Awesomesauce

In my defence, most of 2026 so far has been spent dealing with incapacitating levels of fatigue, which might finally be getting better (and that needs to be a separate post).

But the major problem is that I wanted to re-read Cascade, the first book in the trilogy, before starting Blight.

And while I loved Cascade -- here is my rave from way back when -- it produces an overwhelming sense of dread in me, even more than it did so on first read, because it captures, with remarkable precision and effectiveness, the sense of living in a liberal democracy that is teetering on the edge of ceasing to be one, and the stomach-dropping sensation when things begin moving unspeakably fast.

It's a very good book, but -- you see the problem.

Anyway, in recent weeks I finally got myself to re-read Cascade, and then I tore through Blight in a few days. Weirdly, I found it a much less difficult read because it's (both politically and environmentally) a post-apocalyptic novel, in which some kind of fightback is beginning.

Anyway it's fucking fantastic, without any of the common middle-book-of-a-trilogy doldrums. A really spectacular and unique mixture of wild magic, cosmic horror, and organizing for revolution, the last written with gritty specificity. The author is dead and all that, I don't know what's firsthand knowledge and what's research, but this is a book that (for example) writes with deep credibility about what it feels like to be in a crowd being tear-gassed.

As well as being a very good book, it also feels it's maybe a psychologically useful book to read right now.

I would like to do a proper write-up but I still have no idea what my energy's going to be doing day to day, so in the meantime here's a hype post, and if you want a review here's james_davis_nicoll's:

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/land-of-hope

ETA: Also it's on the Aurora Award shortlist for Best Novel:

https://www.csffa.ca/awards-information/current-ballot/

Ob!disclaimer that the author is an internet acquaintance, but I do in fact love the book.

People need to read Cameron Reed's What We Are Seeking because I need to have a discussion group, okay? Also it's extremely good.

I've just started listening to the Wizards vs. Lesbians ep on it, and am very pleased that they independently ping on Le Guin and Delany as reference points, and also accurately summarize its timeslip quality by saying it's "from the '70s if the '70s were 2026."

Also they clearly love John Maraintha, which is very important because he's delightful.

I tried to describe the book to vass by saying that it's like picking up a beautiful object -- I'm visualizing some sort of carved stone sculpture or ceramic item -- and finding out that its centre of gravity is wildly different (both in weight and location) from what your hands instinctively anticipated from its appearance.

And it's not a bait-and-switch! The book's initial premise is that it's about a human colony on an alien planet discovering a potentially-sapient species and urgently needing to find out if they are sapient, establish communication (if possible), and manage this First Contact correctly because there are dire consequences if they fuck it up (yes, a retro classic*).

And the book is in fact very much about that, and it drives many of the events that ensue. It is not at any point not about that, and its themes of communication, colonialism, and adaptation to an alien world are, well ... everything the book is about.

It has some casually-spectacular world-building, and a sequence involving a dangerous journey and struggle for survival in an alien landscape which stands up next to any in the canon (including an action sequence which genuinely made me make a noise of startlement and alarm OUT LOUD while reading).

And nonetheless, the scene which I would consider the emotional climax of the book, its great pivot point, is -- well, I refuse to describe it because of spoilers, but it's fair to say that it's not anything you'd ever expect from the above descriptions. It's so bold, in the quietest way.

{*I enjoy the book immediately explaining that alien life on this planet has a weird reproductive cycle, because OBVIOUSLY IT HAS A WEIRD REPRODUCTIVE CYCLE, we've read sf before; that is not being saved to be the Big Reveal.}

ETA: Free sample! Read the first two chapters here!

https://civilianreader.com/2026/03/17/excerpt-what-we-are-seeking-by-cameron-reed-tor-books/