The Salt Roads in The Sword and Laser

Feb 19, 2017 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: location-caribbean, location-africa, read2017, ebooks, around-the-world, sci-fi-fantasy, location-haiti, sword-and-laser

This is the third book I have read by Nalo Hopkinson, still until Veronica chose it for the Sword and Laser pick, it was unknown to me. There is a lot going on here - African mythology, ancient ritual, an international cast of women spanning different time periods, magic or voodoo, slave revolutions, slavery, freedom, etc., etc. In fact I am feeling I should not have read it the way I did, all but 50 pages in one sitting. I feel like all of it is still swirling around in my head.

One thing I know ...more

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Jul 18, 2018 Silvana rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-google, stand-alones, reading-with-friends, fyeahfantasy, female-nonbinary-authors, z-sl-sword-challenge-2018, z-sff-2018-female-challenge, mine-mine-mine, z-sff-2018-reading-challenge, lgbtqia

Sensual, atmospheric, highly unique voice. The interconnectedness and the shuffling between POVs might be disorienting - with a very late introduction to the third one - but overall, this is a fascinating reading experience. Magical realism and #Girlpower! Definitely won't be my last Hopkinson. ...more

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Mar 04, 2017 Jlawrence rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A mix of historical fiction and magical realism, following three different women in three different time periods: Mer, a healer and plantation slave in cusp-of-the-revolution Haiti; the real-life historical figure Jeanne Duval in 1840's Paris, Haitian mistress to poet Charles Baudelaire; and Thais, an Ethiopian prostitute in fourth century AD Egypt.

Hopkinson links our main characters via a framing device: African goddess Lasirén/Mami Wata, fragmented by the slave trade's dispersion of her peopl A mix of historical fiction and magical realism, following three different women in three different time periods: Mer, a healer and plantation slave in cusp-of-the-revolution Haiti; the real-life historical figure Jeanne Duval in 1840's Paris, Haitian mistress to poet Charles Baudelaire; and Thais, an Ethiopian prostitute in fourth century AD Egypt.

Hopkinson links our main characters via a framing device: African goddess Lasirén/Mami Wata, fragmented by the slave trade's dispersion of her peoples, is adrift in time and space, and, while trying to reconstitute herself and help her enslaved people, jumps from human consciousness to human consciousness in various eras - sometimes influencing the actions of the person she is 'visiting', but often just passively observing. Each individual character thread advances chronologically when we (via the goddess) return to it, so we still experience narrative momentum despite the fragmented set-up.

The writing is strong, characters well-developed, and different historical settings well-evoked (Hopkinson neatly integrates a lot of historical detail into her scenes and dialogue while avoiding the weighed-down-by superfluous-'look at all my research'-details trap that some historical fiction falls into). There's also a good amount of explicit sexual content, of both heterosexual and homosexual stripes, that's impressively handled, because it's so easy for frank sex scenes to dip into the unintentionally ridiculous, and Hopkinson deftly avoids that.

The only issues for me was that I vacillated on which character thread I was most interested in, most often wanting to get back to Mer's story, and I wish Thais's thread (which starts about half-way through the novel) had been introduced or at least hinted at earlier, though I absolutely loved her resolution. One other spoilerly nit-pick: (view spoiler). But regardless, a unique and recommended read I likely wouldn't have found on my own, so thanks to the Sword & Laser group for making it a pick, and I'll check out more Nalo Hopkinson in the future. ...more

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Mar 04, 2017 Jlawrence rated it really liked it

A mix of historical fiction and magical realism, following three different women in three different time periods: Mer, a healer and plantation slave in cusp-of-the-revolution Haiti; the real-life historical figure Jeanne Duval in 1840's Paris, Haitian mistress to poet Charles Baudelaire; and Thais, an Ethiopian prostitute in fourth century AD Egypt.

Hopkinson links our main characters via a framing device: African goddess Lasirén/Mami Wata, fragmented by the slave trade's dispersion of her peopl A mix of historical fiction and magical realism, following three different women in three different time periods: Mer, a healer and plantation slave in cusp-of-the-revolution Haiti; the real-life historical figure Jeanne Duval in 1840's Paris, Haitian mistress to poet Charles Baudelaire; and Thais, an Ethiopian prostitute in fourth century AD Egypt.

Hopkinson links our main characters via a framing device: African goddess Lasirén/Mami Wata, fragmented by the slave trade's dispersion of her peoples, is adrift in time and space, and, while trying to reconstitute herself and help her enslaved people, jumps from human consciousness to human consciousness in various eras - sometimes influencing the actions of the person she is 'visiting', but often just passively observing. Each individual character thread advances chronologically when we (via the goddess) return to it, so we still experience narrative momentum despite the fragmented set-up.

The writing is strong, characters well-developed, and different historical settings well-evoked (Hopkinson neatly integrates a lot of historical detail into her scenes and dialogue while avoiding the weighed-down-by superfluous-'look at all my research'-details trap that some historical fiction falls into). There's also a good amount of explicit sexual content, of both heterosexual and homosexual stripes, that's impressively handled, because it's so easy for frank sex scenes to dip into the unintentionally ridiculous, and Hopkinson deftly avoids that.

The only issues for me was that I vacillated on which character thread I was most interested in, most often wanting to get back to Mer's story, and I wish Thais's thread (which starts about half-way through the novel) had been introduced or at least hinted at earlier, though I absolutely loved her resolution. One other spoilerly nit-pick: (view spoiler). But regardless, a unique and recommended read I likely wouldn't have found on my own, so thanks to the Sword & Laser group for making it a pick, and I'll check out more Nalo Hopkinson in the future. ...more

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Mar 28, 2017 Beth rated it it was ok

Shelves: 50-poc, fantasy, sword-and-laser, wobble

Too literary for me. I liked the twining stories and the spirit who flew between them, but I was completely thrown out when a girl had sex with her brother. Ick. Sorry, I'm not sophisticated enough for that. I read the rest through a long pole, afraid to find something similar and refusing to engage emotionally with any character. ...more

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