| Title | : | Rapture (Bel Dame Apocrypha, #3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1597804312 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781597804318 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 392 |
| Publication | : | First published November 1, 2012 |
| Awards | : | Locus Award Best SF Novel (2013), Gaylactic Spectrum Award Best Novel (2013) |
Not everyone likes this tenuous and unpredictable "peace," however, and somebody has kidnapped a key politician whose death could trigger a bloody government takeover. With aliens in the sky and revolution on the ground, Nyx assembles a team of mad magicians, torturers,and mutant shape-shifters for an epic journey across a flesh-eating desert in search of a man she's not actually supposed to kill.
Trouble is, killing is the only thing Nyx is good at. And she already left this man to die...
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Rapture (Bel Dame Apocrypha, #3) Reviews
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“People keep saying I’m a bel dame, but I’m not. Haven’t been in over twenty years. I’m just a woman… And you lied to me.”
Rapture defies easy explanation. It reminds me of watching a woman give birth, or or revenge sex, or even–dare I say it–of my current musical obsession,
Disturbed’s acoustical version of The Sound of Silence. There is something that is simultaneously brutal, messy, fundamental and life-affirming that cuts to the core.
After the events of
Infidel: Bel Dame Apocrypha, Nyx has retired to the coast, hidden in a house with Anneke and her brood of children. It’s a life of sorts, although she still isn’t able to avoid an occasional death. One evening, a government official and familiar face comes calling with an offer to return to the bel dames, if she’ll only take this one last job. It is a premise familiar to anyone familiar with retired heroes, but this is Nasheenian, and every offer comes with an implied threat: Nyx knows the only route to safety–and not even a sure one at that–is a scorched-earth policy.
“Nyx went upstairs. Opened the bedroom door. There sat her lover, Radeyah, sketching the view of the sea from the balcony on a foolishly expensive slide that devoured each stroke. She was joyously lit up in that moment like a woman at peace with God.”
With her usual complex ambiguity, Nyx continues to deny sentiment and tenderness while committing unrelenting brutality to protect it. Hurley always does something amazing with character, and I found myself sympathizing with almost everyone at times. Three people from
God's War
(my review) return and are followed in three seemingly separate story lines, There’s an additional appearance by a nameless, deadly woman who brings in a scene of awkward foreshadowing. For most of the book, the three attempt to manage their own issues; Rhys, managing a hardscrabble existance; Inaya leading shifter revolution; and Nyx’s mission to retrieve a certain man. It takes most of the book before they are fully woven together.
“‘You don’t have to kill everyone.’ She enjoyed bickering for bickering’s sake, like a child. He was nearly twenty-one now, and her shrill, seventeen-year-old fury felt like something half-remembered from a lifetime ago.”
Interestingly, though the final (?) book in the trilogy, the world of Umayma continues to be developed, held up and angled so that we meet the Drucians, and see The Wall at the end of the desert (which reminded me too much of LeGuin) and lingering First Family/intergalactic politics. The politics didn’t feel as organically brought in, largely feeling unfinished. I don’t doubt that there is a coherent background conception as much as I mistrust that they are conveyed to the reader in a cohesive fashion. The politics this time are something else, and while they incite the mission, they play a massive role in the ending. It feels a bit uneven and rough.
It it an amazing story, but suffers at times from uneven pacing. That didn’t stop me from reading, however, and it won’t stop me from re-reading. Or from becoming a
Patreon for Hurley’s work, because, wow: it wallows in all the messy, organic body fluids of humanity while struggling to keep an eye on God.
“They were the ones who’d done what she hadn’t, and what most living folks never would–they lost their limbs, their skins, their sanity to take a burst or a bullet for a friend, for a squad, to save a mission. Those were the ones she worried about most. The heroes. Heroes were unpredictable.“ -
Do you like meat grinders?
I won't lie. This is a difficult book to read. It's not so much filled with blood, guts, and bugs, (although it has plenty,) but it's the omnipresent oppressive machine of this world that grinds everyone down into so much pulpy protein.
As a SF, Hurley's work is very, very imaginative and rich, never resting on old ideas to pump out new stories.
She steadfastly brings in some of the most promising and far-reaching and immediate settings, and they're so damn real that I swear I have to reset my filter... a bunch of locusts keep messing with my hair.
Most impressively, though, is the devotion Hurley has to tackling all the deepest and darkest niches of our everyday lives, including family vs duty, team vs self, religion vs reality, hard choices vs sanity, and most importantly, it's a never-ending discussion about what comes after love and loss. Of course, the same thing could be said about the whole world, here, but its the individual characters who suffer, and by god, everyone suffers.
The fleeting moments of happiness are few and in general the tone is always one of stoic acceptance, so we don't absolutely have to roll in all the excised organs, tongues replaced with a symbiotic bugs, or the fact that every gift comes with three or four fatal strings attached.
But they do.
God, these are very oppressive books.
Impressive, and gorgeous in their way, with amazingly deep character studies and worldbuilding, but these novels are definitely not easy. (The writing is fine. I'm only referring to the subject matter.)
I can respect this one along with the other two in the series, but I must confess, it's almost too much for me. Idea speculation is the trade of SF, but there's two sides to it. There's the question and there's the answer. Putting all these idea elements together into a novel and then offering up this world makes a wonderfully complex stew, but the only thing I take away is that life is hard and things are complex.
In other words, this is a reflection of real life.
Okay, so I don't live being beset by aliens in a war-ground with shapeshifters and magicians with everyone around me mired in the fallout of a holy war, but the similarities are everywhere, regardless.
It takes a grand imagination to pull that off.
But here's where I find issue with it: Perhaps I didn't want to be shown a world hopelessly tied up in its crazy with no real solution. Character studies don't need solutions, but more often than not, a world-building SF generally gives us some sort of drastic change in the setting. (Something more than a shapeshifter revolution or a resumption of civil war. All of that has been practically the norm. I keep thinking of a real resolution that's unusual for these people. Like prosperity. Like real peace. As it is, I just feel sad for them.) *sigh*
Still, it was a very impressive ride. -
A few years have passed and Nyx is back at it again. One of my favourite characters ever written. Just so cool, perfect amount of action and great plotting. This wasnt as good as books 1 and 2, felt like it was needing an ending, but little too forced. Dont think there's any plans to re-visit this world, but from these 3 novels, it requires a larger audience.
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2020 PopSugar Reading Challenge
The first book you touch on a shelf with your eyes closed
A book with a made up language (ok so I'm really stretching it for this prompt because while everyone speaks a different made up language from each other based on the regions they live in, the author didn't make up any words. So we never get to see what those languages look like, but fuck it. I'm counting it. If I ever finish LoTR (I'm stuck at 50%) this year I'll use that one instead.)
