2016 science fiction novel by Ada Palmer
Too Like the Lightning is the first novel in a science fiction quartet called "Terra Ignota," written by the American author Ada Palmer. It was published on May 10, 2016. Its sequels are "Seven Surrenders" (2017), "The Will to Battle" (2017), and "Perhaps the Stars" (2021). The novel won the 2017 Compton Crook Award. It was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the James Tiptree Jr Memorial Award.
Set in the year 2454, the Earth of the "Terra Ignota" quartet has seen several centuries of near-total peace and prosperity. "Too Like the Lightning" is a fictional memoir written by self-confessed unreliable narrator Mycroft Canner, a brilliant, infamous, and paroled criminal who often serves the world's most powerful leaders. He has been commissioned by several other characters to write the "history" that the series is presented as.
Mycroft frequents the Saneer-Weeksbooth home, in which an important stolen document has been planted. The mystery of why and by whom serves as a focal point which draws many different characters, vying for global power and peace, into involvement with the family. Meanwhile, Mycroft tries to protect and conceal a child named Bridger, who has the power to make the unreal real.
The title is taken from a Shakespearean quote from "Romeo and Juliet" in which Juliet expresses fear that her love for Romeo has developed too quickly and might disappear as fast.
Setting.
Advanced technology has led to the advent of a near-utopian golden age. However, there are still tensions among political groups, such as distribution of land, citizens, and income. Rather than geographic nations, people can voluntarily join Hives based on values or remain Hiveless, choosing only a minimum set of laws to adhere to. There are seven Hives: the Humanists who value achievement; Cousins, philanthropy; Masons, logic; Gordians, intelligence; Europe, national identity; Mitsubishi, land and business; and Utopians, the future. There are three groups of Hiveless who each adhere to the White, Gray, and Black laws. Each Hive has its own capitol, form of government, and favored language. All are allotted representatives in the Universal Free Alliance Senate.
Gendered language.
By default, almost all characters use gender-neutral language, with "they/them" the predominant pronoun used. Mycroft, the primary narrator, finds his world's obsession with gender-neutrality oppressive, so often uses gendered pronouns to refer to other characters, assigning genders based on the characters' personalities and roles. For instance, Chagatai is referred to using "she/her" pronouns because of their fierce, lioness-like strength when protecting their nephew from attack. The author has explained that Mycroft frequently "misuses" gendered pronouns, just as people in real life often make mistakes when using gender-neutral pronouns. Also, in its chapter at the start of "Seven Surrenders", Sniper advises the reader to not "trust the gendered pronouns Mycroft gives people, they all come from Madame". Mycroft sometimes varies the gendered pronouns he gives characters. For instance, Carlyle is mostly referred to using she/her pronouns starting with "Seven Surrenders", whereas in the first book Carlyle is referred to with he/him pronouns.(This article uses the pronouns that Mycroft uses, changing when he changes.)
Plot.
Set in the year 2454, the novel is a fictional memoir written by self-confessed unreliable narrator Mycroft Canner, a brilliant, infamous, and paroled criminal who often serves the world's most powerful leaders. He has been commissioned by several other characters to write the "history" that the series is presented as. Mycroft frequents the Saneer-Weeksbooth home, in which an important stolen document has been planted. The mystery of why and by whom serves as a focal point which draws many different characters, vying for global power and peace, into involvement with the family. Meanwhile, Mycroft tries to protect and conceal a child named Bridger, who has the power to make the unreal real.
March the twenty-third, 2454.
Carlyle Foster has been assigned as the new sensayer (professional spiritual guide) of the Saneer-Weeksbooth bash'. He enters their home suddenly and witnesses the death of a living toy soldier, brought to life by Bridger's miracle. Martin Guildbreaker has also arrived at the bash' to investigate a crime: an unpublished newspaper article from the "Black Sakura" was stolen and planted in the bash'house as though to frame them for grand theft. Martin meets and interrogates Ockham Saneer, head of the bash'.
Mycroft is summoned to Tōgenkyō by Chief Director Hotaka Andō Mitsubishi. Andō and his wife Danaë interrogate Mycroft. Carlyle returns to the bash', gets to know Eureka Weeksbooth and touches base with Mycroft.
March the twenty-fourth, Renunciation Day.
Mycroft and Censor Vivien Ancelet calculate the economic and cultural impact of the "Black Sakura" situation. Dominic Seneschal enters the Saneer-Weeksbooth bash' to investigate. The Hive leaders approve J.E.D.D. Mason to lead the investigation of the crime. Mycroft answers questions for two Utopians who are also on the case.
