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    Too Like the Lightning
    Too Like the Lightning
    Too Like the Lightning
    Audiobook20 hours

    Too Like the Lightning

    Written by Ada Palmer

    Narrated by Jefferson Mays

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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 destabilize the system: the boy Bridger, who can effortlessly make his wishes come true. Who can, it would seem, bring inanimate objects to life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMay 10, 2016
    ISBN9781501919749
    Too Like the Lightning
    Author

    Ada Palmer

    Ada Palmer (she/her) is a professor in the history department of the University of Chicago, specializing in Renaissance history and the history of ideas. Her first nonfiction book, Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance, was published in 2014 by Harvard University Press. She is also a composer of folk and Renaissance-tinged a cappella vocal music on historical themes, most of which she performs with the group Sassafrass. She writes about history for a popular audience at exurbe.com and about SF and fantasy-related matters at Tor.com. Too Like the Lightning was her debut fiction book.

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    Reviews for Too Like the Lightning

    4/5

    417 ratings36 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I am not sure how I feel about this book, it was good, but not great.
      I think I was "Dear Reader" (ed) to death.
    • 4/5
      A science fiction story set in the far future where there has not been any wars for hundreds of years, religion is banned, and there are no longer any country borders. It is an amazing world that the author dives deep into. The story covers so much and has many interesting characters. While the plot is a little thin, the world is so rich that it is still very exciting to read. There are times where there are main plots hints, but this book is more about setting up the world, getting to know the characters, and not rushing anything. If you were looking for something very expansive, then this is it.
    • 5/5
      I'm not entirely sure what to say about this. It's brilliant (I'm pretty sure), but it's just dense enough that I felt out of my depth reading it, and it kind of felt like swimming in the deep end almost the whole time. Which is weirdly enjoyable, because I haven't been challenged like this in a while. And it's the almost that kept me coming back -- I'd suddenly figure out what was going on and then not be able to tear myself away.

      I did have to take breaks and read a couple of straightforward books in between because trying to figure out what is going on was so tricky. Also philosophy in general makes my teeth itch, but if you're going to play with us, you could do worse than messing about with the 18th c french.

      No I didn't see the ending coming. There was a lot I didn't see coming. I love that the whole shebang felt true to itself and to its own rules. I despair about trying to read the second book because I know I won't remember enough of the first book to even start, and I'm not ready to reread this one soon.

      Extra, extra kudos to your book designer -- beautifully laid out in all the best 18th c ways, and I've handled some of those, so I know of what I speak.

      Grrr, argh. 5 stars for achievement, not necessarily my enjoyment. It's a hell of a book.
    • 3/5
      It took a bit too long for a story that is very definitely unresolved.

      Very interesting ideas. It was cool for it to be pretty thoroughly informed by just the Enlightenment (I loathe Romanticism, and pretty much all German philosophy from Hegel on), albeit only in the titillating way. It was missing all of the scatological humor that I remember from Voltaire and de Sade! I also miss all of the stupid wrong metaphysics of the Enlightenment.

      I also could not get over the sex/gender stuff. I don't think I can just blame Mycroft being a pervert, though that was a lot of it. That's why this is staying at a 3, even though I found it very engrossing and had a lot of trouble sleeping because I was thinking about this book.
    • 5/5
      I'll let the author's note speak for the book: "I wanted it to add to the Great Conversation, to replay to Diderot, Voltaire, Osamu Tezuka, and Alfred Bester, so people would read my book and think new things, and make new things from those thoughts..." Also, her agent and editor "who were excited to find a work about utopia, progress, about the future's growing pains, but not the cataclysm of dystopia that has so dominated recent conversations."

