| Title | : | Liquid Crystal Nightingale |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1781086508 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781781086506 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 352 |
| Publication | : | First published March 17, 2020 |
Pleo Tanza is a survivor. Her father was broken by tragedy, her twin sister is dead—chewed up and spat out by the corruption and injustice of Chatoyance—but she’s going to make it, whatever it takes. She’s going to get off this rock.
But escape is for the rich or lucky. Pleo’s framed for the murder of a rival student—the daughter of one of the colony’s wealthy, squabbling clans—and goes on the run, setting off a chain events that could destroy the fragile balance of the old colony forever…
Liquid Crystal Nightingale Reviews
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In a far future where humanity has largely abandoned our home solar system, humans live in the solar system called the Archer’s Ring on a planet orbiting the star Gachala. On a terraformed planet there are two main cities, the wealthy and first-colonized Cabuchon and the industrial and manufacturing hub of Chatoyance. But humanity is under threat from the malevolent and encroaching Artisans, deeply alien creatures on the edge of the system, and their actions and ongoing threat is having a destabilizing influence on the human settlements.
Pleo Tanzer is the daughter of the only survivor of the most recent Artisan atrocity. She's also semi-voluntarily part of an artificial enhancement project that would eventually leave her classified more as equipment than employee and under pressure from authorities and peers to conform. But the enhancement process has already claimed the life of her twin sister, so she has no intention of finishing the process. Amid her plans to get away from Chatoyance she gets caught up in politics and plots and framed for murder.
There are a vast quantity of ideas going on in this book. I'm reminded strongly of early
China Miéville books. Idea and plot dense, and daring the reader to keep up while dazzling at every turn. Unfortunately, that's not this reader, and I spent most of the book extremely confused as to what was going on. Extremely short chapters (some only a page or so) and viewpoint hopping through several characters, most of whom with opaque motivations, all make for a choppy ride.
The world that the author has built is fascinating and painstakingly detailed, so it's a wonderful place to inhabit, but I could barely follow the plot and didn't get most of the characters at all. Towards the end of the book I was realizing just how much I was not understanding the book and then it ended abruptly, and for me at least, completely unsatisfactorily.
Disappointing. -
Wow - reading Liquid Crystal Nightingale feels a little bit like the first time you read Snow Crash or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - things are happening, you're doing your best to keep up, you start to understand that you won't understand everything, and by the time you realize how invested you are the finale, it's over. Lee does a remarkable job at tossing you into a fully formed world, where bits and pieces of the history of Chatoyance and the Tanza family come at you in fleeting comments, and everyone has a history and backstory. I enjoyed how Lee was able to create a story that felt complete without needing to answer every question she posed; not everything needs to be tied up in a bow. I look forward to seeing what else Lee writes, especially if she continues to explore the universe she has masterfully created.
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4.5 Fast paced, well done world building and interesting characters. Probably worth a reread as the reader is thrown into the world quickly and explanations are strewn throughout changing my assumptions about what was happening.
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I really, really tried with this story and in truth I am not giving completely up on it. Going in, I knew from previous reviews that this was a story with incredibly rich world-building and a plot that needed my complete focus. And in truth it was both of those. Eeleen Lee creates a world that is dense and fascinating. There is no single word within the story that was not used to its full potential to help create the political and personal complexities the narrative presents. But while I was trying to wrap my head around the political structure which is so integral to the overall story, I found it difficult to keep up with the story as it went back and forth through time. This was especially true if I had put the book down for a certain length of time. I am not completely giving up on the book. I hope one day to come back to it as I think it is a story worth reading.
DNF - 50% -
Liquid Crystal Nightingale gives you a big hint about what to expect right from the title. This is a dense, lyrical story that takes things and mixes them up in ways you don't expect. The story takes place in another star system, long after humanity has learned to travel interstellar distances and trace their ancestry back to fledgling colonial efforts in our solar system.
