The City in the Middle of the Night in Beyond Reality

Jul 25, 2020 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sf

Argh. This was brilliant. The worldbuilding. The characters. The writing. Brilliant. I understand the Le Guin comparisons and think they're well earned. ...more

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Jun 04, 2019 Wealhtheow rated it liked it

Shelves: queer-characters, sci-fi, pocmaincharacters

Sophie just barely got into university, and doing well is her only shot at escaping the physical labor her class is used to. But when her best friend Bianca is on the verge of getting into trouble for stealing food chits, Sophie takes the blame and is exiled from Xiosphant into the frozen darkness that surrounds the city. To her shock, an alien beast saves her life and shows itself to be a sentient creature like herself.

Meanwhile, Mouth is the last of the Citizens, trying to find purpose and co Sophie just barely got into university, and doing well is her only shot at escaping the physical labor her class is used to. But when her best friend Bianca is on the verge of getting into trouble for stealing food chits, Sophie takes the blame and is exiled from Xiosphant into the frozen darkness that surrounds the city. To her shock, an alien beast saves her life and shows itself to be a sentient creature like herself.

Meanwhile, Mouth is the last of the Citizens, trying to find purpose and companionship on the road. When she hears that the Citizens' Invention is kept in the Xiosphant palace, she insinuates herself into the same revolutionary group that Bianca has joined. Bianca wants revolution and revenge against the people she thinks killed her friend; Mouth just wants them to cause a distraction long enough to get her inside the palace. When Sophie returns, neither of their dreams go to plan.

The world building and concepts here are so, so cool. Humans from around the globe crafted a generation ship to colonize another world, and their cultural backgrounds and the events that took place during those hundred+ years in space still color their societies and reactions on the alien planet they settled. And that alien planet has huge influence itself, being such a stark place that even surviving on its surface is a tenuous prospect. The two human cities that currently exist (authoritarian Xiosphant and mob-run Argelo) are each fascinating places, as is the Gelet city and lifestyle. I was left feeling almost like I'd been to each place, and yearning to eat the food.

The book spent far more time than I liked going back and forth in the relationships between Bianca, Sophie, Mouth and her colleague Alyssa. While undoubtedly true to life of the messiness of friendships and crushes, narrative-wise it got old. Especially since after a while all the characters' dialog started sounding too similar, even though every one of them was wildly different in terms of cultural background, motivations, and personality. The book spends far longer with the characters in Argelo as they party, connect with old friends, and try to figure out what to do next, and then (view spoiler)

There is a lot in here about various traumas, and the way they can shape someone, be worked through, or just continue to hang around. And even more about perception and story, how what stories get told create our views on reality, and how our perspective on a person or situation might be very different from others'. I particularly enjoyed every time someone describes their take on Mouth, because everyone thinks she's an unstoppable badass while internally she's a wibbling fawn.

Basically this book felt like Dune crossed with The Left Hand of Darkness with an up to date sensibility. If you're into cool alien planets that want to kill you, and the human societies that are vainglorious/desperate enough to try to live there anyway, you might very well enjoy this book. If you're really looking for journeys of personal growth and discovery and lots of intense, not particularly healthy female friendships, this will be even more up your alley. ...more

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