      It is all that and more, including real people, a real world, and a unique voice. It might not be for you, but give it a try.
    • 4/5
      this is an alternate history of our world, a static world becoming unstable, set hundreds of years after ours, that has developed based on the ideas of the French philosophes, with all the political structures, mores, and views on philosophy and religion permeating the culture... and the writing style. it's occasionally infuriating, frequently obfuscating, and radically dystopian (but does the author know it?). it's also a murder mystery, and nobody's psyche is more difficult to penetrate than the narrator's. strip off all the discursions, and it's a planetary-sized murder mystery. also this is part one of two (the second is called Seven Surrenders) with regard to the narrator's story, so it's not solved yet. not for everyone, obviously, and yet.... it's ambitious. and it almost works. let's head into Book 2 to find out.
    • 4/5
      2021 Book #65. 2017. The world 400+ years from now is way different. No nation states, no scarcity, gender-fluid, highly connected. A difficult book to read but ultimately rewarding for the writing, the complicated story, and well developed characters. The first of a series.
    • 5/5
      If I could define Too Like the Lightning in a word, it would probably be "overwhelming".

      That perhaps seems at odds given my rating, but it is fully immersive, carefully thought out and planned, densely written, complex, layered, intelligent, powerful. There aren't a lot of books where I need to stop every few chapters and review my mental notes; this is one of them.

      It's certainly not for everyone, but nothing is, and what is (probably) lacks in pulp appeal it makes up for with lively discussion and intellectual engagement. The plot is surprisingly tight, but it takes awhile to emerge from the heaving morass of humanity as depicted.

      It is something of a setting junkie book, and the plot takes awhile to get going. I was also dubious about the pacing--there's always something jarring to me about a book which takes longer to read than it does to "happen", by which I mean events occur in a matter of days during the novel. Meanwhile it took me weeks to read it.
    • 5/5
      “I think there is no person, myself aside, so hated by the ambitious of this world as Bryar Kosala, since those who fight viciously to grasp the reins of power cannot forgive the fact that she could rise so high and still be nice. Think of Andō struggling make himself the main head of the Mitsubishi hydra, think of Europe’s Parliamentary campaigns, of the glitter and furor of Humanist elections. Bryar Kosala just likes helping people, and is good at running things, and when invited to become the world’s Mom she said, “Sure.” That”in "Too Like the Lightning" by Ada Palmer This novel is nothing more than a description of a future where communities of different enlightened ideas have emerged, building on a common core, creating the opportunity for collaboration, essentially for all of humanity, and ultimately analyzing how it all works.I’ve been wanting to read this novel since it came out in 2016; I’ve put it down with a semi-articulated “faithful-ha” note after reading the last line. I feel like this could be one of SF’s great novels of recent years, with brilliant world creation, stunning prose, in-depth thoughts. The author grasped no less a subject than the Enlightenment, the philosophy of Voltaire, Diderot, and de Sade, the nature of religion and human rights. Placing all this in a 25th century quasi-utopia that Palmer had thought through very carefully. In this world, an automated network of flying cars allows us to get anywhere on Earth in an hour or two. [Believe me, both cars and the people in charge of the network will have a critical role to play. In a large, non-geographically organized community which can be joined by anyone with a personal outlook on life, such as the Humanists, the Utopians, or the Freemasons (not a joke, it's a bloody serious group, a kind of postmodern Roman Patricians and Victorian heroes; there are many similarities between the two]. At the same time, new taboos emerged in the new age: the most important of these were gender and religion. Both are the most sacred private affairs that you are free to practice between the four walls in any form and shape you want, but it is forbidden to even refer to them in public. All this results in a culture whose elements come from the 18th century but It reflects the reality of the twentieth century, or even the dreams of the great thinkers of the age; in other aspects it aims at the exaggerated consequences of today’s trends, being extremely exciting and original. Mycroft is the one who states in the first sentences that he will tell his story in the style of a bygone age and that he will be confused with all sorts of outdated words that he will sometimes lead us astray or lie directly to you. But he does more than that: he quarrels with you and puts words in your mouth, or just praises you for your perseverance. One of his favourite tricks is to use gender-specific pronouns (he / she) in a completely imaginative way: sometimes in a biological sense, sometimes in an ironically amplifying way to certain stereotypes, and sometimes not at all, using the plural (they) in a neutral singular sense. And Mycroft is also able to convince himself that all everything is not an end in itself, but does make sense in depicting the world. If all that weren’t enough, you’ll assume all along that you, dear reader, will live in the future while Mycroft’s the one from the 25th century messaging stuff to you.Mycroft, by the way, is a convicted criminal, the number one public enemy of his time, who’s essentially a slave that can be used by anyone with only the most basic rights. At the same time, because of his irreplaceable knowledge, he revolves in the highest circles and sees into the most secret affairs of the Hives that rule the world. Mycroft’s help is sought, among other things, for the disappearance and inexplicable unearthing of a secret document, but he is also involved in the special events surrounding the company that manages the flying cars already mentioned above. And if that weren’t enough, he takes on the task of raising a boy who can change the world with his abilities. But Mycroft himself is full of mysteries, his past and present motivations forming a maze that matches even the most beautiful intrigues of the secret aristocracy of this world.It is an extremely complex, socio-political philosophical SF novel, which, moreover, does not end here, but will be further complicated in the next volume. Great people (historical and fictional) as well as great thoughts line up on the pages, but the plot is also terribly twisted, sometimes even headachy. But if you love the world of Neal Stephenson’s “Diamond Age”, Hannu Rajaniemi’s unbridled imagination, Dan Simmons ’multifaceted literacy, and Félix J. Palma’s poetic brazenness, this is the book for you.There's still hope for SF. SF = Speculative Fiction.
    • 4/5
      3.5 - 3.75 , though I am not really sure.

