The Genesis of Misery

Name: The Genesis of Misery
Rating: 3.182 (277 reviews)
ISBN: 9781250788986

By Neon Yang

Publisher Description

A Goodreads Best Science Fiction Choice Award Nominee
A New York Public Library Top 10 Book of 2022

An immersive, electrifying space-fantasy, Neon Yang's debut novel The Genesis of Misery is full of high-tech space battles and political machinations, starring a queer and diverse array of pilots, princesses, and prophetic heirs.

"This is Joan of Arc meets Gideon the Ninth with a touch of Pacific Rim thrown in as a treat. A mind-blowing rollercoaster ride of a space opera, propulsive and strange in the best way."—Rebecca Roanhorse, New York Times bestselling author

It’s a story you think you know: a young person hears the voice of an angel saying they have been chosen as a warrior to lead their people to victory in a holy war.

But Misery Nomaki (she/they) knows they are a fraud.

Raised on a remote moon colony, they don’t believe in any kind of god. Their angel is a delusion, brought on by hereditary space exposure. Yet their survival banks on mastering the holy mech they are supposedly destined for, and convincing the Emperor of the Faithful that they are the real deal.

The deeper they get into their charade, however, the more they start to doubt their convictions. What if this, all of it, is real?

A reimagining of Joan of Arc’s story given a space opera, giant robot twist, the Nullvoid Chronicles is a story about the nature of truth, the power of belief, and the interplay of both in the stories we tell ourselves.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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The Genesis of Misery Reviews

3.0

Allygator

Created 11 days ago

“I really truly wish I could say I enjoyed this book more than I actually did. Maybe it’s just a matter of reading it at the wrong time, or not quite understanding it, but I just couldn’t connect with the plot and characters. This book just felt like it was running circles around me while I tried to keep up. It wasn’t so much an issue of multiple pronouns being in use or anything, that’s actually one of the few elements that drew me in still. The narrative just discombobulated me and the world building often blindsided me. I was ecstatic when I first stumbled across this book that this was inspired by Joan of Arc, but set in space. Unfortunately, it didn’t draw me in with that inspiration. The religious aspects of the book felt too preachy to me about divine purpose, faith, and atonement. I know aspects of that were necessary given the narrative surrounding Joan as a historical figure, but I just felt like Misery went off the deep end with it. I know I’m not someone who vibes with a lot of religious speech in general, so perhaps the holy talks in the book just didn’t resonate with me because of that. This book confused me more or less from start to finish, and it wasn’t a departure from my usual genres. If you’re looking for diverse sci-fi, this is a good one to throw on the TBR, but I just don’t think it was the one for me.”

Alice

Created 15 days ago

Clunky Dense Flowery/lush Original Straightforward Witty

Cori

Created 16 days ago

DinahLee

Created 19 days ago

“No Spoilers! the narrator's start in the prologue almost made me dnf, but it ended better than it started. the first 30% of the book was incredubly frustrating to me. The irl religious components mixed with the fantasy components were hard to follow, as well as the prose was frustrating from the narrator. Once i figured out it reads like a stage play with an on stage narrator that was turned into prose, it got easier to read. So the writing style definitely was not for me, but the plot was really intrigueing. I had a lots of issue with the pacing as well. I know i have a lot of issues with this one but the plot and ending made up for most of them, for me at least. This is their lowest rated work to date, so maybe I shouldn't have started with this one as it almost put me off this author completely, but after that ending I'm truly excited to read more from them”

Bethany Barlett

Created 26 days ago

About Neon Yang

Neon Yang (they/them) is a queer non-binary author based in the UK. They have been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Lambda Literary, Ignyte, and Locus Awards, and their Tensorate series of novells was an Otherwise Award Honoree. In previous incarnations, Neon was a molecular biologist, a science communicator, a writer for animation, games and comic studios, and a journalist for one of Singapore's major papers. The Genesis of Misery is their first full-length novel.