Switching narrators briefly, Martin Guildbreaker dictates an interview with "Black Sakura" reporter Tsuneo Sugiyama, where he begins to learn about the conspicuous suicides and car crashes which have been subtly affecting world politics.
March the twenty-fifth.
An unplanned security drill is called that morning at the Saneer-Weeksbooth bash'. J.E.D.D. Mason arrives. They realize that Dominic has been skulking around the bash'house for a full day. J.E.D.D. and Ockham negotiate.
Mycroft finds Bridger distressed: Dominic Seneschal has found Bridger's cave and confiscated many items. Mycroft wants to hide Bridger, but Thisbe is suspicious. Carlyle finds out Mycroft is the infamous serial killer Mycroft Canner who tortured, murdered, and ate the seventeen Mardi bash' members thirteen years before.
Julia Doria-Pamphili, Mycroft's court-appointed sensayer, arrives. Carlyle and Julia travel together and discuss how Andō and Danaë's bash'kids are suspiciously entering high offices throughout the Hives.
March the twenty-sixth.
Saladin, Mycroft's secret lover and accomplice, has found the only remaining Mardi, Tully. Mycroft asks Saladin to kill Bridger if he is about to be captured.
Thisbe and Carlyle go to the 'black hole' in Paris which Eureka says J.E.D.D. Mason frequents. It turns out to be a secret, Eighteenth-Century era themed, high-security Gendered Sex Club, where some worship J.E.D.D. Mason as a god. They find out that the world leaders often secretly assemble and make deals here, united by Madame D'Arouet and J.E.D.D. Mason, her son.
Martin Guildbreaker conducts interviews with Cato Weeksbooth and his psychiatrist. Mycroft discusses Madame's club and the Humanist's Death Wish List with Eureka over text. He stumbles upon Tully Mardi in public and has his cover as a Servicer blown. He and Tully attempt to attack each other, which is prevented by the Utopians. Mycroft is taken to Julia Doria-Pamphili's office, where he overhears a theological tryst between her and Dominic Seneschal.
The world leaders meet at Madame's. Saladin finds Bridger in distress, takes him to a safe house, and decides to hunt down Dominic.
March the twenty-seventh.
Carlyle finds a group of Humanists harassing Servicers near Bridger's cave. Seeing Bridger's collection cave, as full of toys as J.E.D.D. Mason's home was full of religious relics, Carlyle realizes a connection between them. He departs for Paris.
A final interlude by Martin Guildbreaker commences: a consultation with Commissioner General Ektor Papadelias. By examining the pattern of car crashes and Cato Weeksbooth's suicidal episodes, they realize the Saneer-Weeksbooth bash' is carrying out targeted assassinations, ostensibly in order to maintain the world political status quo and prevent war. They debate the kill-dozens-to-save-thousands ethics of pursuing this investigation. If these assassinations are revealed, war may begin.
Characters.
"For a full list of the quartet's characters, see the main article for Terra Ignota."
Hiveless.
People who, either by choice or by youth, are not part of any Hive.
Humanist Hive.
The Saneer-Weeksbooth bash'house (family).
A Humanist bash' which invented the global flying car system and has run it for almost 400 years. Their home and headquarters is in the "Spectacle City" of Cielo de Pájaros, Chile. The current members' parents and predecessors all recently died in a white-water rafting accident.
Reception.
NPR qualifies the book as "maddening, majestic, ambitious" and the worldbuilding as a "thrilling feat", but deplored the abrupt ending. The New York Review of Science Fiction compares the narrator with Alex from "A Clockwork Orange". Cory Doctorow for "Boing Boing" wrote that it was “more intricate, more plausible, more significant than any debut I can recall." Liz Bourke of Tor.com wrote that it is "self-aware, wickedly elegant, and intoxicatingly intelligent".
Paul Kincaid in "Strange Horizons" was disappointed by the gender treatment in "Too Like the Lightning", deploring the direct abandon by the narrator, preferring the style in "Ancillary Justice". They consider the book concepts had the potential to be "one of the most significant works of contemporary science fiction" but fails to "[live] up to its aspirations".
Awards.
"Too Like the Lightning" was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and won the 2017 Compton Crook Award for the best first novel in the genre published during the previous year. It was a 2016 James Tiptree Jr. Award Honors List Selection and nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, Chicago Review of Books Award for Best Debut Novel, World Technology Award for Arts. and the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
References.
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