The 91av Book Club has spent July reading Claire North’s space opera . Set in the far future, it follows the fortunes of a civilisation that has just learned that their planet will be destroyed by a supernova – in 100 years’ time.
“What does it mean to look into the heavens and know the exact date when a star will die and with it, your world?” North wrote in a fascinating essay for book club members on why they started the book with this conceit. “What choices do you make, and what price would you pay to save yourself – or your civilisation?”
Alongside this end-of-the-world tale, Slow Gods is also a love story between North’s protagonist Maw, a pilot who can navigate the dangers of faster-than-light travel but who is a little prone to murdering people, and Gebre, a citizen of that planet on the brink of annihilation, Adjumir.
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Our science-fiction columnist Emily H. Wilson had heartily recommended this one: “It has been a while since I have read a piece of science fiction so purely delightful.” I was also enraptured. North’s writing was elegant, insightful and effortlessly funny (I hate try-hard humour in my fiction). And the concept at the heart of the story, the idea of how a civilisation might deal with imminent, but not all that imminent, destruction? It was fascinating and terrifying; as North told me in our interview for book club members, this is a deliberate parallel with climate change. “Subtle metaphor it is not,” they said.
Slow Gods wasn’t only a hit with me and Emily – I think it’s one of our most popular books so far with members. “The writing is gorgeous, and it has the big concept space opera feel that I really like,” wrote adidubey on our . “One of the more satisfying reads we have had,” added Matthew. “This book club usually picks things I wouldn’t and some are good and some less so (none that I have not finished) but there is a lot of variety and it gets me out of my rut of only reading the familiar.”
I did find the opening a little stodgy and slow to get going, which is often a problem for space operas, as the writer looks to set their galactic scene. Butterfly368 was with me on this: “The beginning was a bit slow and confusing, but the deeper I got, the more invested I became. It’s one of those books that gradually pulls you in rather than grabbing you from page one,” they wrote. “I’m also enjoying its commentary on the meaning we create in our lives and on society and culture more broadly. It’s given me quite a bit to think about.” Melissa, however, loved it from the first. “50 pages in and totally engrossed. I’ve felt gut punched with recognition at some of the terrible treatment of people but also laughed into an empty room a couple of times. Whyyyyyy do I have to go to work?” she wrote.
Barbara Howe had some interesting comparisons to make with some of her favourite reads. “Reminded me a bit at the start of [Ann Leckie’s] Ancillary Justice, mainly in how much I was struggling to understand what was going on, and how many questions were raised early on that didn’t get answered until much later – if at all,” she wrote. “Also, whenever [Maw] talked about having trouble with social situations and understanding his feelings, I was reminded of Murderbot ‘having an emotion’.”
North, incidentally, had some interesting things to say in our chat about Maw’s struggle to fit in; he “is the protagonist you write when you are an adult diagnosed with autism late in your life”, they told me. North and I also dug into the multiple pronouns used in this story – something Carrie noted on Discord, writing that “I’m really enjoying the world building and while they can take a little getting used to, feel that the introduction of new pronouns really add to the story and provide insight into the cultures we’re being introduced to”. “People exist on a spectrum,” said North in our chat. “In the English language, we may still only really have ‘he’ and ‘she’ as the commonly accepted expression of gender, but that spectrum is enormous. It ranges from Arnold Schwarzenegger through to Harry Kane through to Alan Carr, then straight on keeps on going. The enormity of that spectrum feels too big for ‘he’ and ‘she’ to actually cover.”
Alan_P was another big fan. “I absolutely loved it. I’m looking up other books by the same author in my library which is something I rarely do,” he wrote. “I also (unexpectedly for me – I’m not a fan of romance in general) found myself really enjoying the love story at the centre of the book. For me it’s the very clever way that the author has woven these different themes of not quite requited love, galaxy spanning science fiction, commentary of contemporary events and a really good story that makes it one of my favourites in a good while.” A bit of a success, then!
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