      I will be honest - I am not entirely sure what this book is about, even though I have finished it.

      It's an ideas sci-fi book. Far more than technology, it deals with ideas and their real-world implications. Its elegantly, albeit frustratingly written. It is NOT a quick read.

      If I were to be pinned down, I would say this book explores a future with a very interesting philosophy, a world that should be benevolent, but really isn't. This book shows where and how that benevolence falls through and how the underpinning ideas can be fallacious.
    • 1/5
      Reads like ad copy for medieval times. Baffling choice. Sometimes you reach for the stars and end up launching your steam powered rocket to prove the world isn't flat.
    • 5/5
      This is unlike any book you are likely to have read before. On one level, it is a political thriller set in the 25th century. Religion has been abolished. So has the nation state. Instead, people declare their adherence to one of seven 'Hives', which are trans-national and each of which has their own laws, observances, customs and practices. A big part of this novel is about the interplay between those Hives; how crime is dealt with when law is a fluid thing; and how political power and influence can be exercised in such a society. These topics have been looked at before (I most recently experienced it in Neal Stephenson's 'The Diamond Age'); but here the subject is treated seriously and the practical implications of such a change are laid out clearly.On another level, this is an excursion into the Eighteenth Century mind, expressed through the medium of an Eighteenth Century novel. (For the most part. Some of the subject matter would never have been addressed in a novel from the Eighteenth Century. And I don't just mean the science fictional parts.) Politics, fashion, public spectacle, crime and punishment are all influenced by the re-discovered philosophies of the Eighteenth Century. For me, this was an excursion back into my school history. Diderot and the Encyclopaedists! Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Noble Savage! Voltaire and the Enlightenment! The Marquis de Sade! (Well, he wasn't covered in school.) All these got mentions. The fascination with the Eighteenth Century is expressed in the format of the novel. There are asides, diversions to explain this philosophical point or that social nicety. I had been warned about this by other reviews; I didn't find it as disruptive to my reading as I feared.Having said that, the author has mixed things up considerably by deliberately adopting gender-neutral pronouns; partly to show that the future society is situated at a time where such things are both sometimes necessary, and always polite; but also, by having one of their main characters break that particular rule, to help explain the society's mores to us. Having read Anne Leckie's 'Ancillary Sword' series not so long ago, I wasn't too taken aback by this, and indeed began challenging the gender identity of some characters fairly early on, which turned out to be a helpful move on my part.As to the plot: it starts out as the investigation of a theft, a very First World sort of theft. Political influence in this world is gauged by "Seven-Ten Lists", lists published by a number of influential news sources every so often, detailing who is up, who is down, and who are the ones to watch out for. (And anyone who thinks this is unlikely needs to look at the sports pages of their favourite news outlet.) One particular 'bash' (from the Japanese 'basho', used here to denote an extended household with a specific Hive affiliation and a particular high-profile role in the global society) falls under suspicion of being involved in the theft. Investigation shows that they are probably being set up for this crime, but the investigation also uncovers a lot of suspicious activities that point in a very worrying direction. And that's before anyone realises that the bash' is sheltering a strange child with even stranger powers.Characters are interestingly drawn; in keeping with the style of the novel, we are told as much as we are shown. The plot gets quite complex, so much so that as we get towards the end of this first part of the story (there are another three volumes in the series), the author feels it necessary to bring together many of the central characters for an Agatha Christie-like reveal, although in this instance, it's more of a review of how the plot threads have become tangled, and what the characters propose to do to try to untangle them. And the central character, through whom the story is told to an off-stage Reader (and possibly others), is something of an unusual choice. He is a rarity in this world, a mass murderer, who has been sentenced to Servitude; effectively an indentured slave to the whole world, he is at the beck and call of any citizen to do jobs that require people to get their hands dirty, usually in literal ways. For this, he is kept, and fed; but he is unable to hold property or possessions, and has to be on constant call. But his skills are such that the jobs he is called upon to do are a cut above shovelling ordure; he is considered to be one of the finest analytical minds on earth, and so was too important to be put to death. And connected with this character is the child with remarkable powers who seems to be implicated in some sort of change to the world that the Reader lives in but the writer does not.In Britain, we would call this a "Marmite" book; you will either love it or hate it. Personally, I loved it; for the world-building, for the erudition, for the sheer difference of this world from our own. I started reading science fiction to be challenged; and this book certainly achieves that. But this isn't a rip-roaring, action-packed page-turner, and if that is your preference, you should look elsewhere.
    • 2/5
      Starts out packed with interesting ideas, gradually devolves into the author's Enlightment fantasy (super Eurocentric with a tokenistic Japanese presence) and by the end veers completely off the rails into a Renaissance-francophile sexual fantasy. I'm not sure why I read to the end.
    • 2/5
      . . . I held out on deciding whether I liked this book until I finished it, but I still don't know. I guess I'll wait on rating it until I've read the sequel.

