Check out
the usual suspects (i.e. – blogs that run in the same circles I do) and look
for any reference to ‘year’s best’ or similar, and you’ll probably come across
a reference or 5 to The Best of All
Possible Worlds by Karen Lord (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon). Karen
Lord is an author I’ve been looking out for since I heard a lot of good about
her debut, Redemption in Indigo (Indiebound,
Book Depository, Amazon), and after I overcame my initial reluctance to jump on
the ‘Best of All Possible Bandwagons’, I final have gotten around to reading
the book.
I’m glad I
did – I enjoyed it a lot and can see why it’s frequently mentioned as a front
runner for various awards.
The Best of All Possible Worlds does much of what science fiction is at its
best – it’s a throwback to classical science fiction of the Star Trek variety,
though it’s framed in much more of a progressive, humanistic light. It explores
humanity through extreme ethnic evolution where humans of varying origin can
still interbred, but have evolved a wide-range of telepathic, empathetic, and
other abilities. Through this lens Lord explores such deeper ideas as
emotionally damaged people, arrogance, humility, communication, dominance, slavery,
and genocide. But all that is really a sideline.
When I call The Best of All Possible Worlds a
romance, that shouldn’t mean that’s not science fiction. It is – the two are
not mutually exclusive no matter how many times I’ve read a review that suggests
it is so. Both exist in the same book. Both are well done. And the combination
is what makes this such a great book. And if you’re inclination is to not read
this book because I invoked the icky word ‘romance’, take that as one giant
reason why you should read this book.
I typically
don’t read other reviews of a book I plan to review. With so much attention
already brought to The Best of All
Possible Worlds, I made this one the exceptions. The result is that my
review is somewhat in response to what I’ve seen in several other reviews. There
is a lot more that can be said of this book – much of it positive, and some of
it negative. But I’ll let you read about that elsewhere. In short, I very much
enjoyed The Best of All Possible Worlds and
I can see why it’s talked about as front-runner for awards.
Except for
that whole business with the faerie world/elves analog. That part really didn’t
work for me at all.
