Of White Ravens, Golden Spiders, and Near-Miss Disasters - A Review of The Wrong Stars

[kamreadsandrecs]

The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This review is based on an ARC given to me by the publisher, Angry Robot Books. This does not in any way affect my review.

This novel is slated for release on November 7, 2017.

I have a confession to make: I came late - very late - to the Firefly bandwagon. When the series first came out in 2002 I was deeply involved in other fandoms, but even when its popularity resurged after Serenity was released, I took a long while to finally make my way to it. When I did, though, it was immediately clear to me why it had the following it did, and why it continues to be popular today, long after the series ended and the movie was released. While the concept and storyline are certainly quite good, it’s the characters that really explain why the series caught on as it did and remains, to this day, much-beloved in SFF circles. To be sure, they are not without their problems (mostly because the show was cut far too short for any solid character development to happen), but for the most part, the Serenity’s wisecracking, somewhat amoral, internally-broken, but intensely loyal found family was - is - the franchise’s beating heart.

Since then, I’ve been on the lookout for a story (not specifically sci-fi) that plays with similar themes, and I’ve been lucky to find it, to a greater or lesser degree, elsewhere: for example, in Scott Lynch’s Gentlemen Bastards series, and in Foz Meadows’ Manifold Worlds duology, as well as in Bioware’s Mass Effect video games. It’s a quality I always look out for, because while there is nothing wrong with romantic relationships, I have a great appreciation for stories that focus on platonic and filial relationships - especially if it’s about building one’s own family, instead of relying exclusively on one’s blood relations.

Because of this preference, it was the description of the crew and its seeming similarities to the crew of the Serenity that drew me to Tim Pratt’s The Wrong Stars. The story focuses on the crew of the White Raven, who, led by their captain Kalea “Callie” Machedo, do some mostly clean (but not always) work for the Trans-Neptunian Authority. Sometimes, they play by the rules, and other times, well…the law has always been pretty flexible in the outer reaches of the solar system, and that suits Callie and her people just fine.

So when they discover a ship that’s hundreds of years old and looks abandoned, they decide to claim salvager’s rights on the thing and open it up. When they do so, however, they find that the ship isn’t abandoned - there is a cryopod inside, and the woman in it comes bearing news: humanity has made contact with alien life. When Callie breaks the news that aliens are actually already old news, the woman clarifies that she encountered a very different type of alien - something far more dangerous than the ones Callie and her people are familiar with.

The first thing readers need to know about this novel is that it is very much an adventure story, in the same vein as the new Star Trek movies, with certain similarities to other recent sci-fi shows like The Expanse (which itself is based on a series of novels of the same title) and perhaps video games like Mass Effect. It is also very much plot-driven, so for some readers it may feel like things happen to the characters, as opposed to because of them, and this may put them off from reading this novel. Other readers, however, may be all right with this, or may even prefer it.

Though the individual characters do not necessarily get strong individual arcs, their relationships with each other are actually quite well-written, and indeed, that is one of the things I love most about this novel. I may have mentioned elsewhere that I am a sucker for clever characters and witty dialogue, and this novel definitely delivers in spades - but even better is how it uses that dialogue to tie the characters together. Take this for example:

”It’s a mystery. Mysteries are great. Let’s peel it open and see if it’s wrapped around an enigma.”

“I hate mysteries,” … “You always think it’s going to be a box full of gold, but usually it’s a box full of spiders.”

… “And yet you always end up opening the lid, don’t you?”

“What can I say?” … “I like gold more than I hate spiders.”

Now, while this set of dialogue is quite fun on its own (not least because of the twist on the Winston Churchill quote), what makes it even more enjoyable is that it doesn’t stand in isolation - it is referenced by the characters later on. For example, the above conversation is referenced a little later on in the story, as shown below:

”… I’m a little curious to find out what’s in this box myself.”

“Spiders or gold, spiders or gold,” …

“… It’s like you never even consider the possibility of golden spiders.”