      Update, post-sequel: Not for me. In the sequel, the things I didn't like about the first book just got moreso, and the things I liked (worldbuilding, mainly) were less novel and less satisfying in the context of a plot that made me feel miserable.
    • 4/5
      This felt like half of a long book, rather than part one of a two part story. Part 2 is due in Feburary 2017, and I think you'll be happier if you finish this one with that book already in hand.
    • 3/5
      This was a slog, and apparently it's only the first half. I don't much care for the writing style of actual 19th century novels; faking the style and carrying it to the extreme drives me up the wall. The story is good enough that I still want to know where it's going, but ugh.
    • 3/5
      Interesting, but frustrating.

      This reminds me in some ways of a lot of utopian fiction, where the author just wants to describe every details of a world they've invented, but the crime-solving plot and so on make reading about the author's imagined society and political system more interesting than e.g. Huxley's Island.

      However, for me there was just too much going on here. A couple of things I could really have done without were 1) the part where the narrator goes on for two pages about how he could never possibly translate Latin into English for ~reasons~ so the dialogue in the next section will be left in Latin, followed by a note from the "editor" saying "actually I did translate it because it's confusing"; and 2) all the pronoun stuff.

      I mean, I can roll with the general concept that this society refers to everyone as "they" out of prudishness because gendered pronouns remind them of sex, but then the narrator is constantly going "I'll call these characters "he" because of ~reasons~", "I'll call this character "he" so that you know he's a political equal of these other characters", "this character is clearly physically male, but once protected a child so I will use "she" here". It got on my nerves very quickly, and was a pointless additional layer of confusion. I suppose after the brothel stuff, having gender be a taboo subject was somewhat relevant to the plot, but that doesn't happen until well into the book, so I was already too irritated by it by that point for it to seem justified.

