Idyllian

by R.Z. Held

Nanite and implant internal technology began in the Pax Romana planetary empire's army, but it hasn't stayed there. Across four novellas and more than a century, two natives of the conquered planet Idyll must each contend with technological abilities thrust upon them without their consent. Genevieve, living in a time of war on her planet, was infected with nanites from a dying super-soldier—nanites that remade her in the image of those super-soldiers. Sienna, caught between the now-aging empire and even more violent rebels, was captured and used in a prisoner exchange in the place of a dead Pax Romana spy—leaving her with that spy’s implant in her head, leaking memories.Can Genevieve and Sienna remain themselves with internal technology taking over their minds? And what can they do when the abilities granted by that hated technology are the only thing that can save the ones they love most?

412 pages, Paperback

First published May 22, 2021

About the author

R. Z. Held is a pen name of Rhiannon Held. She writes speculative fiction, much of it in the apparently disparate subgenres of space opera and weird western. She lives in Seattle, where she works as an archaeologist for an environmental compliance firm.

Reviews

[Andrew Hindle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Idyllian is an action-packed little set of war stories centering around the planet Idyll, and the people who live there. Conquered by the Pax Romana and basically left to deal with its own war fallout, Idyll is - well, kind of a mess. Our stories (the first two at least) focus on Genevieve, an Idyllian accidentally infected with nanobots when she touched a dead Pax Romana super-soldier (the dangerous breed known as 'Installs'). A very cool and nasty premise that immediately calls to mind the dirty bullets and smallpox of real-world genocidal regimes.

Somehow managing to survive nanobot infection and thus able to pass herself off as an Install, Genevieve is roped into resistance / terrorist work by the rebel cells of Idyll who are far from the good guys here. Her nanites loaded up with a virus, she's sent off to Pax Romana HQ like an Area 51 spaceship with an Apple Mac and Smith-Goldblum team in it to bring down the enemy. Once there, she finds it is significantly more complex and difficult than the movie Independence Day, which on reflection she probably hadn't seen and it was just a simile I was using for no justifiable reason. Anyway my point is, she sees the enemy and they're - just - kinda, you know, people.

From her interactions with the retired Pax Installs and the victims of nanite poisoning she is able to save - but for what? - Genevieve begins to realise that the world isn't black and white. Her mission becomes foggy and her priorities confused. So does the reader, gotta say. I found the first two stories of this book to be action-packed but somewhat difficult to read. The scenes were great, the characters satisfyingly complex even if I didn't particularly like them - and I think that was ultimately the point - but the overall arc of the plot got a bit lost in the woods. Cool woods, though.

By the third and fourth parts (books) of the story, we shift to a later part of the Pax Romana empire and timeline, and focus on Sienna, another victim of the Pax Romana's arsenal of war. Those pesky nanobots. If only there'd been someone to build and maintain them.

Together, Genevieve and Sienna have to overcome the changes being wrought on them by the nanobots and use their nanobot-superpowers (wings, etc.) to their advantage. It's another high-action and earnestly engaging pair of stories, although ultimately I was a bit lost as we went. Again, the characters and the individual close-up scenes were really interesting, but it was difficult to string them together into a narrative I was invested in. On an even higher level, though, the book deals with themes like imperialism and the results of genocidal wars with a chilling effectiveness. So it's really only that middle-layer, with the actual narrative thread in it, that is letting down the team in some way I can't adequately explain.

Sex-o-meter

Pyrus and Genevieve have just the weirdest and most awkward flirtatious energy ever and it made me quite uncomfortable. The relationships, like the characters, are a strong thread in these stories but there was still something that fell flat. There's solid and unfettered makings of the rumpy-pumpy nasty beast with two (or more) backs here, with nice LGBT / polyam representation in the mix, but it doesn't dominate the story. Which is good, because making it more central to the plot probably wouldn't have helped. I give it a shopping trolley rattling sideways into a badly-parked Tesla out of a possible electric bullet train barrelling into a tunnel. That's actually a higher score on the sex-o-meter than it sounds, because seeing Teslas getting all banged up by the tools of late-stage retail capitalism is a niche kink of mine. 

Gore-o-meter

This is a sci-fi action espionage adventure set against the backdrop of an expansionist and then declining genocidal imperial space regime. It's got some gore on it, but a lot of it is more visceral psychological stuff or else flat-out military style violence. I think Del Toro would have a ball animating and crafting the nanite wing transformation and stuff, though. Two-and-a-half flesh-gobbets out of a possible five.

WTF-o-meter

There's minimal WTF here. Everything is well within sci-fi trope range and any mystery we have is the standard "why do humans genocide?" style mystery. More depressing than WTF-ey. One Mitch McConnell out of a possible Pale Man on the WTF-o-meter, and I think that was mainly because I was thinking about Del Toro just now.

My Final Verdict

Idyllian was an entertaining but ultimately un-gripping read for the page-count. I feel like the four novellas would be better served as separate pieces (as I assume they were originally), interspersed with some other material - artwork, some info-dumpage about the Pax Romana and the system of settled planets and how we got where we are ... but that's just me. Three stars on the Amazon / Goodreads scale.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer - I received a free copy of this book to review for the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC).

Rhiannon (R.Z.) Held has put together four of her Amsterdam Institute Novellas into one publication - Idyllian - and it really is a page turner.

This series is built upon the topics of Nanite Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Neural Implants, and a rebellion against the Pax Romana ruling empire. This four part adventure story has a lot of action, secrets, intrigue along with love interests, an AI with a cantankerous personality, friendships, and betrayals. With personality implants and leftover memories it can get a bit confusing who is who but it all somehow works as you get immersed in the storyline.

While this is definitely not hard science, Held does not stray far from possible science as there are no wormholes, time travel, etc. The characters are definitely multidimensional and there are quite a few ethical questions raised for the reader. While this probably fits into the space opera genre, there are no spaceship battles and the actually fighting is very limited. I definitely enjoyed this quadrilogy.

[Lori Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Received as a review copy from NetGalley, this is an honest review. While this author does a wonderful job at crafting a unique adventure... I wasn't totally enthralled by it. I did enjoy the brilliance of the scientific technology that infused the minds of both Genevieve and Sienna despite not feeling anything toward either character; I just didn't find either could carry the weight that the story required.