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bigharpyenergy's review against another edition
2.0
Interesting concept. Had some serious issues with some of the cultural world building (we've built this incredible society across the stars with soaring cities and yet a woman will lose her job for being pregnant? wtf?) and was really left wondering what this story would be like written by Tansy Rayner Roberts or Ann Leckie. Didn't really care about most of the characters. It was a good enough story that I wanted to finish it, but not so much that I'm motivated to look for the sequel.
sadie_slater's review against another edition
5.0
The Baba Yaga is described as being the third book in the Weird Space series, which was created by Eric Brown and then passed over to Una McCormack, who wrote this book and the soon-to-be-released sequel. I haven't read the two books Brown wrote, but I didn't really feel that it mattered, as the opening chapters gave enough background that I didn't feel I was missing anything.
The novel is set sometime in the distant future, when humanity has recently made a fragile peace with the alien Vetch, largely in response to a new threat from the Weird, strange alien beings from another dimension whose encounters with humans and the Vetch to date have been catastrophic. This isn't a utopian Star Trek future; old enmities and suspicions are hard to put aside in the face of new threats, and humanity is split on whether to try to destroy the Weird before it destroys them or to find some way of negotiating a peace. The central character, intelligence analyst Delia Walker, is on the side of negotiations, and has heard rumours of a distant planet where humans and Weird live in harmony. Forced out by the hawkish ascendency in the Intelligence Bureau, she sets off in search of this world, which may well just be a myth.
Part space-opera quest, part Spooks-style thriller, the real delight of this book is in the characters, who are complex and three-dimensional and sympathetic while not always being likeable. Also, almost all of them are women, and reading an SF novel full of well-drawn, non-token female characters was an utter and unexpected joy. And that was before I got to the part where McCormack creates a society which is basically a 1970s feminist utopia brought into a 2010s novel.
Although you don't have to have read the previous novels set in the same universe to understand this one, the ending is very obviously setting up the sequel and although some of the sub-threads are tied off the wider plot is very far from being resolved. Apart from that, the only slight quibble I have with it is that the Kindle edition could have benefitted from more thorough copy-editing, as there were a lot of small errors, particularly missing words or moments where part of a sentence had obviously been rewritten but some of the grammar of the surrounding text needed to be updated to match. But overall, I loved this book, and am really looking forward to the sequel.
(Disclaimer: Una McCormack is an online friend, and I might well not have bought the book in the first place if not for wanting to support her. I'm really glad I did, though, and I'll be buying the next one because I want to read it.)
The novel is set sometime in the distant future, when humanity has recently made a fragile peace with the alien Vetch, largely in response to a new threat from the Weird, strange alien beings from another dimension whose encounters with humans and the Vetch to date have been catastrophic. This isn't a utopian Star Trek future; old enmities and suspicions are hard to put aside in the face of new threats, and humanity is split on whether to try to destroy the Weird before it destroys them or to find some way of negotiating a peace. The central character, intelligence analyst Delia Walker, is on the side of negotiations, and has heard rumours of a distant planet where humans and Weird live in harmony. Forced out by the hawkish ascendency in the Intelligence Bureau, she sets off in search of this world, which may well just be a myth.
Part space-opera quest, part Spooks-style thriller, the real delight of this book is in the characters, who are complex and three-dimensional and sympathetic while not always being likeable. Also, almost all of them are women, and reading an SF novel full of well-drawn, non-token female characters was an utter and unexpected joy. And that was before I got to the part where McCormack creates a society which is basically a 1970s feminist utopia brought into a 2010s novel.
Although you don't have to have read the previous novels set in the same universe to understand this one, the ending is very obviously setting up the sequel and although some of the sub-threads are tied off the wider plot is very far from being resolved. Apart from that, the only slight quibble I have with it is that the Kindle edition could have benefitted from more thorough copy-editing, as there were a lot of small errors, particularly missing words or moments where part of a sentence had obviously been rewritten but some of the grammar of the surrounding text needed to be updated to match. But overall, I loved this book, and am really looking forward to the sequel.