      I'm not sure I care enough about how the plot winds up to bother with the second part.
    • 4/5
      I'm treating them as one book since they're the first two of a four volume series. In a world where every destination is no more than an hour away, nations are now determined by affinity rather than borders. Religion and gender are no more, with everyone referred to as "they". Though as the story moves on, both of these tenets are revealed to be false. It's very weird and confusing - I was taking notes - and most of the plot is about political intrigue among world leaders. The future world is interesting and I was interested in what was going to happen to most of the characters. The second book was more of the same, and things got weirder and weirder, with some big helpings of Rand-like political holding forth, and I quit. I went on Wikipedia and read the summaries of the rest of the book and the following one (4th isn't out yet) and am at peace with quitting, though it was fun for a while.One big problem is that I like stories of the fantastic or the future best when they have rules that the characters have to work with and against. In this, there are characters who can literally raise the dead and seem to have no limitations, which makes the whole thing less interesting.
    • 4/5
      This is a fascinating and demanding read. One so complex that I don't find it easy to recommend it without adding a 'but.' It's a very ambitious book with an epic scope and intriguing world building. To like this book, you (probably) must either enjoy Voltaire, the 18th century, philosophy, or all of the above. It feels, at times, like the prose and the way Ada Palmer chose to write this book is more important than the plot itself, and not everyone is willing to put in that kind of work.It plays in a futuristic utopia, maybe dystopia, and is told from the perspective of Mycroft Canner, an unreliable and to a certain extent unlikable narrator. We find ourselves in the 25th century, but Mycroft insists on writing like he time travelled straight from the Age of Enlightenment. Ada Palmer describes this futuristic society in astonishing detail and the characters are fascinating and well developed.This one is definitely for the ambitious science fiction fan, and I'm pretty certain it will benefit from a re-read.
    • 3/5
      Someone please explain this book to me. Although I finished it, the world-building is so all encompassing that the plot was impenetrable. When a world is so fully realized, the new comer, in the shape of the reader, doesn't know what details he or she should be paying attention to. Without sufficient information, I found the plot difficult to follow and the characters hard to care about. If it weren't for a handy police report near the end of the book, I still would be lost.
    • 1/5
      I got over 100 pages in and still didn't have a clue as to what was meant to be going on. The world-building was shambolic, the characterisation lacking, and the breaking-the 4th-wall asides to "dear reader" teeth-grindingly arch. Did not finish.
    • 4/5
      Where to begin & what to say about Too Like the Lightning? I suppose I should begin by saying I liked it. A lot. This future is presented in such a lush way that I am fairly impressed that the author fit so much in 400-odd pages but I'm equally disappointed that I didn't have a back 400-odd to continue on. I'm not afraid of an 800 page tome & I know I'm not alone. The cruelty of waiting for the next installment! I cannot stress enough how much I was hanging on to Guildbreaker's discussion about... oh wait, that would spoil things for you Reader, so let me just say it's a tear your hair out full stop moment & not an ending at all here.

      I admit that this, for me, was all about the world-building and the politics, conspiracy and straight mind-flipping philosophical questions put forth here. I have to admit that I was quite disturbed with how I could see the reasons some of these things were put in motion by one Hive (like a House) or another. What price peace? It seems a global cabal that still hasn't had the entire veil lifted on. I need to say here once more... the wait for the second installment next year is just unfair! On another note, I've been completely disabused of the idea that if we can't trust anyone else, we can trust the mathematicians because they deal in the purity of numbers. Cartesian set-sets, I'm looking at you. Shame!

      Be advised that if you're thinking by the summary that the special child, Bridger will be mainly featured in this story, he's not. Frankly, I must admit that I wasn't sorry as there's so much else going on. I was very captivated by the discussion & hints of the future that must come to be because of the big reveal that must be forthcoming. Mycroft is a great narrator but I did find his breaking of the fourth wall to throw me completely out of scene in the first third. Add to this that the singular "they" kept me at a distance from the characters while I did appreciate the challenge to my mind to think in a genderless way. I have to admit that Mycroft's explication of he or she after stressing the reason for the previous reference to "they" was annoying because I totally could accept the reason for it & happily read on but he just wouldn't leave it. It gave the impression that while he says that sex assignation is not important, it really is. Still, I applaud the author for writing this future history this way and challenging me in the present with how I think. I admit that I'm one who likes to visualise stories as I read them and while I can intellectually let go of gender being important, in my head, I don't see androgeny or genderless sapiens especially when the society is not intended to be made up of them. In this case, I decided that as long as I knew two people were speaking to one another, it didn't matter their gender... unless Mycroft stressed such in fevered italics relating to born with genitalia or prosthetics.

