3.5
Slow Gods
ByPublisher Description
★ Best of the Year at Gizmodo, Library Journal, and more!
"An astonishing, thought-provoking and above all touching story of found meaning and lost humanity.” —Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Children of Time
Slow Gods is the galaxy-spanning tale of one man's impossible life charted against the fate of humanity amongst the stars—a powerfully imaginative space opera from multi-award-winning author Claire North, perfect for fans of A Memory Called Empire and The Vanished Birds.
My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.
In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero. Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind.
Here is one truth: out there in deep space, in the pilot's chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me.
This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations. This is also the story of the many lives I've lived since I died for the first time.
Are you listening?
"An astonishing, thought-provoking and above all touching story of found meaning and lost humanity.” —Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Children of Time
Slow Gods is the galaxy-spanning tale of one man's impossible life charted against the fate of humanity amongst the stars—a powerfully imaginative space opera from multi-award-winning author Claire North, perfect for fans of A Memory Called Empire and The Vanished Birds.
My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.
In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero. Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind.
Here is one truth: out there in deep space, in the pilot's chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me.
This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations. This is also the story of the many lives I've lived since I died for the first time.
Are you listening?
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesSlow Gods Reviews
3.5
“This is a book I’d recommend to smart people who don’t mind being challenged.
This is a deeply character-focused book, yet I didn’t connect to any of the characters, or rather the main one through which everything is mediated.
This is mainly because the character rarely feels emotions or expresses them. They are fairly removed from the narrative despite engaging a stream-of-conscious dialogue. This monotone approach doesn’t work for me.
<b>The history that made us was already an abstract thing, and now that we are leaving this world it’s going to become worse than that. It’s going to become… tedious textbooks, or romantic stories, not a thing that we feel. We will not understand how it is still in us, how it shaped us and our ancestors and is shaping us still. It’s not just about the damn cups–it’s about making our memories real.
</b>
So, what is this even about? It’s a story that uses plot to explore themes.
When an entity called "The Slow" reveals a supernova will destroy surrounding civilizations, Maw becomes central to a 100-year evacuation effort.
Who is Maw? That’s hard to say. An immortal, feared pilot amongst others.
I mentioned themes, philosophical musings. Expect paragraphs and tangents dedicated to memory, identity (gender, family, home, ideology), and the meaning of life. Nothing heavy, of course.
Something I want to bring up: I identified with parts of Maw’s experience. The overthinking. The missing ability to know the correct social cues and conventions.
<b>A little connection, but never too much. This is the normality of the interaction, but the rules on how little is too little, how much is too much are never clear or explained. You are meant to “feel it out” and woe betide you if you get that judgement even marginally wrong, for then all connection is lost and you are other, other, other, and must alone continue, shunned for breaking a law that was never codified, violating a trust whose limits were never clear.</b>
Am I assigning an autism experience to alienation? And what does it say about me that I didn’t like Maw? Maybe it’s because I am a massive people pleaser and conformer.
<b>I wonder whether it is possible to exist as a person at all without measuring yourself against others.</b>
I think there’s a lot to unpack, but I prefer my sci fi books to have a more grounded (yes, I’m talking about space, ha ha) plot and character.
2.75 stars.⭐️
I appreciated it, but didn’t enjoy the style.”
About Claire North
Claire North is a pseudonym for Catherine Webb, who wrote several novels in various genres before publishing their first major work as Claire North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. It was a critically acclaimed success, receiving rave reviews and becoming a word of mouth bestseller. They have since published several hugely popular and critically acclaimed novels, won the World Fantasy Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and been shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Philip K. Dick Award. They live in London.
Other books by Claire North
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