![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/TooLikeLightning.jpg?resize=198%2C300&ssl=1\")
Tor Books, \u00a9 May 2016\nISBN 9780765378002
\nHardcover, 432 pages, $11.42<\/p>\n
Tor Books, \u00a9 May 2016
\nISBN 9780765378002
\nHardcover, 432 pages, $11.42<\/p>\n
Several hundred years in the future, Earth\u2014and human civilization\u2014is completely unrecognizable. Religion has been outlawed. Gender pronouns are eradicated, as is a binary gender system. Select criminals are no longer imprisoned. Instead, they are put to work as Servicers in whatever capacity best benefits society. Cars fly. In fact so many cars fly at breakneck speed through Earth\u2019s skies that they have to be controlled by overarching tracker systems to eliminate the crashes; but this technology allows humans to live in one land and work in another even halfway around the world, and commute every day. Countries and nationalities are gone, replaced by Hives. People\u2019s homes are communal. In this global culture, royalty has returned, and politics reign supreme.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s one individual in this setting that doesn\u2019t fit the mold, a young child who possesses the ability to bring things to life\u2014toys, pictures, the dead. His very presence holds the potential to upset the precarious balance of culture and society. Only a few know of his existence, and they intend to keep it that way for as long as possible.<\/p>\n
The worldbuilding in Lightning<\/em> is extraordinary, the prose outstanding, the characterizations compelling. Palmer has woven a mighty, complex web here and absolutely deserves the Hugo nomination her tale received.<\/p>\n However, I did not finish the book. There are a number of issues that confused me as a reader (such as the fact that the narrator adds back in gender associations in random fashion, even though the rest of the story does not use them). But I think it was the political convolutions that did me in on the plot. Which is weird. I adored Dune and all<\/em> the books that followed in that saga (at least the eight or ten I read). However, I couldn\u2019t follow Lightning<\/em>\u2019s Gordian thread. At 51% of the way through the novel, I still had no clue what the heck was going on. I wanted to understand it. I tried to understand it. But in the end, I have a very limited amount of time to dedicate to reading, and this just wasn\u2019t worth it to me\u2014especially when I read in another review (trying to find out if was just me) that this is book one in The Terra Ignota series, and that nothing really gets resolved in Lightning<\/em>. It\u2019s all set-up.<\/p>\n So at slightly more than half-way through, I set it aside and moved on to something else. I am clearly not a member of its intended audience, but that takes nothing away from its merit.<\/p>\n Now. All that said, please please<\/em> don\u2019t give this book a pass based solely on my opinion. Look at other reviews before you decide (here\u2019s one<\/a>; here\u2019s another<\/a>) or, better yet, borrow it from the library and try it out yourself. Plenty of other readers rave about this story, although not one I\u2019ve seen will say it\u2019s an easy read. It\u2019s work. This is a heavy story, laden with meaning that is building to something massive. Hence the weighty narrative. And if that\u2019s your thing, Lightning<\/em> might be right up your alley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tor Books, \u00a9 May 2016 ISBN 9780765378002 Hardcover, 432 pages, $11.42 Several hundred years in the future, Earth\u2014and human civilization\u2014is completely unrecognizable. Religion has been outlawed. Gender pronouns are eradicated, as is a binary gender system. Select criminals are no longer imprisoned. Instead, they are put to work as Servicers in whatever capacity best benefits…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8n0kX-39","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4674,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/26\/gender-queer\/","url_meta":{"origin":195,"position":0},"title":"Gender Queer","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"July 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"By Maia Kobabe and Phoebe Kobabe Oni Press, \u00a9 2019 ISBN: 9781549307515 Paperback 240 pages Reading age: 18 years and up I loved this story. 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