(Disclaimer: Una McCormack is an online friend, and I might well not have bought the book in the first place if not for wanting to support her. I'm really glad I did, though, and I'll be buying the next one because I want to read it.)
lindzy's review against another edition
4.0
Original Review Here
The Baba Yaga is the 3rd in the Weird Space series, but the first I have read. There were elements that I imagine made more sense – the threat of the Weird, the war with the Vetch etc – if I had read the first books, but it didn’t deter from the story. Reading the previous books isn’t necessary!
Walker is a cold-hearted practical woman. She gives up everything upon discovering she is pregnant, but is logical and detached about what is happening to her. It’s the other characters – Failt (a runaway Vetch slave), Maria (a young mother on the run) and Larsen (her doctor/friend) – who bring the warmth out of her and make her a likeable character.
Failt was my favourite character. He blended together childish innocence with the wisdom of a slave who had suffered too much to still be naïve. He drew the best out of Walker and was accepted by the majority of the characters. Heyes was so sarcastic and refused to accept any of Walker’s rubbish that she was a close second for favourite.
Yershov was my least favourite. He had no true development, even if helping to protect Maria meant I thought he was going to change. I hoped he would become indispensable and the opposite happened. I wanted more out of him, more to his story, but it never came.
The pacing was steady throughout, with enough danger lurking in each chapter that it kept the tension going. I think the opening might be stronger for people already engrossed in this world but it didn’t take me long to figure out how it all worked. There were the clear good guys, the clear bad guys and some shady characters in-between to keep you from falling into a false sense of security.
It has taken me a while to get into science-fiction novels but I thoroughly enjoyed The Baba Yaga. It gave me my reading buzz back and I couldn’t put it down, meaning it was certainly ticking the boxes. An enjoyable and fun read.
The Baba Yaga is the 3rd in the Weird Space series, but the first I have read. There were elements that I imagine made more sense – the threat of the Weird, the war with the Vetch etc – if I had read the first books, but it didn’t deter from the story. Reading the previous books isn’t necessary!
Walker is a cold-hearted practical woman. She gives up everything upon discovering she is pregnant, but is logical and detached about what is happening to her. It’s the other characters – Failt (a runaway Vetch slave), Maria (a young mother on the run) and Larsen (her doctor/friend) – who bring the warmth out of her and make her a likeable character.
Failt was my favourite character. He blended together childish innocence with the wisdom of a slave who had suffered too much to still be naïve. He drew the best out of Walker and was accepted by the majority of the characters. Heyes was so sarcastic and refused to accept any of Walker’s rubbish that she was a close second for favourite.
Yershov was my least favourite. He had no true development, even if helping to protect Maria meant I thought he was going to change. I hoped he would become indispensable and the opposite happened. I wanted more out of him, more to his story, but it never came.
The pacing was steady throughout, with enough danger lurking in each chapter that it kept the tension going. I think the opening might be stronger for people already engrossed in this world but it didn’t take me long to figure out how it all worked. There were the clear good guys, the clear bad guys and some shady characters in-between to keep you from falling into a false sense of security.
It has taken me a while to get into science-fiction novels but I thoroughly enjoyed The Baba Yaga. It gave me my reading buzz back and I couldn’t put it down, meaning it was certainly ticking the boxes. An enjoyable and fun read.
singlecrow's review
3.0
I picked this up solely because it's by Una McCormack, who is usually worth the price of admission. Sadly the book turns out to be an instance of a shared universe series (Weird Space) which I don't find that compelling in itself. That said, it's interesting for what it is, and McCormack's SF is unfailingly refreshing: next to none of the main characters are men even though this is military hard-ish SF, and on no occasion does a male character consider a woman's breasts in loving and grotesque detail. I would have liked it just for that.
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