Even further into the story it is referenced again, but I will not mention how because it is tied to a spoiler. Either way, I really like how this works, because it hints at long-standing relationships between characters when they share such conversations. After all, a conversation can easily become an inside joke, which morphs and changes as it is told in the context of a relationship over the years, never becoming old and tired, but instead something familiar: a touchstone for people who share it.

Of course, none of this would actually work if the characters were not interesting, and fortunately the characters are very much that. It is difficult to talk about them without giving away too much, mostly because there are certain aspects to them that are best experienced in-story, but suffice to say they are a fascinating bunch. Some get more airtime that others, but since this is the first book in the series I hope to see more of the others eventually.

Another thing I like about this novel is how it attempts to incorporate and address issues pertinent to contemporary, real-world problems. The characters, for instance, are diverse - not just racially, but also in terms of their gender identity and sexual preference. Even better, most of these things are mentioned in passing instead of lingered upon, as if such details are nothing more than facts that the reader needs to know about a character in order to develop a better understanding of said character, but otherwise does not require additional comment or explication. Certainly no one in the world of the novel questions why Callie, who is a woman described has having dark skin and curly hair, is the captain of the White Raven. Nor does anyone question why a character prefers to use “they” as a personal pronoun; no one makes a big deal out of it either. And when tackling romantic relationships, more concern is placed on issues of trust and consent than on gender and sexual preference - which is as it should be, as misplaced trust and lack of consent are issues that trouble all relationships, romantic or otherwise, regardless of the gender and sexual preference of the people involved.

As I have mentioned elsewhere, this is something I would like to see more of in the stories I encounter across media: the normalisation of identities. While certain stories can and do benefit from highlighting these different identities and making them crucial to the plot, there are plenty of other stories where such highlighting is unnecessary - and this is one of them. After all, in a far-flung future when humanity has started to venture out into the stars and is encountering other sentient beings entirely, making a huge deal out of a person’s preferred pronouns is really making a mountain out of a molehill.

Another theme the novel touches upon is related to colonisation - specifically, the effects of having an entire people’s history and cultural memory practically erased:

[They] had long subjugated us in body, but by erasing our histories, they subjugated our wills, too. We were broken. …

…

“Your people were enslaved. The spirit of rebellion was literally cut out of you, and even though you’ve been free for a long time, your minds aren’t free. You’re still suffering under all that conditioning. …”

This is a topic that I am especially drawn to, mostly because what is described above is a fairly common experience for a lot of countries that were former colonies. Oftentimes, the colonisers do a very good job eliminating anything related to a country’s precolonial culture, and what they cannot eliminate they demonise.

This double-pronged attack on a colonised people’s native culture can result in a near-total destruction of native identity, as was - is - the case in my own country. When people wonder why Filipinos cannot seem to move forward from the various social, cultural, political, and economic ruts we seem to be stuck in, I sometimes think that it’s because we have very little sense of our history and cultural memory. So we fill in the gap by believing the stories others tell about us, that our colonisers told to us, and cling to them even when letting them go would be much, much better. It is as Jose Rizal said: a person who cannot see where they have come from, will never get where they want to go. But what happens when that past is all but erased? What if there is barely anything to see, because so much of it has been destroyed? How does a person - a people as a whole - move forward after that? This book does not offer an answer to that question - or at least, not one that is applicable to a real-world situation. But it does not need to, I think; it’s more important that it asks the question at all, because if a question goes unasked, then it will always go unanswered.

Overall, The Wrong Stars is an entertaining sci-fi read in the vein of Firefly and, to a degree, the new Star Trek films. This is a very plot-driven story and so the characters don’t have strong individual character arcs, but the way they interact with each other is still thoroughly enjoyable and may make up somewhat for the lack of strong individual development. Additionally, this novel tries to address what happens to a people when their entire history and identity as a cultural group is completely erased - something that has happened, and to a degree is still happening, to cultural groups all around the world. Hopefully the series will continue to explore that idea, and others besides, in later books.