Everfair (Everfair, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Dec 23, 2016 Beverly rated it really liked it

Shelves: england, newtome2016, africa, speculative-fiction

this was a 3.5 read for me
thoughts coming shortly

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Feb 28, 2018 Anie rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018, library, sff, fiction, male-protagonist, female-protagonist, female-author

This is intelligent alternate history streampunk; it has numerous enjoyable characters; it deals with all manner of weighty things, from racism to nation building. It has a lot going for it.

At the same time, I found this a hard read. The episodic nature of the book made it hard to sink in deeply, and meant the pacing was difficut to weather. I recommend it, but also completely understand people not finishing it.

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Apr 24, 2017 Tony rated it it was ok

Shelves: speculative-fiction, setting-africa, novels, unfinished, historical-fiction

The concept of blending steampunk with alternative history as a view into Victorian-era colonialism and the Congo Free State sounded amazing, so I snapped this up. Alas, the execution left so much to be desired that I fizzled out about halfway through. So much about it had the potential to be great and the fact that it isn't boils down to the author rushing to cram too many ideas into too little a space. It's funny, because I often feel like too many books are bloated and would benefit from a sh The concept of blending steampunk with alternative history as a view into Victorian-era colonialism and the Congo Free State sounded amazing, so I snapped this up. Alas, the execution left so much to be desired that I fizzled out about halfway through. So much about it had the potential to be great and the fact that it isn't boils down to the author rushing to cram too many ideas into too little a space. It's funny, because I often feel like too many books are bloated and would benefit from a sharp trimming, but this is a rare case where I feel like the best approach would have been to take the time to flesh this out into a trilogy.

The basic premise is that an unusual alliance of British socialists and African-American preachers purchase the Congo Free State from King Leopold of Belgium. (Adam Hoschild's monumental King Leopold's Ghost should be a prerequisite before picking this up.) They do in order to create the titular land as a safe haven for a mish-mash of idealists and those fleeing oppression in America and Africa. This makes for a potentially fascinating, but massive, set of characters, whose collective voice comes across the page as more of a cacophony than a coherent chorus. The choppy narrative voice is further compounded by the brevity of chapters and leaps of time covering a sum of four decades, which make it a bit tricky to keep the entire enterprise clear.

In the end, I kept wishing that I could have gotten the story from either a consistent viewpoint, or at least a steadier pace. One approach would have been to break it into thirds, telling the story from each perspective: one African, one European, and one African-American, but expanding it so that there's enough space to really become invested in the characters. As it is, they flit and out too quickly to really appreciate the subtle nuances of culture they embody, and undergo seemingly rapid transformations that aren't really earned. The story has a rich cast with which to play out the conflict between utopian ideas and race, class, culture, and commerce, but kind of rushes through a lot of this. And when you add in a whole patina of steampunk tech, like clockwork prosthetics, various steam-powered transports, and new weapons, the book just can't stand under its own weight.

I dunno, I guess this all held together for plenty of other people, I just couldn't stick with it -- but I would be eager to read something else by the author. Looks like she's a prolific writer of short fiction, and I wonder if that might be her real strength. ...more

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Aug 15, 2018 Deedee rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, nebula-award-nominee, alternate-history, scifi-and-fantasy-book-club, scifi-and-fantasy-club-read, sff-180-16-in-16, read-2018, read-2018-fsf-and-horror, challenge-2018-summer, afro-futurism

It was hard to get into because I didn't like any of the major characters or most of the minor charcters. (Fwendi was cool, but she didn't have enough story time to carry a novel.) The concept was intriguing: steampunk in central Africa, combined with Africans successfully resisting European colonization in the 19th century. ...more

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