Reviews

A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys

Only show reviews with written explanations

yrioona's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

There was a lot I loved about this book, and I really blazed through it. The characters (especially the aliens) are lovable, the plot is well put together, the prose and dialogue are solid, the gender play is fun, there are good trans characters, and I really do appreciate the author’s much-emphasized optimism and her choice to envision positive human futures and systems of economic/social organization beyond capitalism. That said, there was just something a bit…moderate liberal…about it, especially for a book that’s essentially portraying anarchist futures. Even though the antagonists (such as they are) are mostly corporations and corporate types, the author really lets those corporations (and techies, as a class) off way too easy.

Emrys is a Trekkie, and there are sweet nods to Star Trek throughout, both directly and in the book’s ethos of just-morally-complicated-enough interspecies interaction, but even Star Trek (the epitome of optimistic sci fi) constantly acknowledges the necessity of things like riots and revolutions (or even “terrorist” tactics) in situations of oppression and ecocide. In A Half Built Garden, the peaceful not-quite-utopia of the Watershed Networks and their uneasy detente with the vestigial corporate “aislands” seems to have come about thanks to just a couple of decades of light leftist cybersabotage, after which the nation-states just set aside their nukes and agreed to play along. Some of the optimism of this is refreshing, and we do get to meet some lovably cranky veteran communards, but mostly the transition between “present day” and “near future” comes off as lazy hand-waving. Beyond that, the techno-optimism of the Watershed world (for all its preoccupation with supply chains and ethical sourcing) barely mentions the sourcing of its own lush tech infrastructure beyond “unfortunately, we still get it from the corporations ☹️”. Presumably there is still a lot of cobalt going into this stuff? And a lot of mercury and heavy metals leaching out of it? (side note: the Watershed model, while intriguing and at some points convincing, does sound a little bit like “government by subreddit”)

This is a fun, kind-hearted, thoughtful read, but to give you an idea of the weird taste it left it my mouth: the narrator is a (presumably white) Jewish woman telling a story about humanity facing the prospect of forced/coerced mass relocation while rehabilitating colonized land; she does a kind of half-land-acknowledgement once early in the story and then spends the rest of the book arguing how the Dandelion Networks, a new tech-based means of land stewardship devised in the last half-century, should become the galactic standard. There is a Seder at which she says “next year in a better world” (instead of “next year in Jerusalem”) which is nice, and there is a brief sardonic mention of the US having “poor relations” or something with indigenous people. There is no mention of Palestine or any other indigenous genocide (though there is some reckoning with the Holocaust). Optimism after a certain point becomes self-indulgent, willful ignorance, and this book for sure passes that point. Oh, also, there is alien sex, but it is the driest and most prudish alien sex scene you will ever read. Really more like alien offscreen heavy petting. More consensual than Oankali sex, which is a plus, but fewer tentacles and orgasms, which is not.

adelheid's review

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

rhubarb's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring tense

5.0

soph_sol's review against another edition

Go to review page

hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes

3.0

komali_2's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

People dumping on this book see one pronoun that isn't he/she and instantly go slackjawed. It's a wonder folks are able to drive down the road while reading street signs.

It's also clear a hell of a lot more people need to go to a local Burn at least once in their lives.