Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained from the publisher in advance of the book's release on July 20, 2021 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
The Necessity of Stars by E. Catherine Tobler
The Necessity of Stars is another one of Neon Hemlock's summer 2021 series of novellas, which I was lucky enough to get a chance to review early. Again for those who aren't familiar with Neon Hemlock, it's a smaller publisher of SF/F novellas focusing often on dystopian and offbeat, and usually queer, fiction. I'm not familiar with Tobler, but the Neon Hemlock novellas I've read have always been fascinating, so I was happy to get a chance to give her novella a try.
And The Necessity of Stars is another fairly strong entry into the SF/F novella genre, with a creepy-ish tone led by a narrator who may or may not still be reliable in her old age in a world that has, due to human inaction preventing global warming, gone to hell. It's a story of an aging diplomat, now living alone on a strange plot of land that seems to be thriving somehow despite the new climate, with only a neighboring scientist she loves as a companion, as she encounters an alien being that promises a chance at remembrance in a world where there is so much to forget.
I'll try to explain better and give my thoughts after the jump:
Quick Plot Summary: Bréone Hemmerli, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, is 63 and aging in the Irislands, living alone on the lands with no company (her husband and kids long gone) except that of her neighbor, her beloved Delphine. The Irislands are a mystery in a world dying from climate change, in how they seem to thrive despite the impossibly erratic conditions, and Bréone's aching days are often spent watching the gardens there and wondering at how they can thrive. Well that and trying to keep her memories intact, as she waits for the call from the chauvinist Secretary General for the next time she might be needed for diplomacy.
And then Bréone discovers Tura, an alien being made of shadow, who was living in the garden...who was the garden....and who promises perhaps the memories of more. And when the dying world, and the humans who killed it, come back to the Irislands for Bréone, she must make a choice....if she can only remember what it is.....
Thoughts: The Necessity of Stars is a tricky tale, because it's not written in straight chronological order, as its lead protagonist Bréone suffers from memory loss and is unclear about whether things happened or whether memories are her own or real. And so the book often alternates chapters from a future point with interactions between Bréone and the alien Tura before Tura is really introduced, and even repeats whole passages later in the book, making the reader as disoriented as Bréone herself is. Bréone sometimes confuses her own kids for those of her neighbor and likely lover (Bréone can't remember if the relationship had gotten intimate, but assumes it had due to how their interactions are now) Delphine. She forgets words at times, and is afraid that her interactions with Tura are just in her head, or that memories aren't her own or might not even have happened yet. And this is all happening in a world dying because powerful men refused to listen to people like Bréone or Delphine (an environmental scientist).
And so Tura promises a world where people are connected to one another, where memories are shared and promoted, and where a dying world can be used as a safe haven for a people who haven't done anything wrong but are simply being hunted for no reason. And The Necessity of Stars makes clear how appealing that is, especially as humanity comes back to Bréone's life and reminds her of the alternative. Really interesting.
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