Book Review: The Jewel and Her Lapidary by Fran Wilde
Fran Wilde’s debut novel Updraft was a New Weird Secondary World story about growing up, finding one’s place in the world, and soaring on the winds around towers of bone. Her newest effort, The Jewel and Her Lapidary, shows how broad her talents are with a story about the end of empire, and how the last member of a dynasty comes to terms with her world’s destruction and transformation, and what she can find deep inside to survive. The world of The Jewel and Her Lapidary is of a remote valley kingdom where members of the royal family, together with their lapidary courtiers who complete the design needed to be able to make use of the magical jewels, have long stood in safe isolation. When greed and betrayal shatter that protection, and the valley is overrun, the jewels that hid the valley, and the palace, and could move mountain and river are no longer defenders and tools, but prizes to be won.
Book Review: Binary by Stephanie Saulter
Several years after the events of Gemsigns (see my review here at Skiffy and Fanty), the integration of Gems into society has continued. The violent spasm of reaction to Gems in the form of the godgangs has given way, some years later, to society seeking methods to harness the talents the Gems have in modern society. It hasn’t always been smooth, or easy, but society and people have started to move on and grapple with the consequences of the aftermath of the fateful Conference and the Declaration arising from it. As in Gemsigns, however, both Aryel Morningstar, leader of the Gems, and the industrialist Zavcka Klist find their paths crossing. However, rather than being overt adversaries, Klist has a proposition for Morningstar, an offer of a collaboration of talents and skills. Klist’s proposition is to use the power of a certain Gem to explore the infotech technologies that had been abandoned in the wake of the Syndrome over a century ago. That Gem, Harran, with extraordinary power to connect to computers on a fundamental level, might be just the Gem to lead the effort into exploring infotech, and safely. However, when delving into computers, and ancient records, sometimes dark and long forgotten secrets are discovered. Secrets of the past of Aryel Morningstar … and secrets of Zavcka Klist as well.
Book Review: Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter
The price of humanity’s use of computing technology was high. The Syndrome caused degenerative physiological and neurological problems to an ever increasing amount of humanity. The wired age, as we in the 21st century might know, meant a radical change in humanity. Even as genetic engineering came up with cures for The Syndrome, the sheer amount of labor and effort needed to keep the world going during the transitional period meant that a different sort of genetically engineered being was needed. Beings designed who could lift more, think more, do more, to keep society functioning even as the world came to grips with the fallout from The Syndrome. Called Gems, after a century of propping up the world, these beings are no longer necessary for the functioning of society, but how can humanity keep them in shackles? And what rights does a superhuman being designed in a test tube really have? Or should have? These issues come to a head in Gemsigns, the debut novel by Stephanie Saulter.