Pleo Tanza is a young woman struggling against a cyberpunk-esque inequality, corporate abuse, and an overworked legal and social system. Her family has been victimized multiple times by the company powers that be, and she has had enough. What follows is a meandering, always fascinating exploration of the world she lives in, and the different walks of life that try to navigate this complex, wonderfully alien environment.
Pleo's world is not ours, it is dense and complicated, utterly unfamiliar to us, and Eeleen Lee doesn't stop the story to lecture us, give us history lessons, or ground us in the "101" of this world. Instead, she writes like a native, and treats the readers that way as well. As others have said, this is a dense world, and you have to be willing to work a little to construct your context from what's there.
For those willing to make the effort, there is a starkly original world here, with a lot of nuance and depth. This is not an easy beachside read that asks you to check your brain at the door, you need engagement and attentiveness. Your reward, however, is a fascinating exploration of a complex, impressively realized world with its own culture, conventions and context. For people that want science fiction with some layers, this is a great choice. -
Finished thirty minutes ago. I fucking loved LCN. It's strange and beautiful and immersive and lyrical and gruesome and, erm, multi-faceted and beautiful and strange. This is the scifi that I'd write if I were smarter. Do I know *exactly* what I just read? No. That'll take a re-read or three. But did it sweep me away? Absolutely.
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At the very end of this story is a book blurb for Tangle's Game by Stewart Hotston and I was still reeling from the end of Liquid Crystal Nightingale and it occurred to me that both these books literally end mid-scene and I was doubly peeved! How did I happen into this circumstance again?! Is this now a thing for some would-be standalones? Why is this a thing? That aside, I slashed a star off my rating.
This had all the hallmarks of a story that was right down my lane and I have to give all kinds of points to a great beginning that kept me quite engaged. There's also lush and vivid imagery and descriptions that made the world come alive. They have weaponized fans with biological mesh and shawls that are as beautiful as they are deadly. Corporatized families reign and lord over the underclasses and also carry out a good bit of shadiness within their rarified ranks.
Lee drops the reader right into the place and just goes with names and references and you're forced to either dive into the slipstream or GTFO. That, I found to be a strength of the story. The characters weren't ultimately as rich as I'd thought they'd be. For what seemed an interminable stretch, main character Pleo (my favourite, btw) is much discussed but missing from the stage. There's great action (wonderfully choreographed fights with broken and bloody ends) but there's also a long lull midway where I felt my interest waning a bit. The action picks up and plot moves forward at a good clip in the back 20% and then a huge moment is upon our characters and one asks "Does it end here?" only to have another reply "I hope so." Leaving this reader yelling "WTHDYM?! AYFKMRN?! THIS IS THE END?!"
So, in the end, I wound up at a three. On the upside, I'd read another by Lee. What was good was very good. In book likes this reminded me of Tangle's Game (obvs) and also Luna (because future feudalism with corporatized families).
Favourite passage (even public transport can be deadly if you are a fare evader):
He filed past two servitors hard at work, their telescopic arms spraying white foam over three bodies sprawled on the floor behind the sentry turnstiles. Three commuters had been shot dead by the turnstiles, most likely for trying to run through them. The foam generated a rising mound of streaky red and pink flurry as the bodies dissolved. "Dissolving's faster than bagging bodies up," a woman remarked from behind Marsh. "Lucky for those who die straight away." "I've seen some move," a man replied. "Heard them screaming too. The turnstiles' programmers like a bit of variety: bullets, acid sprays, even darts." -
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Liquid Crystal Nightingale defied my expectations, doing something I hadn’t expected: being utterly unique. I am often bothered by the repetitive nature of science fiction, and while some of the tropes were familiar the backdrop of the story was cutting-edge (yes, Geology pun intended).
