Slow Gods

Claire North’s Slow Gods is a grim look at what happens to far future human societies in the vicinity of a supernova. It’s a novel with a strong literary feel, one that explores a number of very distinct cultures, including a hyper-capitalistic dystopia, a highly artistic society, and lots of others in between.

Early in the story, an ancient AI entity known as the Slow sends messengers to a number of solar systems in the neighborhood of a binary star system. The Slow reveals that it has calculated that in one hundred years, the binary system will collapse and massively supernova, eradicating all life within eighty three light years. They have until then to prepare.

This is a universe with faster than light travel, but FTL comes with a heavy price. Following a recent trend in British space opera, it requires skirting eldritch horrors. The dark of arcspace, the version of hyperspace in this story, can only be navigated by an organic mind. However, doing so is monstrously traumatic, and quickly causes arcspace pilots to go insane. Societies deal with this in a number of waves. Some use volunteers who only pilot a limited number of times and then retire. Others force lobotomized convicts to do it until they die.

Mawukana na-Vdnaze, is born in the Shine, a dystopian nightmare. Caught up in the sweep of a rebellion he had nothing to do with, Maw is arrested and convicted, and finds himself working on a prison planet. When his leg is broken in an accident, his wardens decide to use him as an arcspace pilot. However, the lobotomy machine is broken, so they strap him in the pilot seat with only some drugs to keep him compliant.

On his first trip, something mysterious happens. He dies, but is replaced by “a very poor copy” of himself. He becomes a being who cannot die. One who, at times, becomes “dysregulated”, turns into something dark, not entirely physical, and capable of gruesome killings. Another society finds the ship with him and everyone on board that he has killed. They subject him to numerous tests, but in the end, they find it best to place him on his own private island, where if he has an episode, no one is around to get hurt.

However, Maw in his new incarnation has a capability that can’t be ignored. He can pilot a ship through the dark of arcpsace repeatedly without distress or ill effect. He now welcomes the dark, although he notes that the dark no longer seems interested in him. But his ability leads to him being recruited for a large number of missions. He is often chaperoned by quans, AIs in the form of robots, assigned to monitor him and ensure he stays “regulated.”

One of the missions is to Adjumir, a planet only seven light years away from the supernova. Unlike the Shine, which, although within range of its effects, has reacted by suppressing information about it, Adjumir begins a massive generations long evacuation. Billions are evacuated over the decades. However, when the stars do go supernova and the effects reach Adjumir, eight hundred million are still on the planet and perish.

Maw is sent several years before the supernova. He ends up meeting a person named Gebre and forming a strong connection with ter. ( “Ter” is one of many pronouns used in Adjumir society.) He is sent back to Adjumir on another mission shortly before the supernova wave will hit the planet, and we witness what a society about to die en masse looks like. But this last mission ends up involving something that will have a massive effect on the Shine and other societies in the path of the supernova wave.

Obviously this is pretty grim stuff. And North enhances the tone tremendously with her writing. Anyone who’s read my other reviews knows I’m usually impatient with purple prose, but it mostly works here. Some of it may be that the tale is told in first person from Maw’s viewpoint, so much of the atmospheric description is in his voice, which I think helps. But a lot of it just reflects North’s skill as a writer, a compliment I don’t pay very often.

There were some things I wasn’t completely wild about. We never really get a break from the bleakness. The cultural diversity doesn’t include an example of a more sane capitalist society. There’s a lecture on pronouns. I wonder how necessary all the unpronounceable names were. And the details of the supernova could have benefitted from a tad more research.

None of these were enough to make me stop reading. Overall I enjoyed the book and recommend it, if far future space opera with a tinge of horror is your thing.