Publishers Weekly
05/23/2016
Palmer's fiction debut is the ambitious and colorful first installment of her Terra Ignota series, following the political intrigues of Mycroft Canner, a convict who, as punishment for his crimes, becomes the servant of all he meets. The setting is a richly depicted future where gender is concealed, people live in carefully coded sects, and theology is pick-and-choose. Mycroft is tasked with hiding a child whose existence could cause chaos; this is no easy feat, and he and those around him are soon plunged into the world of high politics. Palmer's prose is written with an Enlightenment sensibility, deliberately dense and ponderous. This stylistic decision can be engaging, especially in the tête-à-têtes between Mycroft and the reader, but the heaviness detracts from what might otherwise be an engrossing plot. Mycroft is a witty unreliable narrator whose own biases color the world brought before the reader; it lurches between hellish and utopian. Palmer proves that the boundaries of science fiction can be pushed and that history and the future can be married together. Agent: Amy Boggs, Donald Maass Literary. (May)
From the Publisher
Praise for Book 1 of Terra Ignota, Too Like the Lightning
“Bold, furiously inventive, and mesmerizing…It’s the best science fiction novel I've read in a long while.” —Robert Charles Wilson
“More intricate, more plausible, more significant than any debut I can recall…If you read a debut novel this year, make it Too Like the Lightning.” —Cory Doctorow
“Astonishingly dense, accomplished and well-realized, with a future that feels real in both its strangeness and its familiarity.”—RT Book Reviews (Top Pick)
"The Terra Ignota books are is the kind of science fiction that makes me excited all over again about what science fiction can do.” —Jo Walton
“Excellent.” —Craig Newmark
Praise for Book 2 of Terra Ignota, Seven Surrenders
“A breathless and devious intellectual page-turner, Seven Surrenders veers expertly between love, murder, mayhem, parenthood, theology, and high politics. I haven't had this much fun with a book in a long time.” —Max Gladstone
“A breathless and devious intellectual page-turner, Seven Surrenders veers expertly between love, murder, mayhem, parenthood, theology, and high politics. I haven't had this much fun with a book in a long time.” —Max Gladstone
"Wonderfull 18th-century style narrative voice....a richly and highly sophisticated novel that calls for repeated re-readings." —SFRevu
"The eloquence ofPalmer's reflections on social issues cannot be denied." —Library Journal, starred review
"Palmer crafts one of the most compelling narrative voices around in describing this impossible, fascinating and plausibly contradictory world." —RT Book Reviews, 4-1/2 stars
“Devastatingly accomplished…An arch and playful narrative that combines the conscious irreverence of the best of 18th-century philosophy with the high-octane heat of an epic science fiction thriller.” —Liz Bourke
“Palmer proves that the boundaries of science fiction can be pushed and the history and the future can be married together.” —Publishers Weekly
Praise for Book 3 of Terra Ignota, The Will to Battle
"It is increasingly clear that we are in the hands of a new master of the genre....There's a resonance and richness to the Terra Ignota series that is like almost nothing else being written today." —RT Book Reviews, 5 stars
"Innovative, mesmerizing and full of fun. Ada Palmer lets her imagination weave a truly great political science story in an imagined world – full of lessons from real-world history." —Washington Book Review
"One appreciates the wry humor and the ingenious depth of her worldbuilding. The interplay between reader and narrator is especially enjoyable." —Publishers Weekly
"Any reader who has ever thrilled to the intricate machinations of the Dune books, or the Instrumentality tales of Cordwainer Smith, or the sensual, tactile, lived-in futures of Delany or M. John Harrison... will enjoy the mental and emotional workout offered by Palmer’s challenging Terra Ignota cycle." —Locus
"This series is one the best things that has happened to science fiction in the 21st Century and I can’t hardly wait to see where Ada Palmer is going to take us with Perhaps the Stars." —SffWorld
Library Journal
04/15/2016
The year 2454 introduces an atmosphere that is entirely unlike our own: one in which technology and economics rule, gender and social norms are taboo, and religion is outlawed but spirituality is accepted. Carlyle Foster's position as a sensayer allows him to counsel people in the ways that the world could be. However, arriving at his newest assignment, he encounters a child with living, bleeding, plastic toy soldiers, and a convict serving the family—Mycroft Canner. The existence of one young boy who can make his wishes come true could threaten this utopian system. As Mycroft narrates this story, he depicts a calm sense of reality, one that hides a deep, intense undercurrent that will spur a revolution among the realm's inhabitants. VERDICT Palmer's debut novel examines the cohesive yet clashing connection between philosophical ideologies and advanced technology. Mycroft's experience as a convict refreshes stale sf elements and offers a unique perspective on the birth of a future rebellion.—KC