😭😭😭 I am not ready to leave this world behind. Nyx is one of my all time favorite characters and I'm not ready for her story to be over 💔
I love how everyone's story wrapped up. And, as always, Hurley made choices that were so bold and so against what you would expect. I even loved the ambiguous ending. It totally left it open for more stories in this world but I know Hurley is probably so done with these characters and this world 😫.
The plot was simpler than the plots of the previous books in the series, but it worked for me. And the simple plot was offset by the amazing expansion of the world and all the amazing characters.
The only thing I wish would have been explained in more detail was wtf was going with Isabet 🤔🤨 -
I really enjoyed this, I think it's my favourite Nyx book.
Okay, there are oodles of bugs; in the ear, head, ground... heck everywhere. Wait to see what happens to dead people, ew. We have never had a history of the world, moons or the innate biology and having finished I've discovered that I'd like this. Particularly of the early settlement.
Nyx is living peacefully, in a family set up. She has mellowed, found reason for life, retired to all intents and purposes. Sadly, this is the reason she returns to work. So, new crew, new mission, new geography. Of course, previous characters return and have their own adventures.
Death, torture, betrayal are once again themes. One death took me by surprise, to the point where it was over before I'd accepted that it had happened. Sob. I feel the book ends in a satisfactorily upbeat manner. Various survivors continue with their lives, their goals. As for Nyx, well read the book and see for yourself. -
And it's been another good few years since the events of
Infidel and the years have been even less kind to Nyx. Although as things begin, she's settled into a sort of semi-retirement on the coast.
But we're not here to read 400 pages about her peaceful post-bounty-hunting existence, so she gets offered one more job that she can't refuse (or at least that she doesn't refuse, although she might've wanted to). And then she leads a new team (with one or two familiar faces) on an even more brutal journey than we've seen before.
Separately, Rhys and Inaya from previous books are experiencing their own unravelings and setting off down paths that will eventually cross with Nyx's in unexpected ways at unexpected points.
This was not a fun book -- the world is grim and bad things happen to people who don't deserve them. (And, occasionally, to people who do deserve them.) But it was a compelling one that showed more of the world than we'd seen before, and even started to unveil some of the history of how people ended up in such a messed-up environment to begin with. -
http://www.rantingdragon.com/review-o...
It has been two years since Kameron Hurley shocked the science fiction community with her debut novel God’s War. Now, Hurley’s blood-soaked trilogy has come to an end with the novel, Rapture. Does Hurley end the trilogy with a flourish or a whimper? The answer cannot easily be heard under the rousing applause that Rapture deserves. Rapture is one of those rare beasts of a novel that marries together beautifully gritty characters, soul-stirring moral implications, and a complex world.
With a quaint ocean-side home, a doting lover, and a gaggle of kids to look after, Nyx thought she had finally found peace. But with all the blood that Nyx has spilt, she should have known that running away would not be that easy. The Bel Dames, a group of government assassins, have convinced her to come out of retirement and take on one more bounty. Nyx knows that she cannot do this bounty alone, so she hires a cadre of shifty mercenaries to help her. In the shadows of Nyx’s journey, revolutions are brewing and peace is on a knife’s edge.
The characters come full circle
It has been a long and brutal journey for Nyx and her cohorts. Every friend killed and every corpse burned has taken a tremendous emotional and physical toll on the cast. Rapture is when each character must answer for both their triumphs and their follies; they cannot simply sweep their actions under the rug. The internal struggles the main characters have to go through elevate this novel above mere fiction into something we can all learn from, with the message of the past coming back to haunt you ringing true. Sometimes, when you mess up, there is not redemption waiting on your doorstop or a shoulder to cry on because you forsook it years ago.
Upheaving expectations
One of the most enthralling things about Rapture—and the entire Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy—is how adroitly Hurley lays bare our own societal norms and expectations. All of the current hot-button issues are on transparent display here: same-gender relationships, female sexuality, religion, and morality. Although Hurley seems be on the liberal half of the political spectrum, she is more than willing to show both sides of the argument. Of course, this may ruffle a few readers’ literary feathers because she includes both the good and the bad. This is part of what makes Rapture such an engaging novel—it forces the reader to be uncomfortable with its fearsome honesty. It forces us to reevaluate our thoughts on various issues, regardless of which section of the sociopolitical spectrum we call home.
Those sure are a lot of viewpoints
There is something to be said about being too ambitious. In this case, Rapture sports a rather large cast of point-of-view characters for a fairly slim novel. For the most part, this lengthy POV list is not bothersome when it comes to the returning cast, as they are already nicely developed from the previous novels. It becomes a hindrance instead with the new characters introduced in Rapture. Overall, the new characters are well-developed but at many times are their motivations muddled—and some characters just seem like walking plot conveniences.
Why should you read this book?
Novels like Rapture only come every once in a while, piercing through readers’ corporeal forms and straight into their souls. That being said, Rapture, and the entire Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy, is not for everyone. Its brutal slant on multiple subjects may rub some readers the wrong way, its cast is not likeable in the heroic sense, nor is there much closure. But for those who want to be challenged by the novels they read, I implore you to look no further than Rapture. -
Well, Hurley ends the series with a bang to be sure. 7 years have passed since the last installment in the series, and Nyx, retired so to speak, lives with a friend and her family just outside of Nasheen. Nyx is paid a visit by a diplomat she once bodyguarded who asks her to come back to Nasheen for a deal with the Bel Dams. She is also told the war between Nasheen and Chenja is over, and the returning soldiers in Nasheen are creating conditions for a civil war. It seems Nasheen is in serious trouble, and Nyx is told she can help save the day.
Nyx, older but perhaps not wiser, realizes that she really has no choice but to return, because if one person can find her, so can others, and her friends and lover would be in danger if she stays. We are also introduced to some new characters, including a 'conjurour', a magician in a way, but much more powerful. We know somehow Nyx and the conjurour will meet up, but not when. Nyx opens a storefront and starts to amass a new team to start a new quest-- retrieve her old boss Raine and then rival from peoples unknown. Her team is joined by a few Bel Dams assigned to help her in her quest...
Like the previous volume
Infidel, we are largely taken out of Nasheen, this time into the far north-- basically the outskirts of civilization, or so Nyx thinks. Her team is once again filled with some very interesting characters, including eventually some old teammates from previous volumes. Can Nyx save the day once more? What would that even mean?
