A review by courtney_mcallister
The Glorious Angels by Justina Robson
4.0
I received a free copy of Glorious Angels from Gollancz in exchange for an honest review.
This was my first exposure to Justina Robson's work. Although she is very popular in the UK, I have not seen or heard her work touted on this side of the pond. That's unfortunate, because I think she is a very interesting writer with a lot to offer readers who mistakenly think sci-fi/fantasy is bland, repetitious, or dependent on genre conventions.
Glorious Angels is an impressive work that combines the pacing of a thrilling adventure story with high-concept fantasy. Robson crafts an elaborate world destabilized by intrigue and power grabs, but the characters who populate that world are even more captivating. Hierarchies, inherited talents, and identity politics structure their lives, but they never come across as passive manifestations of cliches or stereotypes. Rather, each character's nuanced motivations and personal philosophies are fully realized, thanks to Robson's talent for subtly differentiating narrative perspectives. Each time the novel changed perspective, I felt as though I were seeing Glimshard through that character's eyes. And the novel's epic scope gives the reader the opportunity to see those perspectives shift and change over time.
Glorious Angels is an intricate novel - it often felt like I was examining a vast clockwork through a microscope. Each component was rich and complex in its own right, but there was a larger mechanism keeping all the individual parts in precisely choreographed motion. Aside from being impressed with Robson's ability to orchestrate such a feat, I loved the ideas and concepts that proliferate in Glorious Angels. The gender politics are interesting, but not tidy or overly simplified. And I was fascinated by the specialized powers that blur the line between magic and technology.
Robson plunges the reader into Glimshard's political upheaval in medias res without much context. Although the immersion mostly works, you have to read the first 25 pages very carefully. If your attention wanders even slightly during this section, you will have to backtrack so that subsequent actions and motives make sense. Also, this novel is presented as a stand alone, but not all of the threads get tied together at the end. It becomes evident during the last 40-50 pages that Glorious Angels needs a sequel or series of companion volumes. There's nothing wrong with that, but don't get your heart set on a satisfying resolution to all the plot lines Glorious Angels introduces.
This was my first exposure to Justina Robson's work. Although she is very popular in the UK, I have not seen or heard her work touted on this side of the pond. That's unfortunate, because I think she is a very interesting writer with a lot to offer readers who mistakenly think sci-fi/fantasy is bland, repetitious, or dependent on genre conventions.
Glorious Angels is an impressive work that combines the pacing of a thrilling adventure story with high-concept fantasy. Robson crafts an elaborate world destabilized by intrigue and power grabs, but the characters who populate that world are even more captivating. Hierarchies, inherited talents, and identity politics structure their lives, but they never come across as passive manifestations of cliches or stereotypes. Rather, each character's nuanced motivations and personal philosophies are fully realized, thanks to Robson's talent for subtly differentiating narrative perspectives. Each time the novel changed perspective, I felt as though I were seeing Glimshard through that character's eyes. And the novel's epic scope gives the reader the opportunity to see those perspectives shift and change over time.
Glorious Angels is an intricate novel - it often felt like I was examining a vast clockwork through a microscope. Each component was rich and complex in its own right, but there was a larger mechanism keeping all the individual parts in precisely choreographed motion. Aside from being impressed with Robson's ability to orchestrate such a feat, I loved the ideas and concepts that proliferate in Glorious Angels. The gender politics are interesting, but not tidy or overly simplified. And I was fascinated by the specialized powers that blur the line between magic and technology.
Robson plunges the reader into Glimshard's political upheaval in medias res without much context. Although the immersion mostly works, you have to read the first 25 pages very carefully. If your attention wanders even slightly during this section, you will have to backtrack so that subsequent actions and motives make sense. Also, this novel is presented as a stand alone, but not all of the threads get tied together at the end. It becomes evident during the last 40-50 pages that Glorious Angels needs a sequel or series of companion volumes. There's nothing wrong with that, but don't get your heart set on a satisfying resolution to all the plot lines Glorious Angels introduces.