Ancestral Night: A White Space Novel

This is the most unexpected favorite of the year. I struggled with Ancestral Night at first. This is a slow-paced tome of a sci-fi book, more than 500 pages of incredibly interesting concepts and fun adventure and complicated relationships, and it takes a little both to get started and to get into. At the beginning, the writing has a tendency to infodump, but I'm so glad I didn't let that discourage me. It is five hundred pages, but it's been so long since I actually wanted to read a book this much, without ever thinking "but when will this end". The first thing that stood out to me about Ancestral Night is the sense of pure wonder it makes you feel. I could describe it as "space archaeology, but with pirates": from spaceships from a long-lost civilization to traveling to the edge of a black hole, everything the characters deal with is so... wide and impossibly ancient that you can't help but feel that mix of awe and fear the characters themselves feel. There's so much beauty in this book - especially because of the descriptions of the alien technology: to make an example, the main character ends up covered in magical sparkles that make her look like a starry sky. Or the aliens themselves: now I want to draw the Ativahikas. I loved the main character. Haimey Dz is a black lesbian who has PTSD from growing up in a cult and from an abusive relationship. It's explored how her inability to set boundaries and manage conflict led her to get hurt again, and at the beginning of the book, she's so afraid of her emotions and feelings that she uses technology to suppress a significant part of them. She is a somewhat unreliable narrator as a result of that. Ancestral Night is as much of a story about ancient alien artifacts as it is a story about a woman dealing with her own trauma and fractured sense of self. It's one of the most in-depth explorations of what it's like to be traumatized I've ever read in SFF, which means that it does get really dark at times, but it's not by any means a tragic story - it's about healing, and fairness, and the meaning of forgiveness. While this book focuses mostly on Haimey, there are other relevant characters I loved, like the AI named Singer, who is snarky but whose snark isn't his only character trait and is as developed as the other characters, the praying-mantis-like alien Cheeirilaq, who was the best, and Haimey's pilot friend Connla, who is also queer. Also, there are two cats on Haimey's spaceship and I loved all the scenes in which they appeared Another relevant character is Farweather, the "sexy evil pirate lady" (main character's words), and... she is an awful person. She is awful and the tension between her and the main character is everything I want from fiction. Don't expect an enemies-to-lovers romance, this book has no romance and the villain kissing is more about making out in a moment of terrible judgement. I love that a lot. Another thing I loved about this book is that it has a lot to say, and it will make you think. Not only about the way trauma influences a person, and paths to healing, though that's a major theme; also about government, and whether fairness is ever something that can be achieved. The most interesting thing about the angle Ancestral Night takes on this discussion is that the people who want to live in a democracy are the evil reactionaries. The main character Haimey sees them the way we would see someone who really wants an absolute monarchy. She says that democracy is actually a "tyranny of the majority", which puts the freedom of the individual - or, of certain privileged individuals - before everything, and everyone else is exploited. Technology allowed humanity and other alien species to move to a different system of government, one that, while overall fairer and less based on exploitation, still has flaws. Haimey questions it, and the book doesn't try to give you a perfect answer, but the way it challenged individualist, work-centric, stereotypically American values was so interesting to read, especially in the current climate.

Starts off really well, but very quickly turns into a meandering story that seems to lack focus and drive. Quite a dreary book that wastes what could have been a really good storyline.

likeable main character told in interesting first person style, cool sci fi concepts. believable societal construct. Author added to favourites list