This is a great book. It’s not an easy book to read, and it definitely isn’t a book that’s going to appeal to a wide range of readers, but its great all the same. So good in fact, that I’m frankly amazed that any commercial publishing house even considered publishing it.

But let’s rewind and get into the specifics…

Firstly, this isn’t a complete story, its book one in the Terra Ignota series, but it doesn’t end with anything resembling a natural climax, no big action sequence, no terrible cliff-hanger to make you want more, it just gets to a certain length and then it ends. I haven’t read the second book in the series yet, but my guess right now, is that this is a single million word length novel that has had to be divided up for practicalities sake.

DO I LIKE HOW IT ENDS? – Not so much.

Secondly, its complex. But this isn’t just a complex storyline, or world setting, or narrative style. Nope, each of these factors is complex and each builds on the complexity. So, for example, the story is set in the future, on earth, after all the recognisable social institutions like family have broken down and been replaced. As a consequence there is a whole new vocabulary expressing relationships. At the same time, the world has moved beyond notions of gender (for better or worse) resulting in many characters being described using the different and sometimes confusing pronouns that becoming increasingly popular in today’s society, and of course on top of all that, humanity has also reached the point where biology and psychology can be easily manipulated or changed which results in a number of characters leading distinctly novel or ‘trans-human’ lifestyles.

The world setting is of course impacted by many of the changes mentioned, and as this book is in part about the socio-economic impact of certain events on the institutions of the day, the world setting adds another significant layer of complexity.

Then of course, there is the narrative style, told mostly in the first person by one of the characters that was involved in the events as they took place, but told from that characters own future, in effect how they remember the events taking place, with some preceding events being relayed as more distant memories, and all occasionally mixed up with the odd ‘guest’ narrative belonging to other characters that were involved, many of whom pass comment upon the first narrators style and narrative choices.

Its incredible…. and exasperating… but mostly incredible!

WHAT DOES ALL THIS RESULT IN? Discomfort and confusion

Confusion. A deliberate, ultra realistic level of confusion. There are no compromises in Ada Palmers writing, so if one character is commonly known by a Japanese nickname to his Japanese friends, a different nickname by his adoptive parents, several more names or titles by the press or other people in society, acronyms and secret names by others figures, then all these names are used interchangeably, and consistently by the different figures which that character encounters.

Now, this might all sound like the author is just being terribly pretentious, and showing off their smarts, but I don’t think that’s the case, because the characters are all well described and unique, making their relationships with one another, their pet names and nicknames seem normal, just like the many names we all have, which are used interchangeably and naturally by friends and family, work colleagues and institutions.

IS THE WORLD ENGAGING? Yes, made all the more so because its credible!

Yes, without question. There are some aspects that don’t seem as realistic, which may have been added for plot convenience. Things like the prevalence of flying cars, which are used ubiquitously by all members of society, for all types of meetings or discussions, usually in preference to telecommunications, which do evidently also exist, but if some of these futuristic developments don’t quite ring true, then that’s all they do, there aren’t any obvious anachronisms or jarringly fake technologies.

WHAT ABOUT THE STORY? Enjoyable, but not easy!

Well, again the story is more realistic in tone and nature than many sci-fi stories, so this isn’t going to appeal to readers who like their sci-fi full of lasers, missiles and conflict, this is much more like the political elements of Dune, or the long setup to an Ian M Banks Culture novel.

SO, WHO IS IT FOR, AND WILL I BE READING BOOK 2 IN THE SERIES? It’s for those readers who like a story to make them think, and Yes, but not just yet.

In simple terms, this is a book for those lovers of ‘old school’ sci-fi that crave the most speculative and novel of storylines. Its not going to appeal to like their sci-fi fast paced and thrilling, though if you like William Gibson, Ian M Banks, Frank Herbert, Ursula K LeGuin or Isaac Asimov, then this could well be for you.

It’s character driven, emotionally charged, but not sensational… mostly.

I am concerned that while Too Like the Lightning has set things up brilliantly, subsequent books in the series may fail to follow through. But that’s true of almost any series I read. As such, while I will read book 2 ‘The Seven Surrenders’. I’ll probably leave it for a while until I’ve found something good to fall back on, just in case its needed,

FINAL THOUGHTS

As a lover of ‘old school’ speculative fiction and sci-fi, if this story continues as well as it started, then this series will quickly become known as a classic. But right now, I’m just relieved that books like this are still being published by commercial publishing houses. Keep ’em coming!

REVIEWED BY PETER KNYTE
Peter is the author of of the Flames of Time archaeological adventure trilogy, and the Glass Darkly Dieselpunk series amongst others.