Most of my difficulties stem from the rapid pace of the world-building and the amount of trust in the author required of the reader early on. The world-building was fantastic but dense, and requires the reader to be comfortable being confused. I can foresee people becoming frustrated with the lack of information presented at the beginning, but things become clear over time. While I was comfortable puzzling things out, I do admit that trying to piece together the world took me out of the story at times. Furthermore, the perspective jumped around to suit the plot and less so to develop character. I felt like I got to know Pleo, Marsh, and Dumorier, but the rest of the perspectives felt hazy, including Saurebaras’, which was a shame because she had a lot to offer when she did control the narrative.
Still, despite my occasional frustration, overall I thought the novel was absolutely singular, and a refreshing breath of fresh air that stood out as compared to much of contemporary science fiction. The world-building was unparalleled, and I was instantly immersed, wanting to know as much as possible about the city and the characters. The meld of geology and political space opera—two things I would have never connected— made for a unique backdrop for the world.
One of my regrets was that the relationships were not developed more thoroughly. While the characters were well rounded and introspective, there was a significant lack of connection between them. While our principal characters brushed up against each they didn’t form meaningful connections, which surprised me. The exception to this was the relationship between Marsh and Setona, which I loved, employer and employee evolving into a kind of friendship and kinship. Also, THE DISPLAY LEOPARD!!!! Absolutely what could be better than that. -
I really wanted to like this book as it has great elements: the universe, the cultures, the variety of body augments, the politics, to name some. However, I found it hard to get into this book, despite really liking the sheer weirdness of everything. The story felt stuffed with so much, and I think that if I'd been in a slightly different mood, I may have been able to get through this book. For now, I'm walking away.
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The preview on Googlebooks kicks ass. A return to old fashioned space opera with some very original twists and stylings.
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4.5 stars.
Great detailed worldbuilding, interesting cast of characters and surreal far future tech which reminds me of Tom Toner's The Promise of the Child. You can really feel the history of the city and every character's personal backstory. Perhaps the sum of the novel's whole parts did not always add up but that was not a drawback for me.
I do not understand the other reviews that say the book required too much brainpower, knowledge of science and geology or effort from the reader. Sci-fi and fantasy does make the reader a little uncomfortable and gives them a learning curve.
Or maybe just don't review books like this if you're already starting with a biased mindset? -
A surprisingly light-hearted cat-and-mouse game, playing out a grim space colony, in thrall to technology and industrialism run amok. Chaotic, grotesque, deeply weird and very fun. For fans of The Expanse and The Three-Body Problem, this is chum in the water... I hope there's more.
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This is a rush like a rollercoaster. Definitely needs time and attention to read but during the current world situation I'm looking for this kind of escapism. Not a book for readers looking for something light and easy.
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Review originally posted on
The Bibliophile Chronicles.
Liquid Crystal Nightingale is the epic tale of Pleo Tanza a young woman living in a futuristic space colony named Chatoyance. Her father is struggling as the only survivor of an immense accident and her sister is dead, but Pleo is a survivor and to do that she is determined to escape her life. When she is unknowingly involved in the murder of one of her classmates Pleo must go on the run, but as secrets begin to unravel, life on Chatoyance might change forever.
Liquid Crystal Nightingale is a fast paced and exciting debut, set in a fascinating world. The world building is excellent, bringing the reader into a world full of futuristic technology on a far of mining colony. Everything felt well explained and it was easy to dive into the world. Despite the futuristic world it was fascinating to explore the familiar issues raised in this book such as class, wealth and grief. Lee’s writing style is vivid and enjoyable to read, giving you the full flavour of the world without taking away from the action packed plot.
The characters are interesting and well fleshed out too. I liked our protagonist Pleo and seeing the story unfold from her perspective. As the story developed I became more and more invested and was really rooting for her towards the end. The story is a mix of political and space thriller and as such has quite a bleak outlook. The murder mystery aspect was really fascinating, and there were a few surprise twists that I didn’t see coming. It does end on a bit of a cliffhanger so it has left open the possibility of a sequel which I would love to read. Liquid Crystal Nightingale is an impressive debut, and I look forward to reading more from Eeleen Lee. -
A well written, interesting story. I look forward to reading more from Eeleen!
