Tuesday, February 15, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Blue-Spangled Blue by David Bowles

 



The Blue-Spangled Blue is the first book in a four book space opera series by Mexican-American author David Bowles.  The series, titled "The Path", was originally being released self-published (or by a very small press, I'm not sure), but it was picked up by a publisher in the last few years, and now is being released over 2021-2023 in full, with the publisher including it on Kindle Unlimited.  This is the first of Bowles' long fiction I've read, but I enjoyed his translation of José Luis Zárate's The Route of Ice and Salt and really enjoyed his contribution to the LatAm Anthology Reclaim the Stars, so I was really curious to try out his longer offerings.  

The result is.....well mixed.  The Blue Spangled Blue features a future where humanity has spread to the stars, with some colonies long lost and just being found again by a multi-world government, several worlds being ruled by theocratic governments that do and don't resemble our own religions, as well as several incredibly powerful and dangerous criminal syndicates.  The first two thirds of this novel feature a really well done and enjoyable romance alongside a gnostic futuristic religion, intrigue and conspiracies that threaten everything, and the main power realizing their own souls and each other (both religiously and romantically along the way).  And then the book's final act shifts everything, becoming a action-heavy thriller that really didn't quite appeal to me, and makes me unsure if I'll continue from here.  

-----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------------
Brando D'Angelo is a young assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Milan, looking for little more than to explore seemingly dead languages, and to get away from the demands of his powerful Wiccan Catholic family.  And so when he gets an offer from the newly rediscovered, and newly re-accessible world of Jitsu to teach at their new university, he jumps at the offer to get as far away from his family as possible, and to explore a language long thought gone. 

Jitsu is a world controlled by a theocracy, devoted to the neo-gnostic religion known as The Path, undergoing a religious schism.  It's orthodox adherents believe in finding enlightenment and building one's soul only through drugs and self-consideration, with no interest in outward works or interactions with outsiders. 

But for Tenshi Koroma, daughter of a notable family in the religion, that is the opposite way to pursue the Path - instead: the way, is to externalize one's knowledge and learning as one reconstructs their soul, which Tenshi exemplifies through her work in architecture.  Tenshi and her reformers are ostracized by the old guard, but she is determined to guide Jitsu to a better path through her ways.  And when Tenshi meets Brando, the two find themselves determined to chart that Path together, as they fall deeper and deeper into love.  

Yet as Brando devotes himself to Tenshi and her faith, the two of them soon discover that Jitsu is the subject of intrigue and deadly conspiracies on multiple fronts - both from outside the planet and within.  And when everything shatters around them, Brando will be forced onto a Path that will change history....but may leave him destroyed in the process.....
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The Blue-Spangled Blue is a book that focuses on two characters - Brando and Tenshi (although more so Brando) - that it announces are important for the effects of their tragic romance right up front in the prologue.  At the same time, the book jumps around to other perspectives extremely frequently, such that we see what's happening from the eyes of various side characters and antagonists - both on Jitsu and outside of it - quite frequently, giving the reader a sense of foreboding about bad things that are about to happen, and that's without talking about the occasional interlude featuring a communication or event/history summary that shows up in this book.  The result is to be honest often a bit confusing, as it's hard to figure out exactly what certain scheming characters far away from the action are actually planning (although there's a glossary and appendix at the end of the book that honestly would've been nice to read first and would've helped) but it does work for the most part.  

That's really thanks to the romance between Brando and Tenshi that takes up the first 2/3 of this book.  Notably the book doesn't tell this romance on a day to day level, months and sometimes years will pass between chapters, which allows for Brando and Tenshi to face new challenges and struggles in their everyday lives and their journeys with one another.  And the result is a romance that works really damn well - Brando is attracted to Tenshi from the start not just by her appearance, but mostly due to what he finds in her architecture (in fact that's what starts his crush) and creativity, while Tenshi is attracted to how Brando listens to her without patronizing or belittling her ambitions or faith.  And though there are occasional moments of struggle, so much of the relationship that develops is based upon Brando recognizing Tenshi's ambition and desires, him accepting her faith as his own and never belittling it, and Tenshi in contrast pushing Brando to have something in his life beyond just her.  It works really well and is very heartwarming while it lasts.  

Also working generally well is the book's dealings with faith, particularly its neo-gnostic religion The Path.  The antagonist dominionist faction believes that such a religion should involve shutting one self away from the world, internalizing oneself to find who they are - though of course their leaders are hypocrites who take certain pleasure.  But Tenshi and her reformers find belief in externalizing it through creation and knowledge, and finding a self through that instead, which makes it rather appealing to them.  And of course there's a mystic element to it all with visions and the like, giving this a fantasy touch, but it generally works pretty well, especially as these faith issues, as well as the romance ones, are challenged by the conspiracies and scheming going on in the background.

Unfortunately, the book's last third, it's second part, shifts things up greatly for reasons I'll go into in spoilers below.*  The romance plotline ends, and instead you have an action thriller filled with combat and violence, which is just jarring after the book's first 2/3 (action sequences occur at times in the first 2/3, but they're sparse).  Those same conspiracies and intrigues that have taken the entire book to mature all pop up at once after a time skip between part 1 and part 2, such that we basically miss the transformation of the major players into who they are in Part 2 and just go to them once they're fully formed, and well, it's jarring and just not what I was looking forward to reading.  I'm not a big action book reading guy so part of this was just it changing from a book type I like to one I don't, but even taking that into consideration, I very much didn't love it.  

Even then there's some merit here - the book deals heavily with colonialism and isolationism and issues related thereto, as well as family and religious pressure, and does so in interesting ways - for example, there's a multi-world human government that has factions wanting to annex and conquer the independent worlds like Jitsu, factions which are spurred when a different theocratic independent world rises up and causes mass destruction through war.  But of course Jitsu itself isn't innocent, with the antagonist factions there wanting to put the outsiders into camps or exclude them, and to forcibly oppress its people in the names of its religions.  The dynamic works rather well and is perhaps the one reason why I might want to continue this series.  

All in all, the result is a mixed bag, with some stuff I really liked, and then a lot I did not.  I'll see if I want to continue this to book 2, but if I do, it'll be with an intention to drop it if it goes straight back to action mode.  We'll see.  

*Spoiler in ROT13: Nf sbergbyq, Grafuv naq ure qnhtugre ner zheqrerq ng gur raq bs Cneg 1, gunaxf gb ure Hapyr'f rssbegf. Gura Cneg 2 ortvaf jvgu n gvzr whzc, ng gur raq bs juvpu Oenaqb unf zbecurq uvzfrys vagb n arne hafgbccnoyr fbyqvre frrxvat iratrnapr, nygubhtu ur'f fbzrubj qryhqrq uvzfrys vagb abg tbvat nsgre gur boivbhf fhfcrpg hagvy ur trgf nabgure uvag gung vg jnf uvz.  Gur erfhyg vf onfvpnyyl gur "bar zna fbyqvre frrxvat iratrnapr" cybg nepurglcr juvpu vf whfg fb havagrerfgvat pbzcnerq gb rirelguvat ryfr, rira jura gur znva nagntbavfg gheaf bhg gb or gur urnivyl uvagrq ng bgure artngvir punenpgre jub yhexf nebhaq gur onpxtebhaq gur jubyr gvzr.  Whfg oyrpu.  

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