Praise for S. B. Divya
“Divya has created a richly imagined and eerily familiar world…confronting urgent questions about humans’ place in a society increasingly run by AIs.” —Kirkus Reviews
“This stunning near-future thriller from Divya (Runtime) tackles issues of economic inequality, workers’ rights, privacy, and the nature of intelligence…Crack worldbuilding and vivid characters make for a memorable, page-turning adventure, while the thematic inquiries into human and AI labor rights offer plenty to chew on for fans of big-idea sci-fi. Readers will be blown away.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Praise for Meru
“The world presented here is rich and complicated, [and] the love story, plus plenty of jaw-dropping space scenes, will reward readers.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Empathy convincingly overcomes anxiety in this thoughtful, inventive, and impressively understated space opera from Divya, [who] filters the immensity of outer space through the lens of close personal relationships, crafting compassionate and responsible characters (whatever their physical forms may be) that will surely win over readers.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“This is a thrilling combination of traditional SF space travel and forward-thinking examinations of what ‘humanity’ will mean in the future.” —Library Journal
“Divya’s latest (after Machinehood, 2021) is full of twists and turns to keep readers glued to the pages, with rich worldbuilding that will truly invest them in the character’s fates. Meru transcends genres and will appeal to fans of science fiction, philosophy, and fantasy.” —Booklist
“Meru proves a worthy addition to the canon of post-human space epics.” —The Washington Post
“Meru is a thought-provoking and imaginative future. With an intrigue spanning across interstellar distances, it still manages to be an intimate portrait of love.” — Mary Robinette Kowal, Hugo Award–winning author
“A breathtaking epic tale that challenges our views of humanity and how two individuals can bond. Again, S. B. Divya forges a new trail into what science fiction can be, follow her and be amazed.” — Mur Lafferty, Hugo and Nebula award finalist
01/01/2023
Featuring intricate worldbuilding, the latest from Divya (Machinehood) follows a classic science fiction trope: Can humanity survive on an extrasolar planet? Jayanthi and her pilot Vaha journey to the newly discovered planet Meru to test its habitability. Their partnership is complicated by the history of humans and alloys, "posthuman" beings that use genetic engineering to advance their bodies and abilities beyond those of humans. The two species have not always lived in harmony, and now it falls on Jayanthi, the adopted human child of alloy parents who aspires to be more like them, and Vaha, an alloy more in touch with zir emotions than others of zir species, to succeed at a mission that seems destined from the outset to fail. Divya imbues the novel's world with Hindi-inspired terms but gives enough context that the text remains easy and enjoyable to read. VERDICT This is a thrilling combination of traditional SF space travel and forward-thinking examinations of what "humanity" will mean in the future. With its blend of science fiction and social justice concepts, this will appeal to advanced teen and adult readers alike who enjoy progressive science fiction.—Lydia Fletcher
2022-11-16
A galaxy-spanning space opera about two lost souls determined to prove themselves.
As the adopted human child of two more-than-human parents known as "alloys," Jayanthi wants nothing more than to prove she has the skills to design new genomes. But when her mentor tells her she’ll never achieve her goals, she starts to look for another way to prove her worth. When she realizes that her sickle-cell disorder could actually be a beneficial adaptation on the newly discovered planet of Meru, her mentor comes up with a new plan—to send Jayanthi herself to Meru in an attempt to prove that humans can once again be allowed to explore the universe without making harmful changes to a planet’s biosphere. Meanwhile, Vaha, an alloy whose body is adapted to live in the vacuum of space, is desperate to prove that zie isn’t the failure as a pilot that zir maker believed zie was. With no other offers for work coming in, Vaha jumps at the chance to carry Jayanthi to Meru, continue practicing new types of flight in orbit around a planet, and hopefully fulfill zir maker’s ultimate design for zir life. Throwing two lonely people with something to prove together is a great recipe for drama, and these characters and their relationship do create a strong throughline for the novel. The world presented here is rich and complicated, but it’s so different from our own that the resulting exposition and explanations can have the effect of distancing the reader from the characters. Still, the love story, plus plenty of jaw-dropping space scenes, will reward readers patient enough to explore this far-future world.
A complex and sometimes slow-moving but ultimately rewarding novel.
With the printed novel having been nominated for both Hugo and Nebula Awards, Deepa Samuel has a high bar to reach as narrator of this audiobook, and she fills it. Samuel's youthful timbre and clear pronunciation help to bring this complex space opera to life. In a world in which humans are denigrated and "alloys," or artificially created people, are running the universe, Jayanthi, is a fully human child adopted by alloy parents. She pairs up with an alloy pilot, Vaha, to work toward giving humanity a better place in the universe on the newly discovered Earth-like planet of Meru. Samuel's character voices clearly delineate the different species and characters, allowing the listener to become immersed in the story's world-building. C.F. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