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**I was gifted a copy by Rebellion Publishing in exchange for an honest review**
Liquid Crystal Nightingale takes place in a future space colony that orbits a distant star. The story centres on a young woman whose life is surrounded by tragedy and is much more influenced by the machinations of the government and aristocracy that she lives amongst than she thinks.
It's a space opera/murder mystery mashup however, the latter part is less of the "who dunnit?" type and more of a "wtf is going on and why?!¿" type mystery.
I thoroughly enjoyed it although I will admit that I found myself confused at times, particularly towards the beginning with the time lines as the narrative includes a fair few flashbacks. That being said, I was hooked until the end.
The political intrigue is great, the characters are compelling with their convoluted relationships and backstories - I enjoyed Pleo's and Investigator Dumortier's chapters the most. However, it was the meticulously developed world and the writing when it came to describing the settings which captured my interest the most. A particular passage that I loved was how the overall colony is described to look like a blinking eye from space due to the synchronisation of the daily routines of the various settlements.
If Lee ever decided to revisit this world and its characters I'd definitely be down for it!!
Final Rating - 3.5/5 Stars -
What a fancy mess. A proper review is difficult as I’m not really sure what was going on. An alien attack? Well we start with that and then 150 pages in there is the suggestion of a conspiracy, by the framing of our lead character. But it’s not clear why they are being framed. Then the main character all but vanishes from the narrative, for over 100 pages.
It’s hard to visualise scenes when everything is so different. So from a word building point of view it’s fantastic. But some things have been changed simply for the sake of it. Like accessing the transit system through the roof. There are rituals and hierarchy’s that passed me by, so any impact they have on the story is lost. As if that wasn’t confusing enough, it randomly skips back in time here and there.
I couldn’t sympathise with any characters, I didn’t care about them because I didn’t know what was going on. Two characters were mentioned near the beginning, but not again until near the end, when I had completely forgotten all about them. That’s a lot of focus on the family unit at the beginning, but then we never see them again. The best character was Marsh because he was explained the clearest. We know where he’s from, what he does and what he wants. How that relates to the main ‘plot’ is a mystery.
The ending resolves some elements although the explanations are merely standard criminal tropes. But as for the rest of it... I knew as much at the end as I did on the very 1st page. That said, there were a few interesting sections. It would probably benefit greatly from a second read. But why should I need to do that? -
"The result is a richly imagined and engrossing piece of work."
Eddie Robson, SFX Magazine ( March 2020).
"...a complex and high-paced thriller."
Ian Green, The British Fantasy Society (July 2020)
"Battle Angel Alita meets Iain M. Banks."
Nerds of A Feather, (March 2020) -
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ebook copy of Liquid Crystal Nightingale in exchange for an honest review.
I honestly did not like Liquid Crystal Nightingale. It has style. It has interesting elements. I just did not understand any of it. I found it frustratingly confusing all the way through.
I wish I could provide a summary of the plot. I really cannot. I think you could describe it as a revenge plot with a mystery on top. There seems to be aliens, some class conflict, and space colonization.
I use “seems to be”, because Liquid Crystal Nightingale does not really explain anything. One of the things that holds back speculative fiction is the need for exposition. Creating fantastic worlds is one thing, but letting readers into those worlds is an entirely different matter. This author takes an almost experimental approach: she provides little to no exposition, and expects the reader to understand through context clues. I tried to understand. I really tried. I took notes on each character, setting, and concept, and reviewed those notes. It did not help. What is fla-tessen? What is a modrani? What is a SeForTec? The story talks about these things often, offering snippets of description without actually saying what they are. This is a far future story, set somewhere other than Earth in the 35th century. I have no context for any of this. How am I supposed to read between the lines to interpret an utterly foreign, completely fictional world?