Hurley takes us on an action adventure that is decidedly grim and full of surprises, both in events and characters. We learn a lot more about the world and how it was founded 3000 years ago, as well as other human civilizations in the cosmos along the way, paving the way for more volumes in this space. Nyx, still hard as nails, is still something of an enigma-- what does she really want? Can she even love something? Can she ever find happiness? The speculations on the human condition once again brew just beneath the surface, making this more than just an action-adventure series. As more mysteries are reveals, more questions arise. If you have followed this series thusfar, you should not be let down. 4 solid stars!! -
4 Stars
Rapture, the final book of the Bel Dame Apocrypha is a good concluding story to a remarkable series. I had problems with this book, and it is the weakest of the three books. There are far too many POV’s in this read and there is little pay off in it. Couple this with the fact that the first two books did not share this problem, it really stood out. This third book had the least amount of character development excluding Eshe. It had far less bugs, less, magic, and less action over all. That is not saying that this isn't a dark read. It goes places that the first two books did not even go and that will put many people off.
Kameron Hurley has created a brave, raw, dirty, and totally amazing world. Nyx is an incredible protagonist that is unforgettable, I am just not sure that anyone would actually want to meet her. But I love that this series is lead by a scary older woman that was easy to believe in.
I highly recommend this book to fantasy readers looking for something fresh. Those that like the dark reads and the antiheroes will love Nyx and this series. Some of the YA crowd might like this, but there is no storybook fairytale to be gaga over here.
Brave, Bold, and filled with Bugs!!!!!! -
First, I'm annoyed that it's so hard to find this book in an initial search on Goodreads or Amazon. I had to look by author- title wouldn't find it. Bad.
This is (I think) the last book in the Bel Dame Apocrypha series. What I continue to like most about all the books is the character of Nyx. She's so ruthless, so brutally pragmatic, so good at hiding from everyone, including herself, that she actually cares if people live or die. Nyx usually gets the job done in a spectacularly ugly way, but she just doggedly keeps going.
Kind of like she did in the desert for probably too long in this book. I think the book suffered from some pacing flaws- the desert bit went on a bit long and I couldn't figure out why Nyx would allow her party to keep trudging along with an obviously insane and compromised person for a guide. By the time they reached the other side, I was having a problem orienting myself, or getting a clear visual of where the characters were. There was no map in any of the books, and I didn't miss one until Rapture. I also never really understood what was up with the red women.
The book also does a retread of previous themes: Nyx hooks up with a new crew and proceeds to get them into situations when people are going to go down and not get up. It was harder for me to emotionally invest in the crew this time around, although Nyx still seemed to care about them. The only two characters that recur to any great extent are Rhys and Inaya, and I never really cared for either of those two much, although Rhys does a better job of explaining himself in this book. Inaya still comes across as naive and rigid. I may the the only person who's a fan of Khos, but I feel like he got the short end of the stick in this series.
The gray goo was pretty cool, though. And I did like the ending. And the revelation of a bit more of Umayma's history. I'm sure there are a lot of good stories left in how this world was colonized and how its belief systems and cultures developed. -
I put off reading this for a long time as I knew it was the final volume in the Bel Dame trilogy, and I was full of trepidation as to how Kameron Hurley would end Nyx’s story. Suffice it to say the ending is note perfect. “She’d been hoping for a storm.”
The cover of Rapture shows a demented looking woman facing off with a weird giant centipede earwig kind of thing, which sort of reminded me of Dune. There is a much more forcible reminder of this comparison with the introduction of the mauta kita towards the end. Indeed, in many respects this trilogy is really a weaponised, feminised version of the Frank Herbert saga.
It is quite astonishing how topical Rapture is in terms of the current debate about religious fundamentalism and the role that ongoing global conflict plays in propping up capitalist Western economies.
Rapture begins smoothly – in many respects perhaps too smoothly, reminding me of a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster following hot on the heels of an independent shoestring-budget movie. But Hurley has lost none of her genre or street smarts with this final instalment, which is definitely the best written and most plot driven of the three. It also extends the SF basis of the series is some fascinating ways.
Given the fickle nature of genre dynamics, a lot of attention of late has focused on Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, while God’s War is in many respects a much more radical and successful inversion of religious and gender stereotypes. -
By now you should know what to expect from the Bel Dame Apocrypha. Bugs. Blood. Betrayal. Success that feels more like failure.
In Rapture, former bel dame Nyx is forced out of retirement in order to do one last job. This time, she has to retrieve a political leader & bring him back to Nasheen alive. As luck would have it, it happens to be someone she thought she had already killed. Her journey to retrieve this man takes her beyond the edges of civilization.
Hurley builds upon the strengths of her earlier novels. The world building, the characterizations, the tense action sequences are all here & even more developed than in the earlier novels. The main complaint about the earlier novels was the plotting. Here Hurley manages several seemingly unconnected storylines that ultimately join in to complete the story.
With the conclusion of the Bel Dame Apocrypha, Hurley may have written the best SF series of the new millennium. If one purpose of speculative fiction is to reflect and comment on present existence, few series tackle the problems of modern life in such an unflinching manner. Examining violence, religious intolerance, sexism and gender roles, and environmental collapse, Hurley deals with the significant issues of our time. -
When I finished reading the second of the Bel Dame Apocrypha novels, Infidel, I was unable to write a review as such, so I wrote an open letter to the main character, Nynissa so Dasheem, instead. And now the series has finished, and... well. It wasn't an easy ride, but it was a worthwhile one.
There are spoilers below. You know, things like Nyx is alive for this novel. Which shouldn't be a surprise, but kinda is.
So, who would have thought that things could get more brutal than God's War and Infidel? Well done to Hurley by surprising me with that one. I'm thinking particularly of the fact that while previously there have been references to what might happen if you bury a body with its head attached, I don't believe the consequences have been described in quite such visceral detail. Er... squick. Also, the fight scenes. Brutal indeed.
As with the previous two novels, this one involves Our Nyx taking a a mark that she doesn't particularly want to, but that she doesn't feel she can refuse. It's seven years since the last book, and this is perhaps one of the most remarkable things about Nyx: she got old. And slow. And maybe a bit on the pudgy side, like an ex-boxer or rugby player gets when they stop working out. You see this all the time in movies like Die Hard or Lethal Weapon, where the old heroes get to complain about being old before busting someone's butt; it's rare for it to be allowed to happen to a woman. Heck, even Ripley gets to come back as a fully modded clone rather than being old. But there are a number of references to Nyx being old, and a bit a slow, and by no means as stealthy as she would like to think she is. So that's very cool, because of course she still gets the job done. Kinda. Mostly. Well, she gets something done, anyway.
