Starfunk Ayatollah

The last time I’ll use this picture… maybe.

I have a hard time believing it, but as far as I’ve seen I’m the only reviewer so far to note the strong diasporic bent in Tobias S. Buckell’s new novel Ragamuffin (the first third of which can be read for free right here). In the book, humans are scattered about, either as essentially slaves, incredibly oppressed lower classes, or refugees–those refugees, the titular Ragamuffins, being a perfect example of Caribbean factor that draws people to Buckell’s work. That many of these people pine for the long lost, cut-off-from-other-worlds planets on which humanity has thrived (Earth, Chimson, and New Anegada) just strengthens the book’s connection to diaspora myths (the promised land, and all that). Of course, the Caribbean (where Buckell himself grew up) is home to many displaced and oppressed people, and the birth of the Rastafarian religion married all that very closely to similar Jewish traditions (many call police “Babylon” for God’s sake). Maybe the link to this oppressed diaspora tradition stands out so strongly to me because of my own Jewish upbringing, but I think it’s good to point out that the Caribbean influence runs a good deal deeper than characters with dreadlocks who say “seen”. (Although, thankfully, those are present in great abundance as well.)

It would also be easy enough to tie a good deal of this to issues of race, and that very few of the human characters in Buckell’s work are white really is very refreshing. But while his basic politics become fairly clear around the time the reader gets to a Ragamuffin spaceship called Cornell West, overall none of these aspects are terribly overwhelming, thankfully. For the most part it’s simply a good story, which is what I always prefer.

I feel like it would be a spoiler to even say to what extent Ragamuffin is a sequel to Crystal Rain (which I loved) and to what extent it is its own, self-contained story. On that note, I’ll simply elect to say that if you liked that first book you won’t be disappointed by the new one. In my own personal opinion, despite eschewing the steampunk aesthetic that I enjoyed so much, Ragamuffin is, overall, just plain bigger and better.

Whereas Crystal Rain gave us a vivid world, Ragamuffin expands that to the greater universe–complete with a map in the front (which I always love in a book). We get a sprawling system of planets and wormholes that all stands in as a very nice statement on oppression (along the lines of what I covered in the first paragraph) but more importantly provides plenty of fodder for excitement. I think the term “non-stop” fits the book very nicely.

What I can tell without spoilers being too terrible, is that the book (at first) follows Nashara: a physically enhanced freelance soldier of sorts, who’s trying to get some sort of a secret technological weapon to the planet of New Anegada. If you’ve read Crystal Rain you also get an idea of how strange bringing a technological weapon to that particular planet just might be. My little setup there still doesn’t really do the book justice, as there is so much more going on than that, but it’s best discovered as you go. Nashara herself is an interesting character (although I found ship captain Etsudo more compelling… just like I did with Oaxyctl in the first book) and she is also more proof that, as I’ve said before, Buckell can do bad-ass very, very well.

From there the book winds and twists, introducing a slew of new characters (all of whom the author manages to keep track of) and perhaps a few old ones, embroiling the reader in conflicts that are never really black and white, and just generally being a damned good time… leading into a climax that essentially takes the entire third part of the book. The story stays interesting throughout, the details of the universe unfold, and Buckell isn’t scared to kill off his characters (a commendable quality). There are a few bits that don’t pay off and are clearly setups for future installments, but I can handle that.

Hard sci-fi it’s not, but if you want a careening adventure yarn that never slows down, it’s a very good choice.