2021 science fiction, second of its series. Productivity Hunt wasn't
expecting to be a reality-bending revolutionary, but it turns out
she's one of the more functional of the band…
That's because the Lovecraftian elements in this setting focus
less on the fear of miscegenetion and much more on the way that
exposure to Outside is simply not compatible with a working human
mind. Everyone involved has some degree of impairment to go along with
their new powers; and most of them don't have the first idea how to
run a revolution either. (And this can be hard going for the reader at
times.)
We're back on the planet Jai for this book, in the area affected by
the chaos plague in volume 1. The gods are keeping a firm cordon round
it, but holding back on actually destroying it and the survivors
living there for a variety of reasons that don't even convince their
own servitors. Our viewpoint into this side of things is Enga, the
heavy-weapons angel from the first book.
And a third faction is Akavi, angel and disgraced former inquisitor,
who's determined to deal with those reality deviants and bring things
back to normal even if the gods don't have the guts to do what needs
to be done. He's still accompanied by his assistant Elu, but their
relationship is necessarily going to change now that they're not in
the oppressive and backstabbing angelic hierarchy.
And this is very much the sort of book I like these days: big
important things are happening, but they are being done by people, and
the decisions those people are making about what to do and how are
affected by who they are and who their allies and enemies are.
At the root everything is driven by psychology. These are complex
characters who have complex desires, even the ones who haven't fully
realised that yet.