God's War (Bel Dame Apocrypha, #1) in The Alternative Worlds

Apr 17, 2012 Wealhtheow rated it liked it

Shelves: pocmaincharacters, sci-fi, fantasy, queer-characters

On a hardscrabble alien world populated with what humanity becomes in the far future, a long holy war rages. Both sides have drafted all their men for so many generations that the societies left behind have become nearly matriarchal, populated by females, boys, and the very old or damaged men who survived their war service. Their planet is nealry deadly for humanity, and over the years its colonists have made all sorts of adjustments. Now they scrape themselves regularly for cancers the way mode On a hardscrabble alien world populated with what humanity becomes in the far future, a long holy war rages. Both sides have drafted all their men for so many generations that the societies left behind have become nearly matriarchal, populated by females, boys, and the very old or damaged men who survived their war service. Their planet is nealry deadly for humanity, and over the years its colonists have made all sorts of adjustments. Now they scrape themselves regularly for cancers the way modern people go in for dental cleanings, and reattach body parts as a matter of course.

In this strange and brutal place we are introduced to Nyx, a woman who has lost her faith on the battlefield but can't let go of her own version of honor. On the very first page, Nyx sells her womb for cash, then loses it all gambling on a pretty boxer. The upside is, she gets to bed the boxer. (view spoiler) After falling out with her bounty hunting sisters, Nyx gets herself a new crew: a mediocre magician, a refugee shifter, an ex-convict, and a half-breed comm tech. None of them are particularly good or well-respected, but they're bound together by Nyx's unstoppable will. Times are hard, and although they're stacking bodies like firewood in the freezer, the bounty hunts never pay quite enough. Then they get a new hunt: to find an alien gene scientist who's lost somewhere in enemy territory. The stakes have never been higher, because whoever has the alien will probably win the war.

Although the plot is fast-paced, action-heavy and twisty, it's really secondary to seeing inside the characters' heads, most particularly Nyx and her bug-magician, Rhys. Nyx drinks whiskey like water, has sex with anyone she pleases, and gave up on god (or felt given up) years ago. Rhys is a refugee from the country she nearly died fighting, and is so pious he can hardly bear to pray in the presence of women. They're drawn to each other without knowing why or how, but refuse to acknowledge how much they need each other, not even to themselves. The unresolved tension between them didn't really work for me: neither of them respects or seems sexually attracted to the other, and they don't talk much, so we the reader are just told repeatedly that they feel things for each other, and that Rhys is known as her shadow. But as individual characters, they're each very well-drawn, complicated people.

The 'verse Hurley has created here is novel, populated by pitiless, practical people. It's not a pleasant read, really, but it's certainly an interesting one. ...more

18 likes · Like · see review

Jun 17, 2012 Terence rated it liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction

Any world where you want a healthy population of roaches in your kitchen and bathroom is potentially interesting in the hands of a good writer. Fortunately, Kameron Hurley is pretty good, and Umayma is one of the more interesting future histories to appear in the last few years – insect-based technology, an Islam-influenced culture, a centuries-old religious war, an organization of murderous female assassins, boxing, magicians and shapeshifters.

Such a world, however, would be a sterile read no m Any world where you want a healthy population of roaches in your kitchen and bathroom is potentially interesting in the hands of a good writer. Fortunately, Kameron Hurley is pretty good, and Umayma is one of the more interesting future histories to appear in the last few years – insect-based technology, an Islam-influenced culture, a centuries-old religious war, an organization of murderous female assassins, boxing, magicians and shapeshifters.

Such a world, however, would be a sterile read no matter how inventive the details if there weren’t any interesting characters populating it, and here again Hurley comes through. Both of the protagonists, Nyx, erstwhile bel dame (see “murderous female assassins” above), and Rhys, fugitive Chenjan magician (though not a very good one), are believably complex characters motivated by misplaced senses of inadequacy and a need for atonement that translates into making them an extraordinarily effective team. (view spoiler)

Hurley offers enough detail to make Umayma seem real without overwhelming you with boring exposition. For example, Umayman xenophobia is clearly expressed by the fact that the non-Umayman humans are always referred to as “the aliens.” Or there’s the factoid that most visitors to the system were attacked and destroyed (which very quickly isolated the planet from the rest of the galaxy).