      To sum up, I recommend this. Highly. If you liked I, Claudius by Robert Graves, you'll be good with the style. If you like Kim Stanley Robinson, you'll be good with the world building emphasis. This is an expansive look at a future time and I can't wait to get back to it next year.
    • 3/5
      This is an ambitious book, trying to do a lot of things about philosophy, sex, gender, and the way that those things structure other aspects of our lives. In a future world in which people choose their affiliations, and the laws that apply to them, rather than having them determined by nationality, a theft of an important Who’s Who list threatens to destabilize power. The powerful therefore respond, in part by setting Mycroft Canner to investigate, including at the house where the list turned up—the house of the people who control the millions of aircars that get most of the world’s population from place to place. Canner is a Servicer—someone denied any identity or ability to do things without permission, subject to the commands of anyone who wants him to work for them—because before that, he was a murderer. And not just a murderer: a sadistic serial killer, who inflicted sexual violence on at least one of his victims (who’d loved him) before, during, and after her murder. For reasons that are hinted at, Canner is now apparently incapable of doing direct violence to anyone and at the beck and call of the most powerful people in their respective affiliations. There’s also a child who can make objects like his toy soldiers come to life, and a god, despite the fact that organized religion is illegal outside the Vatican and a reservation in Tibet. Like I said, this is an ambitious book; it was not for me, even before I knew that the narrator was a rapist who was still keeping significant secrets about his crimes.
    • 3/5
      New author using pronouns unconventionally. Owes Ann Leckie for her recent efforts. Not sure yet what I think. The blatant classical and 18th cent, references distracted me, and the innocent godling to be sheltered seems to echo. After all, super powers aren’t all that new in SF. But more readable than the first couple chapters foreshadow and I look forward to the completion volume, so I guess I liked it.
    • 1/5
      It was a struggle to finish this. Having seen glowing reviews from people whose opinions on books I generally trust, I kept thinking I'd eventually find something to redeem it. Sadly, no. The tedium remains throughout the book.
    • 2/5
      I really really wanted to like this book. It seems like it's right up my alley - I'm a historian who likes science fiction, so a future world based on historical philosophy seemed like it would be really awesome.For a while, it was. For the first quarter or so of the book, I was thoroughly enjoying it. The characters were interesting. The world-building was complex in a good way. The boy who could work miracles and bring toys to life seemed a little out of place (is this science fiction or fantasy?) but it was an interesting concept so I was willing to run with it. Then the politics started to get complex. I mean really complex. And not just complex, but totally foreign. The politics are so far removed from anything in our world that it was hard to keep track of why some of the political events mattered, or what their implications were.Then I started to get some of the characters confused, because there are too many of them.Then, totally out of the blue, the book turns out to have some very disturbing scenes of torture, rape, and murder, which are described in way more detail than they need to be, considering that they have (as far as I can tell) nothing to do with the plot. But then again, by that point I had lost track of the plot, because it was so complex that I couldn't understand what was going on, and there were so many different threads that it was hard to tell which ones were important.And it just kept going downhill from there, until I got to the end, which is not an end at all, but a "to be continued." And that boy who can work miracles? Pretty much never comes back into the story, apparently has no effect on the plot, really hard to tell what he's doing there. The main character is also a hard pill to swallow. He's a convict living a life of servitude. But he's also one of the most brilliant people in the world. And he's connected to every single other important person in the book. And they all want him to help them solve multiple mysteries. And he's privy to a bunch of really private, really important information that could make or break the world. And he has this really freaky past. It's just way too much to cram into one character.I usually really like books where the author is ludicrously intelligent and their intelligence comes through. However, in this book, I feel like Ada Palmer is so far beyond anyone else's intellect that it's impossible to follow where she's going. I was so disappointed by this book.
    • 4/5
      Really stellar world-building and juicy characters. The plot becomes a bit convoluted at times, but it left me wanting to read the next book in the 2-part series.
    • 5/5