Back to the plot: it sees Nyx move into quite unfamiliar territory, both literally - we go places we've barely even heard of previously - and metaphorically, because she's actually not sent to kill someone, but rather to bring them back. And it's a rather surprising someone for that particular mission for this particular ex-bel dame (no, it's not Rhys). There's a new set of crew that have to be broken in (er, perhaps a bit too literally), and seriously excruciating things like crossing deserts to contend with. There's fights and unpleasantess and weird people and death to confront. Some of those things not even of Nyx's doing. Also, a great big wall that could be a joke at GRR Martin's expense, since this one is in a desert and has even weirder things on the other side than exist in Nyx's ordinary world, and since that includes bugs that will turn a dead body into a zombie - well.
One of the really tantalising things that Hurley offers in this section of Nyx's saga is a glimpse of the backstory of this crazy planet. Little hints about why and when it was colonised, and what happened in the early part of its human history, and how the human population manages to survive. It's still not enough to make everything make sense, though, and OH MY do I wish Hurley would write a prequel (I know she's written at least one short set in this universe, maybe that covers it?), because I really, really want to know about the moons and initial colonists and what the heck is going down with the surviving deadtech.
Anyway. The plot is a little bit convoluted but simple enough to follow. It's not trying to be tricksy because dealing with the bugs is hard enough without having to unravel all sorts of narrative tricks. Once again, though, the characters are a highlight. Nyx doesn't so much shine as reluctantly, grudgingly, and with a mean scowl shed as little light as she can get away with, but boy if she isn't still mesmerising. Even when she's spitting venom and being as cranky as she possibly can. As mentioned, most of her crew is new, with the exception of the shapeshifter Eshe, who is struggling to figure out how to be himself and not be like her, while still worshipping the ground she walks on. The rest of the crew are interesting enough in their own right, although I couldn't help but see them as so much cannon fodder - much like Nyx sometimes sees them I think, for all she has a surprisingly well-developed sense of duty to those who sign on with her. Because, as well -
Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention the political side, which is important but somewhat overshadowed by the action. There's the possibility of a treaty with Chenja (I know, right? The war's only been going for like three centuries)... which means something rather unexpected: the boys are coming home. And they appear to be expecting that they'll have, like, some sort of rights when they get there. And jobs maybe? Certainly some place in society. Outrageous, I say! I think this is one aspect that could have done with a little bit more development, if I'm being critical at all - but only because I'm intrigued by how the arguments could play out and would have liked to see more of the philosophical and political discussion that Hurley could bring to bear.
Nyx, you are heartless and cold, a drunk and a killer, mean and brutal. You have changed my perception of how female warriors can be portrayed, and your world has made me see bugs in a new, occasionally more revolted, light. Cheers. -
Rating for this book: 3.75+; rating for the series overall: 3.5
_____________________________
After a relatively lackluster
second volume in the Bel Dame Apocrypha series, Kameron Hurley comes roaring back with Rapture. Seven years have passed since the events of
Infidel, and Nyxnissa so Dasheem is in exile in Drucia, where she lives with her former comrade Anneka and her family. The situation in Nasheen has continued to deteriorate in the meanwhile: The centuries-long war with Chenja is over, and the boys – the fodder the bel dames and First Families have been sacrificing for all this time – are returning home and becoming a disruptive element that threatens to push Nasheen into outright civil war. Raine, Nyx’s erstwhile instructor, enemy and a man she had left for dead, survived and has become the leader in the fight for men’s rights. When he’s kidnapped, Fatima – another old foe, the murderer of Rhys’ family and bel dame leader – extorts Nyx’s aid in tracking him down and bringing him back to Nasheen. Obviously, things cannot be as straightforward as this, and Nyx rapidly finds herself enmeshed not alone in the machinations of the bel dames, the Queen and the First Families, but also those of the Ras Tiegans, the civilizations of the North and a larger cabal of First Families that revives an ancient conjuror to ensure the “aliens,” who have returned, do not gain a foothold on Umayma.
This thing that makes Rapture such a good read and a very satisfying conclusion to the story is Hurley’s decision to focus almost exclusively on Nyxnissa, who is the heart and soul of the series. Looking back, the weakness of Infidel was that the author introduced too many new characters and their subplots that either didn’t go anywhere or distracted the reader from Nyx. Here, we have brief discursions into what Rhys and Inaya are doing but everything properly comes back to Nyx, who is one of the more interesting characters I’ve encountered in a while.
Why? I have been wondering how to answer that question since I don’t like to leave readers hanging with sentences like the one above, so let me enumerate several of the reasons:
1. Nyx feels very human. That is to say, her motivations are complex, conflicted and not always obvious to herself or to us
2. She’s indomitable. Despite failing – as she see’s it – in everything she’s done, she doesn’t give up.
3. She has at her core an admirable nature (part of which, IMO, is #2). You have to admire her devotion to what she see’s as her duty, to her companions (though they often misinterpret it), and to her ability to cling to her humanity in the face of all the shit (pardon my French) that’s thrown her way.
Another factor in the novel’s favor is that Hurley continues to open up the world of Umayma without info-dumping. We are tantalized with more clues about Umayma’s colonization and its earliest history, the nature of humans and their relationship to the bugs, and the reasons behind Umayma’s xenophobia.
And – finally – I liked the ending’s ambiguity, which immediately brings to mind Frank Stockton’s short story “The Lady or the Tiger.”
A vigorous thumbs-up for this book and the entire Bel Dame Apocrypha series. I fervently hope Hurley continues to write in this universe (as well as branching out; I’d be interested in reading anything she writes). -
3.5 stars. Hurley's Bel Dame Apocrypha is one of the most visceral series I've ever read. Although this last novel suffers from too many POVs and tiring travelogue, it still stirs emotion. We have three old POVs and a few new ones, which sadly mostly serve as plot conviniences despite having interesting back stories and/or motivations. Nevertheless, I do appreciate the ending between Nyx and Rhys - kudos for Hurley.
Note for authors: there are times to halt your worldbuilding. Am I the only one who found it hard keeping up with the ocean people and the wildling... I mean the people beyond the Wall...Aadhya or whoever they are? I like the additional back story on Umayma, colonies and so on, but getting all these new people was rather overwhelming. Should have stick with the Nasheen-Chenja-Ras Tieg-Bel Dame-First Families-aliens power play.
All in all, still one of the best if not unique series I've ever read. It is gutsy, gritty, mindblowing and simply, brave. -
It's difficult to resist the final book in a series. I generally like spacing out my reading when it comes to series, especially since I've learned I can get sick and tired of reading them, no matter how good, if I keep reading the books one after the other. But in the case of trilogies, there is very little time for me to grow tired of anything about the novel - the story is still compact enough in itself that I can go straight to the next novel without feeling sick of it in the least, or fearing that I will get sick of it if I do.