The dialogue is likewise confusing. This is one of those books with clever writing, where each conversation seems to be more about what is not said. The exchanges never flow. Conversations are filled with non sequiturs. Motivations are unspoken and unclear. Characters suddenly announce discoveries apropo of nothing.
As an example, I will quote the summary of the motivation behind one of the key plot points. Bear in mind, there was only the briefest, most ambiguous hints of this previously:
It’s one of the oldest schemes: funnel some of that excess wealth to an apparently unrelated child residing off-world. Except the child is actually an embryo. Then a few years later when the child is grown, claim they are sickly and undergoing special medical treatment to explain their continued absence. Then when time is right, claim the child is dead. And ensure the child is dead. In your case it was two children. One turned out not to be viable.
I personally do not think that qualifies as one of the oldest schemes. I still do not know what this scheme was supposed to accomplish, or why the character was motivated to undertake such an obtuse, byzantine plan.
The most frustrating part is that the world seems so cool. Chatoyance is an interesting city, with intriguing infrastructure, unique culture and tech, and serious social hierarchy issues. The seeming Asian elements - particularly the focus on a martial art - are a nice departure from whitewashed futures. The implants are the most horrifying example of cybernetics I have ever seen. These and a thousand other little elements kept me going in spite of everything else.
I wish I could say I enjoyed Liquid Crystal Nightingale, but I cannot. The book has so many of those clever literary decisions that leave me frustrated. Still, I think many other readers will feel differently. The sort of people who disagree with me about Station Eleven and The Luminous Dead will probably love Liquid Crystal Nightingale. -
I'm torn by this one. It's very obviously a first novel - too many ideas crammed in without thinking them through first; jumps about confusingly in the timeline, sometimes within a single paragraph; characters who seem to have no purpose; and an abrupt ending. I coudn't really get a handle on the world-building or the plot, but there was something about the verve of it that kept me reading. For the first time ever I think that a book could have done with being longer, to give the author time to develop ideas properly and expand the plot so it makes sense! Despite the shortcomings I'm likely to pick up a subsequent novel by this author.
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Eeleen Lee’s debut SF thriller (the first in duology) successfully creates a future that feels very alien while also facing similar issues of unaccountable corporations, unchecked oligarchies and systemic corruption. However the thriller part didn’t work as there’s so much world building that the pacing falls away while the mystery is a little obvious but there’s a lot of interesting ideas here such that I’d definitely read the sequel.
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Well, where do I start with this one?
I haven't been reading much sci-fi lately, mostly because I don't seem to enjoy them as much as I imagine that I used to. I don't know if it's because of a shift in my reading tastes, or if it's an overall change in the style of writing in newer sci-fi books.
Liquid Crystal Nightingale is a case in point. I picked it up because it was written by a Malaysian and it sounded interesting enough; it's basically a murder mystery with political underpinnings set in a space colony in the future. I wanted to devour it but found myself struggling to anchor myself in the story and the world. It didn't help that besides the very carefully structured and described advanced future on Chatoyance that hinged heavily on gemology (something I have no idea about), it also flipped back and forth in time with rampant flashbacks and scarce signposts of whether the thing happening was in the present or the recent past or actually a few years back by now.
This makes it sound like I hated the book. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. It just required too much effort at the initial level. I admit, I am a very lazy reader. I was planning to review this according to my normal schedule on Wednesday (I DID finish it by then), but decided bagi chance la and did a re-read. The second read-through flowed much better when I could orient myself properly.
The world-building is well done. Chatoyance and its related space colonies feel fully-formed with interesting histories and backstories; the Tiers, the mining industries, the Artisans, the underworld and their religions. There are so many layers to the world that it has a life of its own--though that might have been its own downfall; the multi-layered complexity may have been what confused me (I don't do very well following real-life political intrigue either). I think it would appeal very much to more science-y types (or actual gemologists!) and those who like layers upon layers of political conspiracy.
