REVIEW: Katya's World
Katya’s World : Jonathan L. Howard, Strange Chemistry, 2012
I bought this without really appreciating that it was going to be YA. Anyway, Katya Kuriakova is fifteen, on the verge of turning sixteen, but already old enough to be counted an adult on her world for reasons that become slowly clear. Unsurprisingly, then, this book is about coming-of-age and the accompanying loss of innocence. But this happens in a sci fi setting, so Katya’s initiation involves danger, action, people who aren’t what they seem, technology and little sleep.
Katya’s world is Russalka, an oceanic planet rich in minerals colonised by people from Earth three or four generations ago. The colonists mainly hailed from a single part of Russia - a deliberate policy, other colonies were founded in groups from other geographic locales, in an attempt to ensure cohesion at the start of a dangerous new venture. However, as we’re informed in the expository first chapter, things went awry between Russalka and Earth, with the colonists forced to rely on their own ingenuity in harsh circumstances for long years - until one day the Terrans re-established contact, in the form of an attack on the Russalkans. And then, after a violent struggle, the war stopped, the Terrans retreated, leaving most of the planet under the government of what had been an interim authority. It is the only way of life Katya has known. Up till now, she has had no reason to question it.
At the start of the book, she has matriculated, which means she is now counted as an adult, if not always treated as one, and can leave the classroom to be an apprentice navigator on her uncle’s submarine Pushkin’s Baby. Russalka’s stormy atmosphere has driven the Russalkin underwater. The nice, easy first voyage Katya was expecting is not the one she gets, of course, as one of the Feds commandeers their minisub from its mission of trade to carry a known criminal to a secure facility. Haviland Kane is like no-one Katya has met before, a trickster figure and someone, as Katya will later tell him bitterly, people die around.
Worse, Katya, her uncle and all the people they meet from there on in will have to face a monstrosity unlike anything they ever imagined, bearing the Terran mythical name Leviathan. Will the various parties of Russalkin - for the planet is less united than Katya naively supposed - unite to face this threat or continue to act in what seems to be their own self-interest? With her ability to get all sorts to trust her and listen to her, which is a good job because she’s not only a prodigy, but a lateral thinker and fast learner, Katya will have to step up.
In some ways, this is a boy’s own adventure that just happens to have a heroine. I was constantly aware that this was written by a man - I’m not sure if it was because he wasn’t writing within the parameters I’d expect from a female writer in this subgenre. He did try to discuss Katya’s feelings - she spends an inordinate amount of time wishing that the adults around her would stop treating her as a kid, although the more experience she gains, the more it changes her and the more she sees that it counts. She’s a heroic figure, stubborn and loyal - and perhaps a little flat. She and the writer don’t seem to notice, but I did, that no other named female character turns up until a third of the way in, although Tasya is quite some character. Ford does acknowledge that submarine captains can be women, but it’d be nice to see more of them. But there was one moment, late on in the book, where Katya’s life flashes before her, and my response was that, somehow, I’d have liked more of that earlier.
Regardless of gender, it’s a book for those who like action-adventure, with the pace, dangers and the trials Katya and whoever she’s around face ratcheting up continually. Chapter headings are usually for doodads of the Indiana Jones and the X or Lara Croft: Y variety: Judas Box, Medusa Sphere and Sin Bottle.
It’s very much a story about submarine life, though it’s set in space and the future. The choice of Russian culture makes sense in that context - I don’t know enough to judge whether the author fully explored that. This is the first in a series, but because I didn’t fully engage with the characters (and the Russalkin generally seem pig-headed) I don’t feel a desperate urge to find out what happens next in the Russalka Chronicles.
This entry was originally posted at http://feather-ghyll.dreamwidth.org/119460.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.
I bought this without really appreciating that it was going to be YA. Anyway, Katya Kuriakova is fifteen, on the verge of turning sixteen, but already old enough to be counted an adult on her world for reasons that become slowly clear. Unsurprisingly, then, this book is about coming-of-age and the accompanying loss of innocence. But this happens in a sci fi setting, so Katya’s initiation involves danger, action, people who aren’t what they seem, technology and little sleep.
Katya’s world is Russalka, an oceanic planet rich in minerals colonised by people from Earth three or four generations ago. The colonists mainly hailed from a single part of Russia - a deliberate policy, other colonies were founded in groups from other geographic locales, in an attempt to ensure cohesion at the start of a dangerous new venture. However, as we’re informed in the expository first chapter, things went awry between Russalka and Earth, with the colonists forced to rely on their own ingenuity in harsh circumstances for long years - until one day the Terrans re-established contact, in the form of an attack on the Russalkans. And then, after a violent struggle, the war stopped, the Terrans retreated, leaving most of the planet under the government of what had been an interim authority. It is the only way of life Katya has known. Up till now, she has had no reason to question it.
At the start of the book, she has matriculated, which means she is now counted as an adult, if not always treated as one, and can leave the classroom to be an apprentice navigator on her uncle’s submarine Pushkin’s Baby. Russalka’s stormy atmosphere has driven the Russalkin underwater. The nice, easy first voyage Katya was expecting is not the one she gets, of course, as one of the Feds commandeers their minisub from its mission of trade to carry a known criminal to a secure facility. Haviland Kane is like no-one Katya has met before, a trickster figure and someone, as Katya will later tell him bitterly, people die around.
Worse, Katya, her uncle and all the people they meet from there on in will have to face a monstrosity unlike anything they ever imagined, bearing the Terran mythical name Leviathan. Will the various parties of Russalkin - for the planet is less united than Katya naively supposed - unite to face this threat or continue to act in what seems to be their own self-interest? With her ability to get all sorts to trust her and listen to her, which is a good job because she’s not only a prodigy, but a lateral thinker and fast learner, Katya will have to step up.
In some ways, this is a boy’s own adventure that just happens to have a heroine. I was constantly aware that this was written by a man - I’m not sure if it was because he wasn’t writing within the parameters I’d expect from a female writer in this subgenre. He did try to discuss Katya’s feelings - she spends an inordinate amount of time wishing that the adults around her would stop treating her as a kid, although the more experience she gains, the more it changes her and the more she sees that it counts. She’s a heroic figure, stubborn and loyal - and perhaps a little flat. She and the writer don’t seem to notice, but I did, that no other named female character turns up until a third of the way in, although Tasya is quite some character. Ford does acknowledge that submarine captains can be women, but it’d be nice to see more of them. But there was one moment, late on in the book, where Katya’s life flashes before her, and my response was that, somehow, I’d have liked more of that earlier.
Regardless of gender, it’s a book for those who like action-adventure, with the pace, dangers and the trials Katya and whoever she’s around face ratcheting up continually. Chapter headings are usually for doodads of the Indiana Jones and the X or Lara Croft: Y variety: Judas Box, Medusa Sphere and Sin Bottle.
It’s very much a story about submarine life, though it’s set in space and the future. The choice of Russian culture makes sense in that context - I don’t know enough to judge whether the author fully explored that. This is the first in a series, but because I didn’t fully engage with the characters (and the Russalkin generally seem pig-headed) I don’t feel a desperate urge to find out what happens next in the Russalka Chronicles.
This entry was originally posted at http://feather-ghyll.dreamwidth.org/119460.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.