This is why I'm writing a review for Rapture, the final book in Kameron Hurley's incredible Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy, immediately after having read Infidel, and without reading another book in between. The end was in sight, after all, and I did not want to lose any of the momentum in terms of energy and plot that I'd gained from reading Infidel. The story had so far been incredible, and the characters so interesting and engaging that I wanted to know what had happened to them - for better or for worse.
As mentioned earlier, Rapture is the third and final book of the Bel Dame Apocrypha, a trilogy of sci-fi novels written by Kameron Hurley. The trilogy follows in the bloody footsteps of Nyxnissa "Nyx" so Dasheem, a bel dame, or elite assassin, in the service of Nasheen - or at least, she's supposed to be, since things haven't been quite the same for her since the events of God's War. Beginning six (or seven, I cannot be quite certain) years after the end of Infidel,
What I find interesting about Rapture is how much wider the world of Umayma becomes, finally gaining its full breadth, or at least most of it. As with God's War and Infidel, the world-building is not done through long, descriptive passages; it's done via the way the characters interact with it, leaving it up to the reader to figure out what's going on. As I mentioned in my previous review for God's War, this isn't easy on the reader, but then again, the books themselves are not meant to be easy reads. Nowhere is this more true than in Rapture, wherein the development and relationships of several key characters finally comes to a head.
The most obvious in terms of this development is, of course, Nyx. Although it might seem that she isn't any different from what she was in the first two books, its clear that the events in God's War and Infidel have taken a toll on her psyche. She projects the same arrogance and swagger she used to in the two previous novels, and many of the characters around her take this for callousness and selfishness. In truth, Nyx projects such a facade because it's the only way she and her team will be able to pull through with their mission. If she succumbs to her emotions, no matter how briefly, then everything will fall apart. She is entirely aware of her cruelty, and of what her teammates think of her, but she ignores them and forges on. If there is one thing that everyone who has ever worked with Nyx can agree on, it's that she's single-minded in her attempt to accomplish a mission - no matter what the cost.
It is this aspect of her characterization that can polarize readers in two different directions when it comes to Nyx: either one loves her, or hates her, but there is little to no in-between. I, for one, like her, because while the decisions she makes might not always be the right ones, she is always aware that they are her decisions, no one else's. She will not lay the blame for failure at someone else's door; if the mission falls apart, then it's her fault for not taking every single variable into account and preparing for it. It takes a great deal of courage and humility to accept one's mistakes when one is playing with other people's lives - people to whom one feels a bond whether of friendship or comradeship in a shared mission. This makes every death of a team member especially hard on Nyx,
Another character who comes into her own is Inaya, whose journey proves to be one of the most interesting in the trilogy.
The third storyline that finds its conclusion in Rapture is Rhys's, the mediocre magician whom Nyx first meets and hires in God's War.
While I'm quite happy with the way the three major characters have found their place in the world , there is one character who doesn't quite fit: Safiyah.
Overall, Rapture is everything that the reader could ever hope for as a conclusion to the Bel Dame Apocrypha: explosive (literally and figuratively) and emotionally-harrowing, ending the entire story on an appropriately bittersweet note. No one gets the traditional happy ending, but then again, anyone who expects a traditional happy ending to the Bel Dame Apocrypha must be out of their mind. If there is one thing that the entire trilogy has proven, it is that there is no such thing as a happy ending: one only moves on. Good stories never truly end - and if certain characters are any indication, there are more stories just waiting to be told. -
Book Info: Genre: Dark fiction/Science Fantasy
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of dark fiction, especially of the science-fantasy type, intricate world-building
Trigger Warnings: murder, violence, torture, attempted genocide
My Thoughts: In this book, the world of Umayma really opens up, and we find out a lot more about the countries mentioned in the previous books, as well as many countries and peoples that are new to both us and to the characters in the book, such as Kiranmey, by the Wall at the northern end of the desert. In an earlier review I said it looked like the planet generally followed a form of Islam, but that was a generalization based upon a few statements like, “We all follow the same God.”
As I learn more about the different peoples, however, it looks like Nasheen, Chenja and Tirhan have a form of Islam, while Mhoria might be a form of Judaism, and Ras Tieg sounds like it is Catholicism. Drucians show up in this book, and I'm suspecting they aren't human, or at least not the same type of human as the rest of the world, but there is no information about their religious beliefs other than that they worship multiple gods, and the desert nomads, Kharians (I think; it's hard to keep track of all of them) have some mysterious and pagan sort of belief where it is hinted they worship wind and sand. The Mhorians segregate the genders to the point that M/M relationships are not only acknowledged, but preferred, and the Nasheenians tend to prefer F/F relationships and have a lot of disdain for men. Tirhan allows up to 4 wives per man, and the desert nomads and Drucians allow multiple husbands (or at least two). It's amazing to see this sort of variety; I'm not aware of any modern society that allows multiple husbands on Earth, although I believe some of the African tribes once did something like this.
To make it even more interesting, people on this world have evolved a form of magic dealing with insects and others have developed a form of shape-shifting; mostly into a single other creature, but in some extremely rare cases they are not limited at all and can shape-shift into anything, while other people have mutated in different ways. Basically, reading this series and figuring out the different peoples is like a particularly fascinating anthropology project. And you really do need to read the whole series before you even begin to have a feeling for the world outside of Chenja and Neeshan; that information is provided in dribs and drabs throughout the series, but more is given in this third book than in the first two combined. I would love to learn more about this world and its peoples; I wonder if the author could be enticed to write a sort of atlas of Umayma? That would be really cool, and I would definitely buy it. If nothing else, I do hope the series continues, because I'm sure there is a great deal yet to learn about this world. Maybe some prequels, or move on to other characters, unless Nyx is somehow re-made, because she's becoming pretty old for these types of things. Of course (speaking of age), apparently First Families can lives for centuries; one character mentions an “older” man and then later recognizes him as her great-grandfather's brother! Some of the details that come out regarding the First Families and how the world was settled are fascinating tidbits; again, I would love to know more.
At any rate, it's a pity that the problems that Night Shade is experiencing is putting the future of this series in jeopardy, because it is a really good one. I do hope the author will find a way to continue it, I really do. There is so much more to learn about this world, these people, and how it all fits together. Nyx may be retired, but there are other characters, and other stories to be told. I have seen the quality of these books improve with each story, and it is just now, in the third book, that the whole series is really coming into its own. Highly recommended for fans of dark fiction, well-crafted science-fantasy stories, and intricate world-building.
Series Information: Rapture is the third book in the Bel Dame Apocrypha (also sometimes called the God's War series). There is no word on whether the series will continue or whether this is the end of it.