The ending feels a little like an Inspector Rebus book: the mystery has been solved and the perpetrators caught, but the actual conclusion is still slightly vague. You have to read between the lines (a few times) to figure out what the perpetrators have admitted to and are being arrested for. There's a sort-of satisfaction to this, I guess.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Rebellion via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. -
I have a feeling Liquid Crystal Nightingale is going to be one of those books that other people rave about but that leaves me cold - it's not badly written, it just didn't really do anything for me and I ended up skimming the last quarter of it to see if anything actually got resolved (which it didn't, as far as I could see).
It's written from three points of view, the first being that of Pleo, who is the child of the only survivor of a mining accident, who ends up being framed for the murder of her much-wealthier classmate. Our second point of view is that of Marsh and, to be honest, I wasn't 100% sure what he was up to even by the end of the book - he may have been a revolutionary of some kind, I'm not really certain. Our third point of view character is the man tasked with investigating the crime of which Pleo is accused and he has his own issues with the bureaucracy within which he functions and where he remains still an outsider.
All of this is set in a very hierarchical society and the blurb says that this murder/accident, depending on whose perspective you go from, sets off a chain of events that threatens this. The only problem is that (unless I'm missing the end of the book) it doesn't really seem to do that at all - the storyline just stops with what appears to be a terrorist attack on the head of one of these powerful families.
Part of the problem was that I didn't really give a damn about any of these characters and so their survival (or otherwise) failed to move me. If I hadn't been looking to review this book, I'm not completely certain I would have read it through to the end and it just didn't engage me in any meaningful way. Disappointing, considering that the author can apparently string a good sentence together, to see such possibility ending up a bit half-baked.
I received a copy of this book for free from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. -
This story features amazing imagination and imagery, but it falls down when it comes to the story. It makes the reader sink or swim, dropping you into the middle of a foreign world with little explanation. After finishing the story, I still can’t figure out what kind of story it was. It had elements of science fiction, horror, crime, mystery, but none of them stood out as the story genre. I’m not saying that stories need to be put in boxed of a certain type, however one of the genres needs to take the lead and be the focus of the story.
It is much the same with characters. None of them come out strong enough to be called a protagonist or antagonist. Some are introduced, something happens with them in a scene or two and then they disappear. I’m finished the story and I still don’t really know who it was about. It’s too bad because there was the potential for some interesting characters. It was almost like the author lost interest in writing about some of them. As a reader, I want to cheer or hate a character, and it was difficult to invest in any of the people in the story because the author seemed to lose interest in them. Why would the reader care if the author doesn’t seem to?
Again, we are dropped into a new world, sometime in the future, with little or no explanation. That is not necessarily a bad thing, although I think it is a good way to lose readers. Eventually we do find out that there is a distinct class structure, although it comes far too late in the story to become a factor.
Overall, I struggled to get through this story, and the most satisfying part was getting to the last page. I think there is some potential here. In some ways the story reads like poetry, but some of the other choices made by the author left me completely unsatisfied. A dissatisfied two of five on Goodreads. -
Decent read with several interesting chapters (I especially liked the investigation, and character introspection ones), and creative sci-fi descriptions on the minutiae of living outside of earth (feels like a lived in world). The story/characters were a bit hard to follow at times, as there are many uses of bigger words that aren't common to me, so I had to stop to look them up. The book ends abruptly, and there seem to be many open threads (is there a sequel?) which I am curious to find out more about, or perhaps I did not fully grasp the plot? :)
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I half loved this book and half thought it was ridiculously confusing. It reminded me a lot of Ninefox Gambit with the dense intrigue and detailed and alien feeling worldbuilding, but I found the ending lacked the desired payoff. In fact, I felt my favorite character was completely sidelined by the end of the story, which made it all feel pretty anticlimactic as it reached its explosive conclusion. The ending read to me like it was teasing a sequel, which maybe explains some of the ways I felt the interesting parts of the story were left unfinished, but I don't know.