      I knew absolutely nothing about Too Like The Lightning when I picked it up to read it (well, other than the fact that Tor had sent it to me, so it was presumably sci-fi or fantasy.) It's not often that I encounter books I know nothing about, and ever rarer that I end up really loving them, so it was a very pleasant surprise.It's the twenty fifth century, and Earth has evolved into a kind of utopia where really fast flying cars have made the whole globe accessible, and nations are based on membership rather than geographical location. Our protagonist (as much as he likes to swear that he isn't the protagonist) is Mycroft Canner, a convict sentenced to spend his life being of use to people, and Too Like The Lightning is presented as an in-universe account of events written (mostly) from his point of view. He's also the protector of Bridger, a young boy who can seemingly make all his wishes come true and bring inanimate objects to life. When the house sheltering Bridger becomes the focus of a high-profile theft investigation, it kicks world-changing events into motion, and Mycroft is at the center of it all.I'm not sure where to start – reading this book was like being drawn into a whole new world and I couldn't stop thinking about it for days after I had finished. I don't think I've encountered any future utopias that still involve humanity living primarily on Earth – there's Star Trek, but it involves spaceships and aliens. It seems ambitious because it fills in so many details of the world and how we got there from here. It's not entirely a utopia either, all writing is censored and labeled, the practice of religion is outlawed (it's instead been replaced by an order known as the sensayers, who are kind of like psychologists, philosophers, and priests combined, and talk to people about the existential questions that you can't outlaw), and distinctions between genders are not encouraged. And the people populating the world are different too, as you would expect from a world where scarcity wasn't much of an issue – still very much human, but with unfamiliar values and assumptions. I don't think I've encountered such a cohesive and fascinating world in a long time.I found the writing somewhat pretentious at first. Mycroft is deliberately borrowing heavily from the style of eighteenth century French philosophy, and it seems somewhat incongruous. Plus, he has an irritating habit of occasionally pretending to be the reader reacting to the text. It probably doesn't help that he has a particularly sensational way of looking at the world sometimes – it's pretty clear that it's Mycroft's point of view and not the world itself, though. I got used to it though, in part because the people in the world do seem like real characters (probably because they have the time to be, not having to work all the time.) I'm sure many of the references to Voltaire and Diderot and the Marquis de Sade and Robespierre and the rest went straight over my head, but that didn't prevent me from enjoying the book.There's a pretty large cast of characters, the sensayer Carlyle Foster is probably the most prominent of them, but they're all very memorable. The book itself takes place over only three days, but a lot happens in those days – much of it talking (Too Like The Lightning is classified as political science fiction, so of course there's a lot of politics, which I always love), but none of it is boring. It helps that Mycroft has known most of these people for years and can give us comprehensive introductions to them. The author really takes advantage of the fact that it's presented as an in-universe book to give us information in a natural way. I can't say much else about the plot, it seems to move slowly at first, but there are major payoffs. Also, the book doesn't quite end in a cliffhanger, but you'll be glad that the next book in the duology, Seven Surrenders, comes out this year as well.A couple of minor annoyances – like I said, the writing style bothered me for the while, and some things never stopped bothering me, like bringing up the national heritage of characters all the time as descriptors – for example both Thisbe Saneer and Bryar Kosala's hair was described as "thick Indian hair", I wish my Indian hair was thick! It just seemed like a shortcut to describing the characters, as well as tying the world to present Earth. Also, I guess it matches the eighteenth century France theme, but it seemed like everyone had weird sexual proclivities.
    • 4/5
       Too Like the Lightning: Terra Ignota, Book 1 (2016) and Seven Surrenders (2017) by Ada Palmer. Reading these was occasioned by the CrookedTimber book event on them. One of the participants there describe them as weird. I agree. The novels are set in the year 2454, but refer mainly to ideas and writers from the (18th century) Enlightenment, and are also written in an archaic style. The plot contains implausibilities such as a tiny group of strange and sophisticated leaders largely controlling the world and religious elements. Perhaps these are just part of getting various ideas across, which seems like the goal of the novels, but readers like me are somewhat put off. The books are getting rave reviews, e.g. in the aforementioned book event, but do noe appeal strongly to me. Probably recommended for some, but I do not know who.
    • 2/5
      Clever but not really ground-breaking, Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age did historical sf better