Book 1: God's War,
review linked here where formatting allowed
Book 2: Infidel,
review linked here where formatting allowed
Disclosure: I received an e-galley from Night Shade Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: After years in exile, Nyxnissa so Dasheem is back in action in service to the bel dames, a sisterhood of elite government assassins tasked with eliminating deserters and traitors. The end of a centuries-long holy war between her country, Nasheen, and neighboring Chenja has flooded the streets of Nasheen with unemployed—and unemployable—soldiers whose frustrations have brought the nation to the brink of civil war.
Not everyone likes this tenuous and unpredictable "peace," however, and somebody has kidnapped a key politician whose death could trigger a bloody government takeover. With aliens in the sky and revolution on the ground, Nyx assembles a team of mad magicians, torturers,and mutant shape-shifters for an epic journey across a flesh-eating desert in search of a man she's not actually supposed to kill.
Trouble is, killing is the only thing Nyx is good at. And she already left this man to die... -
Originally posted on my blog,
SpecFic Junkie.
Hnnn. <3 Rapture gave me whatever ephemeral something was missing. Less of an action ride than Infidel and more confident than God's War, Rapture brings the Bel Dame Apocrypha arc to just the right end, with everyone in their respective places.
Rapture follows a lot of the same themes as the previous books, but somehow it seems grittier and true because Nyx has finally gained something besides herself she's afraid to lose. And yet, she's still completely self-preserving. I really love how Kameron Hurley manages to write a character who is, for all intents and purposes, completely despicable and manages to not only engage the reader, but enjoy Nyx's shenanigans.
The other thing I loved about Rapture is that the punches were not held back. Unsurprisingly, people die... but Kameron Hurley does not spare the darlings. Also unsurprisingly, there's a betrayal. (Was it in Infidel that Nyx made a comment about how someone always betrays? I think so.) However, I honestly did not see it coming, despite the pattern and hints dropped. Sometimes it's so nice to be in the dark.
And everything really does end just right. Everything changes, and yet Nyx never does—to me that's a big part of what this series is about. Once you create a weapon, what else can it be? I also really appreciated that Nyx is not alone in this status, with the addition of a new, wonderful character. I wish we could learn more about her... maybe one of Kameron Hurley's works in this universe covers her more clearly.
Actually, to be honest, there were several characters in this book that fit that description. Also, a trans character whose transness is not a plot point or really that important at all. Because this series wasn't already amazingly diverse enough. Hnnn. <3
So once again, all I can say is this: read these books. They can be tough to find physical copies of, especially Infidel and Rapture, but you can get eBooks easily. Also, don't forget the library. Even if your local library doesn't have a copy, that doesn't mean they can't source a copy for you. -
Rapture is the third and final book in the Bel Dame Apocrypha. Is it everything we could have hoped for? Does it answer all of our questions? Does it close out the story of Nyx with a gigantic bang? Welllll....not exactly. But it's awfully good all the same. We find Nyx living in exile with an old mercenary buddy and her thirteen thirteen-year-olds. She's recruited for a special mission that even the bel dames can't be trusted with; rescue her old boss, Raine, from kidnappers who have taken him far north into the tractless desert. Trouble is, the last time Nyx saw Raine, she stuck a sword in him and left him for dead. And there are plenty of other complications, from the moony sixteen-year-old rich girl that follows one of her team members all the way from Ras Tieg to the red sand that comes to life when it smells blood and can strip the flesh from a body in under fifteen seconds. There's also the matter of the extremely deadly assassin on her tail, and the fifteen-foot centipedes that have this annoying habit of leaping out of sand dunes at inopportune moments. And those are just the minor problems.
Rapture suffers, oddly enough, from an overload of narrators. There are so many I had trouble keeping them straight. The many interweaving story lines do eventually come together in a huge and satisfying way, but by the time we get there we've lost one of the most interesting narrators (yes, she does show back up and surprise us, but where was she for half the book?) and another one has just stopped talking, though he continues to exist in someone else's narration. Is this fatal? No, just annoying, but annoying enough to be noticed, and anything annoying enough to be noticed is annoying enough to push me out of the story, which is also annoying. So I'm giving it a one-star deduction. But that shouldn't stop you from running right out to buy it as soon as it's released, because it's still a great read. -
Kameron Hurley concludes the story of Nyx with a strong finish. 9 years have passed since the events of Volume 2. Nyx is living in exile outside of Nasheen when someone from her past comes knocking, bringin her back into the world. The war with Chenja seems to finally be ending, the aliens are looming over Umayma again, and plots are afoot. The men of Nasheen, who for generations were brought up solely to be fed to the war, are coming back from the front, and they demand rights. When their spokesperson goes missing into the remote norther edges of the world, it's up to Nyx to assemble a new crew and bring him back before a new revolution begins.
After the end of VOlume 2 I had reservations. The way Nyx managed to bring her old gang back together and proceed to ruin their lives again felt contrived and more than a little forced. That's been improved. Although some recurrent characters make another appearance, their involvement this time makes sense- probably because Hurley spends more time giving us a backstory to their motivations before hurling Nyx at them.
The other major change is that there's a lot more world-building this time around-including insight into earlier history, largely due to a new PoV character with expansive memories. And as usual, with answers there are more questions, but here that's a good thing.
The action is still solid and well-paced. The new characters are fun, even if they may not all be likeable. There's a few twists to the story that work, and a few cliches that didn't work as well (one betrayal in particular felt sign-posted). Overall, a solid conclusion to the arc. Apparently, Nyx's story is going to continue, so looking forward to that. -
This was my least favourite book of the series. In many ways it's also the most straightforward. The previous two books in the series had labrynthine plots filled with double- and triple-crosses, sudden reveals, betrayals, surprises, so much so that I found it pretty hard to follow what was actually going on. Rapture is much simpler. It also felt a bit repetitive, especially some of the character beats. They're done well, particularly the relationship between Nyx and Rhys, but it was covering a lot of the same ground as the previous book. The big climax also felt a little rushed and anti-climactic, especially given the lengthy journey to get there. As in the previous two books, Kameron Hurley gets right into it, all with the show don't tell, and while I appreciate that I think all three books could maybe do with a little more exposition, which isn't something I say a lot. There's so much going on and Hurley's commitment to only telling the story through the eyes of her characters is admirable, but also leads to more than a little confusion.
The world remains fascinating. In Umayna, Hurley ha created a fascinating place, a planet filled with deadly toxins and ravenous bugs, an alien world barely fit for the human civilizations that have managed to survive and thrive. A nice setting for gritty, cynical war stories. -
This trilogy has had very interesting pacing. While I generally expect the last book of a trilogy to focus on concluding whatever plot the second book (usually the weakest) has started to spin out, here the second book went in a different direction, was mostly self-contained, and Rapture here decided to up the ante by dumping a truly amazing amount of additional worldbuilding into the mix: several more nations, an entire desert, a land past the desert, magicians who are way better than the magicians we have seen previously, and an all-new team for Nyx. (Don't worry, she runs into her old friends eventually.)
