuous novel. Publisher Tor Books ultimately divided Ada Palmer’s planned story into four books, forcing her to rework the first book's ending so it felt like a stopping point, even though several major revelations had to wait for the sequel. Palmer later said she wished the first two books could have been published together so readers wouldn’t have to wait.
REVIEW
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆ ☆
Too philosophical for its own good.
Beautifully written, with a rich and complex world. It features some of the most unique fourth-wall breaks in recent years, and a story concept that challenges the morality and ethics of progress.
The problem is that it’s often too philosophical for its own good.
When I say “beautifully written,” I mean it. Early on, I found myself drawn in by the writing style alone. At times, I didn’t even care what was happening in the plot, I was fascinated by the shear linguistics.
But as I settled into the style, I had to step back and focus on the story itself. That’s when I realized how small the story actually felt. It seemed to unfold in the spaces between the words, as if the real narrative was hidden beneath the surface in subtext.
As fascinating and idealistic as it is, Too Like the Lightning feels more like a work of philosophy than traditional science fiction.
