pageturner_mb@bookwyrm.de reviewed Les Dieux lents by Catherine Webb
A sprawling outer-space speculation that feels like the present state of the future far far away.
4 stars
Late to the party again, as the only other book I've read from Claire North was "84K", a "1984" meets "Black Mirror" dystopia. Now "Slow Gods" is something else entirely: A space opera in deep time with extraterrestrials, god-like AI, supernovae, fascist regimes, immortals, and many many genders.
The narrator approaches a similar divine status being reborn many times by advanced technology (?), trying to save civilizations, memory, and love (yes love). So despite the immense scale and levels of strangeness this is down to earth (well, down to way-beyond-earth), in details I liked a lot.
If you put space opera on a scale where "Ender's Game" occupies one pole, then "Slow Gods" is far remote on the other side. Not the least due to considerations of philosophy, class, suffering, and diversity. Even the god-like characters are somewhat empathic and almost believable.
Late to the party again, as the only other book I've read from Claire North was "84K", a "1984" meets "Black Mirror" dystopia. Now "Slow Gods" is something else entirely: A space opera in deep time with extraterrestrials, god-like AI, supernovae, fascist regimes, immortals, and many many genders.
The narrator approaches a similar divine status being reborn many times by advanced technology (?), trying to save civilizations, memory, and love (yes love). So despite the immense scale and levels of strangeness this is down to earth (well, down to way-beyond-earth), in details I liked a lot.
If you put space opera on a scale where "Ender's Game" occupies one pole, then "Slow Gods" is far remote on the other side. Not the least due to considerations of philosophy, class, suffering, and diversity. Even the god-like characters are somewhat empathic and almost believable.