It was just a lot to take in at once, and I'm not really sure, as a reader, that it was the best way to do the worldbuilding. I did like the actual plot, such as it was, and I think I might have liked the book better had it just stuck to Nyx Brings People In and not suddenly given me so much more information about the world that was not previously present.
My likes and dislikes are pretty much the same as with the first two, other than that: great characters, especially Nyx and Rhys, but generally more grim and violent than I like. Still, if the premise is your thing (queer kickass bounty hunters!), you might as well give it a try. -
I am amazed at how Kameron Hurley manages in the third installment of this series to simultaneously give the feeling that years had passed since the prior volumes and maintain a sense of continuity. I really had the sense that Nasheenian society had fundamentally changed since Book 2--Hurley really dove into what it would mean for that nation to undergo such a change as it had. No status quo here!
Everything that is great about the first two books is great here: the vivid, often horribly so, settings; the increasingly damaged but still struggling characters; and the intricate plotting. It was fun (as much as these books are *fun*) to travel beyond the lands that have been mentioned so far on this planet and see even more kinds of terrible creatures!
And Nyx and Rhys... definitely the most complicated, not-even-sure-I-want-them-together ship ever. Hurley plays their relationship so deftly, the push and pull, attraction and repulsion. I don't know what I want with them any more than they do.
And that ending!! (vague spoilers ahead) So cruel, so ambiguous, so appropriate.
This series is definitely not for everybody, but if it is for you, it will be relentless in grabbing you and not letting you breathe until the end. -
4.5 that I am rounding up to 5 for the quality of the whole series, inventiveness of the world, and incredible characters. Nyx is one of those creations that must live beyond the page (even as terrifying and saddening a thought that might be) - absolutely incredible. And the supporting cast is just as wonderful!
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4/5 stars.
Great dark scifi story, not a superb book, it doesnt try to be, but that doesn't stop it from being great. The varied perspectives and realistic outcomes really make the story easy to get immersed in.
The ending however was superb. -
Great book! The whole trilogy is well worth a read.
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Great finish to the God's War trilogy. Can't wait for Ms. Hurley's next book.
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Brilliant, brutal, perfect ending.
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"In the garish light of the moons, the desert was a bloody carcass shot through with wind-worn splinters of stone that predated the beginning of the world."
"It was strange to find a world on the other side of the one you knew, one you never knew existed."
No book has had me this captivated for a long time. Not this year. I was ravenously hungry for the next sentence for hundreds of pages on end, biting back tears whilst simultaneously feeling the characters' dehydration headaches as if I was out in the desert with them. The plot may be chaotic, but when the world is this full, this vivacious, giving off the feeling that it will go on for eternity in some galaxy beyond our imaginations long after the series is finished, who cares about such a minor detail as plot?
The premise is as convoluted a mire of treachery and politics as ever. "'Nasheen is on the brink of revolution. There are discharged boys with nothing to do but start fights and steal bread. Women are running raids on their own into Chenja in defiance of the ceasefire. The bel dames, I have never seen them so hostile to their own people. The streets are bloody. Bloodier than I've seen them.'" A ceasefire between Nasheen and Chenja has been declared, and an entire gender of surplus militant men is flooding into Nasheen again. Hurley's militant state in which every sixteen year old boy goes into military service for forty years is grazes the reality of war-torn regions in our world with frightening realism. "Most boys she knew who got shoved home without proper decompression blew right the fuck up. They jumped off bridges or walked naked into deserts or picked off people in the market with some patched-together weapon." In Nasheen, war has become an industry, a way of life. Neither men nor women are emotionally or economically equipped to support the extra bodies that the peace will keep alive.
The problem is so bad, that the bel dame assassins (formerly an almost unkillable order of women tasked with disposing of deserters, nakedly lusting after power now that all deserters have been pardoner) bring Nyx out of retirement. "Seven years. She thought she might just die out here, forgotten, presumed dead." She is tasked with returning political prisoner and men's advocate Raine al Alharazed to Nasheen alive before his death causes a revolution. "'No, we'll have no martyrs here.'" Nyx has been exiled for seven years since the end of Infidel, stayed away from the news, quietly waiting to find out when she was needed again. "Nyx found the idea that these vagrant squatters now had full independent personhood and voting rights rather appalling." And in a world where a nation of shell-shocked soldiers are demanding their civil rights, it was only a matter of time.
Hurley deals with the restrictive cultural norms of this military society with eloquence. "'We've been second class in Nasheen for centuries, fodder for an endless war. We want equality, Nyx. That's all.' 'Equality. You want to spend two years of your life a breeding compound? You want to be a vessel for twenty babies, just to watch them all get carted off to the front to get blown up in some war? Then you want to give up another two years at the front, throwing your body against munitions with the boys? We're just caretakers for the fodder, Raine, when we're not the fodder. We all give our bodies to Nasheen. You're not special. You keep going on about how you want to change things for men. Men at the expense of women. You need to change the whole system to be free, not just improve your part in it.'" This sentiment could apply to any society: unfair treatment for one subpopulation means that everyone is compromised, not just those with the newest complaint. The next time I hear male students whining about how girls do better in school exams because they mature faster, or that stopping discrimination against young women who may go on maternity leave hurts male-led family businesses, I will throw this at them. This might just be my quote of the year.
In the name of men's equality, Nyx and her team engage the real challenge of this book. The red desert. The survival sections were so riveting, so visceral, that each step of the journey engaged my full attention. I felt as if there was nothing beyond that stretch of sand. "Atishi bulaka was one of the first foreign terms he had learned when coming to the north. It referred to the flesh-eating sand, the sand that burrowed into wounds to devour the blood within, leaving behind a gutted deflated corpse." In a literal invocation of resource poverty, the microbes within the sand can, and do, devour people. "'They walled themselves in with this contagion millennia ago. I suppose it worked. The world could have been much worse, you see. It could have all been like this.'" As if the starvation, dehydration, and hallucinations weren't enough. "'What the world really wants to do is change us to fit it'" Hurley's style is vividly perceptual. Everything is narrated using the body of the reader as it medium. She makes you feel as if you are there. "She was in that bad place that you knew was bad but you were so fucking out of it you didn't care. It was a cosy place to be in" Through it all, Nyx is "like a stone pillar in a sandstorm". She is fucking hard. "Then she was up again. How, she wasn't so sure. One minute, she was on the ground, and when she came to the next, she was walking again, plodding forwards like some half-dead cancerous wanderer." I ached with admiration and jealousy as well as physical discomfort reading these passages. I never wanted the desert to end.
