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A review by yak_attak
Exordia by Seth Dickinson
4.5
Gone is the Seth Dickinson of Traitor Baru. I mourn for him. After the sequels and this, I'm not sure I'm confident he'll deliver as razor honed a book as that again. But if the only thing bad about a book I really have to say is "well it's not quite as good as Traitor Baru Fucking Cormorant," well we're on to something here huh. No, this Seth Dickinson is evolved beyond mortals. His hippocampi swelling to enormous proportions, he looks down at us with his distended psychic cranium and laughs.
(And if your experience with Traitor Baru Cormorant was to find it plodding and dull, just run away from this book entirely. Trust.)
No, instead this Seth Dickinson is painfully smart, and wants you to know it. This is sheerly impressive, a joy to read, and also aggravating, in turn. Exordia is absolutely packed. Seth Dickinson knows physics. He knows Biology. He knows the worldwide political intricacies under the Obama administration, he knows religious beliefs of Kurdish refugees, he knows nerdy trivia from the 2000's, he knows military callsigns and technical details of battleships, he knows existential philosophy and narratology. Moreover, he wants you to know it all - not necessarily that he knows it, though in part it does become more self-serving that you'd hope - but because it all combines, coalescing into this marvelous messy ball of thought, of pattern, of culture, of detail, and creates.... well I'm not quite sure in the end if the juice is worth the squeeze, but you bet your ass I'm going to be thinking about this book for ages.
This is a modern book, with modern characters, a range of people, beliefs, truly world-wide in a way many stories claim to be and fail at, and Dickinson manages to sell it believably. There are two main drawbacks here - one, because it's a modern book, there's that annoying tendency to drop in callbacks to cultural in-jokes and memes (There's a damn 'jet fuel can't melt steel beams' pun I groaned at), and depending on your taste for this, this book could certainly be very annoying. I think he's aware, and managed a good balance overall, but, still, more than I'd like personally. Secondarily, this is a book full of Smart People Talking. All the topics in that previous paragraph - science, philosophy, and what not? Everyone in the book discusses them at length, continuously and constantly, to the point where your eyes will glaze over a bit, and all the characters become just a *bit* more samey than you'd like. Ah well - the thing is, what he does with it is genius.
This is an alien invasion story, and one of the coolest things is he treats the aliens, and their inherently unknowable being as... just another topic to expound upon. Rather than having the affect of trivializing them, it instead makes them as real as anything else, forcing you to really come to grips with whatever the fuck horrifying technology they have next- whether that's an electron thin, kilometer long sword, or (literally) Narrative Destiny.
... and yeah, it's all building to talk about stories. How we as a people interact with them, find ourselves as the heroes, villains, or expendable bodies in each others stories, and the ways Dickinson plays with that are incredible. The ways he presents alien body horror and the hell of warfare are incredible. The ways he brings together a truly wonderful international cast that you root for (even at the expense of each other), and then absolutely destroys them... incredible. This book will make you feel as big brain as Seth Dickinson, and have a blast along the way... as long as you can keep up with the rambling at the same time.
The last note I'll make is basically that I hope this is a standalone? Not because I want more Baru (I do) but even though we're left on more of a cliff-hanger than you'd typically like, I don't know that this story will work to continue... Drawing out the conflict... what will it add? I'm not sure if there's more there. But Seth Dickinson has proven me wrong before.
(And if your experience with Traitor Baru Cormorant was to find it plodding and dull, just run away from this book entirely. Trust.)
No, instead this Seth Dickinson is painfully smart, and wants you to know it. This is sheerly impressive, a joy to read, and also aggravating, in turn. Exordia is absolutely packed. Seth Dickinson knows physics. He knows Biology. He knows the worldwide political intricacies under the Obama administration, he knows religious beliefs of Kurdish refugees, he knows nerdy trivia from the 2000's, he knows military callsigns and technical details of battleships, he knows existential philosophy and narratology. Moreover, he wants you to know it all - not necessarily that he knows it, though in part it does become more self-serving that you'd hope - but because it all combines, coalescing into this marvelous messy ball of thought, of pattern, of culture, of detail, and creates.... well I'm not quite sure in the end if the juice is worth the squeeze, but you bet your ass I'm going to be thinking about this book for ages.
This is a modern book, with modern characters, a range of people, beliefs, truly world-wide in a way many stories claim to be and fail at, and Dickinson manages to sell it believably. There are two main drawbacks here - one, because it's a modern book, there's that annoying tendency to drop in callbacks to cultural in-jokes and memes (There's a damn 'jet fuel can't melt steel beams' pun I groaned at), and depending on your taste for this, this book could certainly be very annoying. I think he's aware, and managed a good balance overall, but, still, more than I'd like personally. Secondarily, this is a book full of Smart People Talking. All the topics in that previous paragraph - science, philosophy, and what not? Everyone in the book discusses them at length, continuously and constantly, to the point where your eyes will glaze over a bit, and all the characters become just a *bit* more samey than you'd like. Ah well - the thing is, what he does with it is genius.
This is an alien invasion story, and one of the coolest things is he treats the aliens, and their inherently unknowable being as... just another topic to expound upon. Rather than having the affect of trivializing them, it instead makes them as real as anything else, forcing you to really come to grips with whatever the fuck horrifying technology they have next- whether that's an electron thin, kilometer long sword, or (literally) Narrative Destiny.
... and yeah, it's all building to talk about stories. How we as a people interact with them, find ourselves as the heroes, villains, or expendable bodies in each others stories, and the ways Dickinson plays with that are incredible. The ways he presents alien body horror and the hell of warfare are incredible. The ways he brings together a truly wonderful international cast that you root for (even at the expense of each other), and then absolutely destroys them... incredible. This book will make you feel as big brain as Seth Dickinson, and have a blast along the way... as long as you can keep up with the rambling at the same time.
The last note I'll make is basically that I hope this is a standalone? Not because I want more Baru (I do) but even though we're left on more of a cliff-hanger than you'd typically like, I don't know that this story will work to continue... Drawing out the conflict... what will it add? I'm not sure if there's more there. But Seth Dickinson has proven me wrong before.