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prusikThe Architect of Heaven(podcast) is one of those stories that I inevitably damn with faint praise. (Sorry, I enjoyed listening to it, but I can't love it.) It's definitely worth listening to or reading, but it hits at least one pet peeve that arguably may be more the fault of society rather than the author or story.
This may be spoilerific. If you care about that sort of thing, either stop reading now, or experience the story then come back.
The story is certainly well written. It held my interest despite me pretty much always knowing how the story would proceed. The flip between the first and second wave of colonists is a nice touch (but not played as a surprise since the story basically tells you in the first paragraph). The story sets up its premise, not to mention several fleshed out worlds with both precision and economy. It may be an oft-told tale, but it's a tale told exceptionally well.
(Quibbles: One and a half mispronounced names distracted me during the podcast. "Diaspora" is accented on the second syllable, not first and third. "Chen" is pinyin, not Wade-Giles because his last name is "Xiang." In that case, a more accurate pronunciation, rendered in English phonetics, would be "tsen". Kate basically changed his name to "Qian." To be fair, this didn't bother me until I looked up the text part way through listening to the podcast.
Since that's still a plausible name, it didn't bother me as much as "Diaspora" or that everyone with a non-Anglo name speaks with a non-American accent. Valikova self-identifies as Russian, complete with ineluctable sadness, but nothing says that Chen Xiang couldn't be American. That would have been one less accent to assay. Of course, Chen Xiang is the technical genius with apparently no life. As we all know, that is the lot of secondary characters of Chinese descent. Sometimes, that's the lot of primary characters of Chinese descent too. I suppose I should just be happy to see a future where people of Chinese descent exist, but I digress...)
As much as I think it's well written and as much as I enjoyed listening to it, I'm really tired of this story, especially told in a way that doesn't challenge its assumptions. We don't have a shortage of stories where a gay man (although not explicitly tagged as such) in unrequited love with a straight man, sacrifices himself so that the straight man can be with the love of his life. As is traditional in these sorts of stories, the straight man has no idea this is happening (and thus is free of guilt) and the woman who is the object of his love is barely in the story and doesn't get to speak for herself about whether she even wants to be with him. (I mean, really, she went into hibernation to travel to another star system to get away from him. That may be, as they say, A Sign.)
(I feel I need to point out here that I only hold this opinion because of the lack of balance in published stories overall. i.e., we don't ever see the story where, for example, the straight man sacrifices himself so that gay man can be with the man he loves. Relatively speaking, we rarely see the story where the gay man gets the happy ending. Within a more diverse field of stories, yet another story where the gay man sacrifices himself for the good of heteronormative society would be just another possibility as opposed to the only one. That's what I mean by "arguably may be the fault of society rather than the author or story.")
What's interesting about the podcast is that the ostensible dominant narrative goes unremarked upon. Kate notes the how the final scene reveals who the narrator has been all along, but doesn't follow through to explicate what the story then must really be about. Maybe she thought it was too obvious to mention. It's definitely possible. Carter (our crypto-gay guy absurdly loyal to Trent) sacrifices in rather blatant ways that Valikova (our sad Russian) keeps pointing out is doomed. It's not like no one can figure out what's happening (except our self-centered straight man who must remain free from guilt of his best friend's sacrifice).
OTOH, Kate's closing comments hammer the notion that the story consists of the straight narrative. I.e., the story of the guy who would do and does anything to be with the woman she loves. The gay narrative that of the guy who sacrifices everything he is for the man he loves, who will get no reward for his actions goes unremarked upon. Given the reveal of point-of-view at the end, the gay narrative is theoretically the dominant narrative of the flashback sections. Certainly, that's how I felt as I was listening to it. (i.e., even before the final scene made it explicit.) Still, it goes unmentioned in her closing comments. Perhaps it was unnoticed.
And yet it's incredibly well written. If you aren't tired yet of the story where The Other self-sacrifices for the benefit for the norm, this is a good example--I mean that in the best sense--to read and listen to. Like I said, damn with faint praise.
This may be spoilerific. If you care about that sort of thing, either stop reading now, or experience the story then come back.
The story is certainly well written. It held my interest despite me pretty much always knowing how the story would proceed. The flip between the first and second wave of colonists is a nice touch (but not played as a surprise since the story basically tells you in the first paragraph). The story sets up its premise, not to mention several fleshed out worlds with both precision and economy. It may be an oft-told tale, but it's a tale told exceptionally well.
(Quibbles: One and a half mispronounced names distracted me during the podcast. "Diaspora" is accented on the second syllable, not first and third. "Chen" is pinyin, not Wade-Giles because his last name is "Xiang." In that case, a more accurate pronunciation, rendered in English phonetics, would be "tsen". Kate basically changed his name to "Qian." To be fair, this didn't bother me until I looked up the text part way through listening to the podcast.
Since that's still a plausible name, it didn't bother me as much as "Diaspora" or that everyone with a non-Anglo name speaks with a non-American accent. Valikova self-identifies as Russian, complete with ineluctable sadness, but nothing says that Chen Xiang couldn't be American. That would have been one less accent to assay. Of course, Chen Xiang is the technical genius with apparently no life. As we all know, that is the lot of secondary characters of Chinese descent. Sometimes, that's the lot of primary characters of Chinese descent too. I suppose I should just be happy to see a future where people of Chinese descent exist, but I digress...)
As much as I think it's well written and as much as I enjoyed listening to it, I'm really tired of this story, especially told in a way that doesn't challenge its assumptions. We don't have a shortage of stories where a gay man (although not explicitly tagged as such) in unrequited love with a straight man, sacrifices himself so that the straight man can be with the love of his life. As is traditional in these sorts of stories, the straight man has no idea this is happening (and thus is free of guilt) and the woman who is the object of his love is barely in the story and doesn't get to speak for herself about whether she even wants to be with him. (I mean, really, she went into hibernation to travel to another star system to get away from him. That may be, as they say, A Sign.)
(I feel I need to point out here that I only hold this opinion because of the lack of balance in published stories overall. i.e., we don't ever see the story where, for example, the straight man sacrifices himself so that gay man can be with the man he loves. Relatively speaking, we rarely see the story where the gay man gets the happy ending. Within a more diverse field of stories, yet another story where the gay man sacrifices himself for the good of heteronormative society would be just another possibility as opposed to the only one. That's what I mean by "arguably may be the fault of society rather than the author or story.")
What's interesting about the podcast is that the ostensible dominant narrative goes unremarked upon. Kate notes the how the final scene reveals who the narrator has been all along, but doesn't follow through to explicate what the story then must really be about. Maybe she thought it was too obvious to mention. It's definitely possible. Carter (our crypto-gay guy absurdly loyal to Trent) sacrifices in rather blatant ways that Valikova (our sad Russian) keeps pointing out is doomed. It's not like no one can figure out what's happening (except our self-centered straight man who must remain free from guilt of his best friend's sacrifice).
OTOH, Kate's closing comments hammer the notion that the story consists of the straight narrative. I.e., the story of the guy who would do and does anything to be with the woman she loves. The gay narrative that of the guy who sacrifices everything he is for the man he loves, who will get no reward for his actions goes unremarked upon. Given the reveal of point-of-view at the end, the gay narrative is theoretically the dominant narrative of the flashback sections. Certainly, that's how I felt as I was listening to it. (i.e., even before the final scene made it explicit.) Still, it goes unmentioned in her closing comments. Perhaps it was unnoticed.
And yet it's incredibly well written. If you aren't tired yet of the story where The Other self-sacrifices for the benefit for the norm, this is a good example--I mean that in the best sense--to read and listen to. Like I said, damn with faint praise.
