"The Dazzle of Day" by Molly Gloss (BR)

[Meredith]

Welcome to the buddy read for The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss.

Except for first impressions, please use spoiler tags and indicate chapter/percent. That way folks can read along at their own pace and check out the comments when they get there.

[Meredith]

I think I'll be starting this later this week.

[DivaDiane]

Oh, glad you set this up Meredith and glad I saw it before I set up another one.

I have to finish Servant of the Underworld before I start this, but I should manage that in about a week.

[Meredith]

No rush, I think people will be trickling in.

[Anna]

Should we agree on a new start date, or trickle in at everyone's natural pace?

[DivaDiane]

I don't know. I won't be able to start for another week probably and then it might be a while before I finish it. Not sure if everyone wants to wait till the end of the month....

[Meredith]

Want to push it to this weekend? 14th or 16/17th? (Avoiding the reread start date). I’m planning to start by the weekend.

[Christopher]

Molly Gloss on the Coode Street podcast this week, here

[Kaa]

This one is below several other things on my TBR at the moment, so I may save it for Space Opera September. I'll happily join the discussion then, though.

[Meredith]

Christopher wrote: "Molly Gloss on the Coode Street podcast this week, here"

Thanks for sharing this Christopher!

[Meredith]

I've read the first chapter (which maybe was a Prologue), Verano. (view spoiler)[ I really liked the voice of Dolores, her perspective as an older woman. I thought Gloss did a good job setting up how trashed & dystopic Earth is and why folks would want to leave. I also was reminded of The Sparrow, with the sense of going forth to colonize underpinned by a religious foundation. (hide spoiler)]

[Francisca]

I just read Verano last night. (view spoiler)[ I agree, I love Dolores's voice and the way she quietly took us through all the considerations and twists around the decision of leaving Earth. I found the moment towards the end when she opens the box of books she's taking and starts reconsidering, "why this one and not that one" particularly poignant. Overall the tone was a lot more reflective than I was expecting -- I'm excited to keep reading!

Flipping through the book without really reading, it looks as if we'll have lots of different perspectives as the book goes on, it'll be interesting to see how that works. Some authors can really pull it off, but sometimes it's tiring to keep jumping from one head to another. (hide spoiler)]

[Meredith]

I'm at the end of Chapter 2 (~27%). (view spoiler)[ Interesting so far, and getting a quick crash course in what life is like on the Dusty Miller. I am having a hard time visualizing what Gloss is describing for the sail & mast arrangement (in Juko's chapter) and some of the other descriptions of the ship, beyond the toroid shape. (hide spoiler)]

@Francisca, on your second paragraph comment, I noticed that too (view spoiler)[ I think it will be interesting to see if she can make the people distinct from each other. (hide spoiler)]

[Meredith]

I've finished Part 1, about halfway through the book. (view spoiler)[ I'm really appreciating the richness of the world Gloss has created and the many details of daily life, and life over the decades on the ship, that she is giving us. It really is a 'slice of life' and I like that the different characters allow us to see different parts of the ship and roles on it. I've been most affected by some of the smaller details, like the beetles and ants that the colonists had to think about and bring with them. Or the casual mentions of things that are quite sad and significant, like instances of birth defects in children, the loss of all the cats to a disease, the fact that the colonists haven't had actual, real sunlight for several decades. (hide spoiler)]

[Francisca]

I've read through the beginning of Chapter 3. (view spoiler)[ I am also having a hard time visualizing the ship overall - it especially sounds so vast, with the neighborhoods and pathways. I half gave up, but she spends a lot of time describing the way the sails work that I felt as if I was missing part of the point.

I find the timing of the plot intriguing, with the prologue on the brink of the departure and the main plot about 150 years later.

I'm not sure how I feel about the interspersing of Esperanto. I find it more distracting than anything else, and I keep having to go back to the glossary to check the meaning of words. The concept of simanas, however, is interesting -- a very apropos concept for right now too! It has surprised me how sad the book is, or maybe melancholy is a better word for it. I am currently in the middle of 2001: Space Odyssey , which has a more enterprising, "Space: the Final Frontier" tonality, and so maybe I some of that is bleeding into how I'm reading this book.

Overall, I do feel as if I'm still settling into the book, not sure where it's going, but feeling as if it's taking me somewhere . She does paint a vibrant picture of space society. (hide spoiler)]

[Meredith]

Francisca wrote: "I've read through the beginning of Chapter 3. "
I agree with your comment (view spoiler)[ about it being melancholy. I was finding the story (or the characters) very contemplative, but melancholy works too, especially in the first couple chapters where they're dealing with the death of the one character.

I liked the Esperanto, even though I also had to check the glossary. It reminded me that the people on the ship were from all over and I assumed that they used Esperanto as a common language, rather than picking just one or a couple languages. (hide spoiler)]

[Meredith]

Content warning for chapter 7 Bjoro (view spoiler)[ character has an emotional/psychological breakdown, marital rape, self-harm (hide spoiler)]

I am through Chapter 9 now. I am finding the structure and progression of this very interesting and engrossing though it's not what I expected when I started (view spoiler)[ I thought there would be more action and it is much more an internal character story. In some ways, it doesn't need to be set on a space station to explore most of the community and individual aspects. Bringing the community of Quakers into this scenario is a very different approach to the type of people usually populating books about colonization and space-travel. One story with a similar premise is The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell, in that the religious beliefs of some characters guide the goals of the space journey. (hide spoiler)]