I was also intrigued by Hurley’s almost coy allusions to the permutations of Islam that have shaped the dominant nations of the planet (Nasheen – a female-dominated polity – and Chenja – still ruled by male mullahs). Rhys carries a copy of the Kitab, not a Quran. “Kitab” is Arabic for “book”; “Bible” derives from the Latin for “book.” So one wonders what the contents of Rhys’s scripture is. And there are allusions to a more Christianity-oriented religious war being fought amongst “the aliens,” who play a prominent part in the plot.

I would strongly recommend this book. The violence can be over the top but I think that’s another one of its strengths in that it depicts the deteriorization of civil society in the face of endemic war (a depiction further elaborated on in the sequel, Infidel, where the “diplomatic” overtures of the bel dames are contrasted with the cultured responses of the Tirhani). I would say that I’m looking forward to the next book in the series but as I’ve already read it, that would be untrue. However, I am looking forward to the third book, Rapture, coming in November.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t also recommend Ceridwen’s review, which does a far better job than I of conveying the uniqueness of this book. ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Dec 21, 2010 Danielle The Book Huntress rated it it was amazing

Shelves: urban-fantasy, kickbutt-heroine, apocalyptic-postapocalyptic-dystopi, wizard-warlock-sorcerer, very-dark-read, soldier-or-military, science-fantasy, assassin, owned-copy, warrior-woman

Dark, disturbing, brutal, fascinating. This was a fantastic book, in my opinion.

Check Bitten by Books for a full review. http://www.bittenbybooks.com.

...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Mar 20, 2011 Regina rated it really liked it

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, fantasy, urban-fantasy-uf, gender-bending, science-fiction, award-winner, freebies, owned-kobo

This is not a full review as I read this books months ago, it is sort of a remembering. I just learned it is a nominee for the 2011 Nebula Awards, so I thought the book deserved some write up. This book and the world written about in this book is unlike anything else I have ever read. The world building was fantastic and so unique. Magic and technology run on bugs. Control of bugs gives individuals more power. The society is devoid of men because they are at war; fighting has been going on for c ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

May 27, 2013 Daniel Roy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, wwe-wogf, abandoned

The writing and characterization are nice enough, but I guess the timing is not in this book's favor. I tried to get into it, but I couldn't force myself to care for the setting or the characters. I'm gonna just give it up now, instead of struggling with it.

I like that the author made the setting Muslim without turning it into an oriental fetish. Culturally, the setting is clearly Muslim, but also firmly its own thing. And the female character really kick a lot of ass. That's all good stuff, whi ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 08, 2013 Ryandake rated it liked it

Shelves: 2013-challenge

hmm... if my group hadn't read this, i probably never would have, 'cause i'm quite god-averse and not all that fond of war, either.

but i gave it a shot. and now i'm a little perplexed about what to say about it.

it's a well-written book with some very interesting and unusual world-building--a society divided by in some ways the thinnest of margins, fighting a war that's gone on forever, when some off-worlders intervene. our heroine, a very battle-scarred assassin type, gets caught up in the middl ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 27, 2011 Tamara added it · review of another edition

Shelves: female-protagonist, author-female, soft-sf, a-bunch-of-lonesome-heroes, islam, sf, war, action, distant-planet, lgbt-content

When men go of to war, women are supposed weep and worry. Not here. A book not about the war, but about those left behind, those who come back, people and cultures gutted and reduced. Whats startling is the choice not to make this mournful or sentimental - the story of waiting women - but instead the world behind the front is almost uncompromisingly vile, a bitter, post apocalyptic wreck, the war it's symptom as much as it's cause.

I enjoyed the world building a lot as well - only broadly sketch ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Oct 22, 2016 Tatjana rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction-science-fiction

I gave it 100 pages. Since the book had 250-something, I figured that was enough to see if I would like it. I didn't, though I really wanted to. It was disappointing, since it had all of the elements I really like.
The narrative seemed like it was being rushed past a dirty window, to me. I don't like it when narratives get rushed around and I don't give a crap about the characters. That indicates it's probably a stylistic mismatch rather than the book being a BAD book.
I wouldn't BUY it. Check it ...more

Like · see review