Full Details
WoGF Review: The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord
Steven M. Long (Stevenmlong) is a writer and editor who blogs about the literary world of speculative fiction at stevenmlong.com and the rest of it (superheroes, aliens, online gaming and general silliness) at foesofreality.com. Blogging allows him to pretend that reading books and magazines and surfing speculative fiction sites constitutes “work.”
When I sat down to write this review I stumbled a little over how to categorize The Best of All Possible Worlds. Speculative fiction… yes… but it’s also a road novel, a sociological study, and (this came as something of a surprise) quite a good romance. The title of course made me think of Candide, and though I’d only go so far in drawing parallels it was hard not to see the novel in terms of the growth and choices of its lead character.
The primary narrative is that of Grace Delarua, a minor bureaucrat on the planet of Cygnus Beta, which serves as a gathering point for a myriad of cultures, a “galactic hinterland for pioneers and refugees.” To this world comes Dllenahkh, a Sadiri, whose planet has been destroyed and whose people are trying to find a new home and a way to preserve their culture. Together, along with a team sanctioned by both the government of Cygnus Beta and the Sadiri, they go on a year-long expedition to locate remnants of the Sadiri culture and people that have over time settled on Cygnus Beta, in hopes of finding enough cultural and genetic (there are more Sadiri men than women) elements to preserve the Sadiri race and and way of life.
