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A review by colossal
Skinner Luce by Patricia Ward
3.0
Brutal and bleak, Lucy's tale is one that doesn't even really need it's SF elements. A lot of people find themselves trapped in a life that they don't deserve, one of few meaningful choices, doing things that they'd rather not be doing. It's just that in Luce's case she's literally been born to do the job she does as an alien servant of even more alien masters.
Luce is a serv, appearing human but with a fiery source in her chest that causes pain when she's around other servs and even more pain when she's around her alien masters. Lots of servs have drug habits in an effort to deal with this inevitable pain. It's not clear why the aliens made the servs that way, but it's typically cruel of them. Luce's story is complex; unique among servs she was raised by a human family so has a foot in both camps, which gives her expectations of a life that most other servs will never have. But she is a serv, and for most servs there's simply no escape.
Great writing with an impressive allegory to modern life, but really dark and bleak and horrible. Not really what I read fiction for really, but understand that my rating is more a reflection of distaste for what I'm reading rather than the level of quality of the work.
Luce is a serv, appearing human but with a fiery source in her chest that causes pain when she's around other servs and even more pain when she's around her alien masters. Lots of servs have drug habits in an effort to deal with this inevitable pain. It's not clear why the aliens made the servs that way, but it's typically cruel of them. Luce's story is complex; unique among servs she was raised by a human family so has a foot in both camps, which gives her expectations of a life that most other servs will never have. But she is a serv, and for most servs there's simply no escape.
Great writing with an impressive allegory to modern life, but really dark and bleak and horrible. Not really what I read fiction for really, but understand that my rating is more a reflection of distaste for what I'm reading rather than the level of quality of the work.