The Galaxy Game

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Lord, Karen
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch, Traverwood Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Lord, Karen	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Lord, Karen	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"Karen Lord is one of today's most brilliant young talents. Her science fiction, like that of predecessors Ursula K. Le Guin and China Mieville, combines star-spanning plots, deeply felt characters, and incisive social commentary. With The Galaxy Game, Lord presents a gripping adventure that showcases her dazzling imagination as never before. On the verge of adulthood, Rafi attends the Lyceum, a school for the psionically gifted. Rafi possesses mental abilities that might benefit people. or control them. Some wish to help Rafi wield his powers responsibly; others see him as a threat to be contained. Rafi's only freedom at the Lyceum is Wallrunning: a game of speed and agility played on vast vertical surfaces riddled with variable gravity fields. Serendipity and Ntenman are also students at the Lyceum, but unlike Rafi they come from communities where such abilities are valued. Serendipity finds the Lyceum as much a prison as a school, and she yearns for a meaningful life beyond its gates. Ntenman, with his quick tongue, quicker mind, and a willingness to bend if not break the rules, has no problem fitting in. But he too has his reasons for wanting to escape. Now the three friends are about to experience a moment of violent change as seething tensions between rival star-faring civilizations come to a head. For Serendipity, it will challenge her ideas of community and self. For Ntenman, it will open new opportunities and new dangers. And for Rafi, given a chance to train with some of the best Wallrunners in the galaxy, it will lead to the discovery that there is more to Wallrunning than he ever suspected. and more to himself than he ever dreamed"-- Provided by publisher.
"In this new novel, Rafi, a student at a school for super-human psychic abilities, travels the universe with an intergalactic sports team, encountering strange new worlds and alien cultures. Lord's bold new vision of 21st-century science fiction has appeal to both devoted genre fans and readers of literary fiction"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Confusing because it's a sequel submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on August 27, 2016, 4:07pm This book was intensely confusing. At half way through, I still hadn't worked out the planets, peoples, and relationships. At the end of the book, I had a better but still-not-solid grasp. It's a highly political story, which I can really love, but in this case, there was never a clear enough set-up to have the world make sense.

I see from skimming a few reviews that this appears to be a sequel to another Lord book, which might explain how complicated the world is and the lack of explanation. But... not enough. Even a sequel needs to hold together, and neither the back cover nor anything in the early part of the book state or imply that this is the continuation of another story.

So, confusion aside, I still like Lord's writing and ideas. Really, I think that this 320 page book just needed to be more along the lines of 450 pages or so, so that there was time enough to flesh out the history, politics, and relationships more fully. But the storytelling (mostly 3rd person, but occasionally delving into one character's first person POV) was well done. The universe is creative and fascinating. I'd love to understand it more fully.

I'm still enamored of this author, and will try more of her writing.

(ETA: I looked it up and discovered that it is the sequel to The Best of All Possible Worlds, which I found to be fairly light but quite enjoyable. I would definitely have enjoyed this much more had I read them in order.)