In contrast to Nyx's dogged psychological resilience, there are the intriguing satellites of her new team. They all felt real, with just the right balance of untold secrets and detailed background to really come to life. Ahmed provides the missing point of view of the recruit from the front. "It was never anything but that - boy. Not patron. Nor sir. Just ... boy. As if he had walked off his house mother's doorstep just yesterday." Instead of a triumphant return, he is uprooted in his birth nation, as if his real home was the war itself. "the man he was at the front no longer existed." Ex-torturer Ahmed is coolly manipulative and offers a rare male take on the calculated use of sex appeal to control power. "His calm way with each member of her team, building alliances for the inevitable showdown." Then there's Kage, the Drucian sniper exiled from her tiny cavernous nation for the heart-rending reason that her children died of asphyxia as she tried to keep them quiet whilst hiding them during a raid. "They were young people, always, and they laughed as they did it, as if it were some adolescent rite of passage, to murder Drucians in their homes." One of the most recent races to colonise Umyma, Kage's people have their own unique physiology resulting from long isolation from humanity. "'I am a woman, yes, but I can also give children. It's private.'" Her refugee nation, and her own status as an outcast among outcasts was so sad, but had me yearning for more. "It was strange how you did realise how much you lived a place until you had lost it so completely. Everyone believed that the world outside was better. But it wasn't. It never was." Eshe, the young shifter Nyx has been training since he was aged eight also makes a return, dogged by a pathetic sheltered rich girl daughter of the Ras Tiegan living saint. "Nyx secretly hoped she would die next" I did too. The idea of a centuries-old saint sustained by the replacement organs of virgin girls is as gruesome as they come, and her daughter is supposedly destined for the same fate. Isabet is a wry commentary on the falsely won protection that those feigning weakness receive from others, highlighting the reliance of even the most privileged on desperate people.
The team are tailed by Safiyah, a conjurer from Nasheen's First Families, who can manipulate the organic engines of the grounded space-ships on the planet to control living things. "'The shape-shifters know. The places we put our bodies when we are in form.'" She gives some great world-building, drawing together the previously unrelated anomalies of magicians and shape-shifters. "True conjuring was about making something from nothing. Or rather, creating something dynamic from the inert soup of primordial possibilities" And adds a bit of irony of her own. "'You would wake me for a woman? Just a woman?'" It turns out that great dynast occasionally bow for ordinary people too.
At the end of the desert journey is Rhys. Once the self-appointed moral conscience of Nyx's team, he has withered in his own faith and nobility without the vulgar strength of his working-class and under-class colleagues to compare himself against. He has reduced himself to threating to take the children if his wife leaves him. "'You take your right, and I will take mine. I will take the children and you will have nothing.'" His fate creates a bitter bile at the back of my throat, seeing Rhys painfully slowly decay in the absence of anyone to look down on. "the feeling she got when she thought of him was always the same - a fierce protectiveness that left her with anger and regret." In many ways, his story is the darkest part of the book. The rot and the wasted potential. The bullying and reluctance to let go of his own superiority at any cost. There is a lot to think about here.
Politics. The desert. Abductions. Eventually, it will lead them back to Ras Tieg, the riven Christian country where modern fundamentalist opposition to abortion has been reimagined as a rampant purging of shifters from the population especially miscarrying female shifters. "It was a helpless feeling, to know you could not protect the women you cared for. To know that women's bodies here were co-oped so fully and completely that they had ceased to be fully human in the eyes of the priests." Once conservative Inaya is now leading the underground shifter resistance group, in the hope of a peaceful revolution. "'We must re-write our story from one of fear to one of celebration.'" But her people cause nothing but violence. Inaya is a lot like Nyx, unable to stop fighting and accept a world rife with corruption. "It was like a dream of a place. And the reason it existed was because the rest of the world was like this. The people there could live like that because they sent weapons to countries like hers, and dared them to tear each other apart." And yet she would never see it that way. She still chooses to see right and wrong in terms of absolutes, never as equally sordid possibilities, or acknowledge mistakes. "Inaya had to choose between the Nasheenian boy shifter who had stood loyally at her side for seven years or the renegade rich girl who could win her people the revolution" There's class and race and religion all mixed up into messy, hypocritical characters. It's stomach-turningly real politics.
"The sorry truth was, she couldn't remember the last time she'd turned in a bounty alive."
The fate of Raine al Alharazed, Nasheen, and Ras Tieg are all interconnected by a murderous plot and the magician's space-warping tunnel system. But in many ways the plot isn't important. It's the moments. There is aching dialogue between Nyx and Eshe, as he grows from child-like devotion in her to a petulant loyalty to Isabet. "'Do you think people can be different? Different from the way they learned to be?' 'You make who you are. It's for no one else to decide. Understand?'" And the heart-rending scene where at the end where Nyx offers Ahmed the deed to her family home still with Eshe's name printed on a scrawled out in pen, because destroying Eshe, the young man she thought of as a son, was as crude and finite as a line on paper. There's Inaya stretching herself out across the cosmos to stop a wove of devouring sand from claiming any more lives. "Inaya watched the world from the sky. She was all-seeing, all knowing. She wondered if this is what it felt like to be God. To see all the joy and horror at once, to pick up grains of sand one by one which a tide threatened the destruction of humanity." There's the empty powerless of even First Family conjurer Safiyah. "'Sounds like an excuse to me. Sounds like something lazy rich people tell themselves to justify not doing a goddamned thing to change the world.'" But beneath it all is the ache of loss. Searing, pointless, loss like a cauterised wound without poignancy or reflection. It feels unfinished, as all suffering is. "Nyx wanted to shout at her, tell her that no one had given up more than she had. That was a lie, but it felt so true in that moment" It's so ghastly it's almost beautiful in it's own way.
And out across the stars, the alien arms-dealers of New Kinaan are coming back ...
"'We could have twenty years to sort out or differences before facing interstellar war.' 'What do they want? To colonise us?' 'No. To conquer us and strip us bare. There are very few habitable worlds left. It was only a matter of time before they extinguished theirs.'"
Kameron Hurley, please write more! -
J'ai moins accroché émotionnellement que les deux tomes précédents, en partie car je ne me suis pas attachée aux nouveaux perso (Kage et Ahmed m'ont laissée de marbre), et aussi car je me suis spoilée deux évènements. Ah et l'un d'entre eux est vraiment absolument déprimant.
Mais bon, encore une fois, Nyx est... Nyx. Je l'adore et la déteste en même temps, et je serais prête à la suivre dans toutes ses futures aventures.