Reading 1001 discussion

Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle - Vladimir Nabokov, 1969.

This was a BOTM 2018, please post reviews here.

Read this for my first TBR of the year and- well it sure was something. The plot had my interest on and off but I was so intrigued by the worldbuilding and concept of this novel (and Nabokov's consistency with the rules and norms of this alternate history) that I gave it 4 stars.

The setting is an alternate universe world history where Canada is divided into 2 states: The Russian colonized West coast or "Estoty" and the French colonized East coast or "Canady", and Europe seems to be divided into either "The British Empire" (most of it) or Tartary (essentially Russia). Some sort of near apocalypse event resulted in banning electricity being banned and everything is run on water power. It's a steam punk alternate universe yall....

And then most of the plot is about an incestous affair between two full siblings who are first raised to believe they are cousins. It is to a degree compelling in a way about breaking taboos, and the way hell can be what we do to each other.

It's a unique and innovative book- I just think I liked the setup more than the plot, which is where it loses a point for. "lurid affair" plots are almost never my thing, and I was interested in more of the social and political ramifications of the worldbuilding.