The Stars May Not Lie, But Why Are They So Racist?
"The Stars Do Not Lie" by Jay Lake is an alternate history where Africans became dominant colonizers and still manage to give rise to the Roman Catholic Church (complete with inquisition!) and the Freemasons.[1] Sure, they called the Increate and Thalassojustity, but like most of the worldbuilding, there is little that distinguishes it from our world - there's rococo architecture, people wear bowlers and tab collars and drink gin fizzes. The Thalassocretes are named for a Greek goddess and biracial people are called by a term of Spanish derivation. Scratch this world and ours lies underneath because Lake didn't explore his premise much at all - he stuck our world in a blender and then applied a patina. Oh, did I mention it's also steampunk?
Anyway, Galileo Morgan Abutti has made a discovery - orbiting Earth is a spaceship which suggests to him that we are not from Earth originally. This is heresy, and being the most naïve person ever, he elects to make an announcement at the local planetary society. As you might expect, he is quickly chucked out on his ass and then arrested.
But in a shocking twist, the Thalassocretes (of a certain level) already know about the spaceship and even have one in their secret fort, so they all go on a road trip to look at it (because reasons.)
Bilious Quinx, church chief inquisitor (and also a Mason who should already know about the space ship) runs along behind to stop word of this heresy getting out. There are fights and people die and by the end I wanted to stab myself because I was so annoyed with everyone and the pointlessness of the story.
And Hey! Everybody's really racist in this story. Over and over, like Lake is rubbing our noses in how racist everyone is, as if we are puppies who messed on the carpet. (Also, there was a whole lot of "Boy he's really dark so the ladies would find him totally hot" which just seemed forced and out of character, such as: Valdoux was as dark-skinned as any comely lass might hope for in a suitor, with a smile unbecoming a man of serious parts.)
Mostly, this was distracting because Lake didn't seem to have anything interesting to say about racism. (Are we meant to take from this that repressive societies tend to be bigoted? Thanks for the insight.)
Oh, and in case you are wondering, of course everyone is sexist is well, because the Ladies are the biggest threat to the American Way of Life progress.
[1] Of the sort you might find in a Dan Brown novel.
Anyway, Galileo Morgan Abutti has made a discovery - orbiting Earth is a spaceship which suggests to him that we are not from Earth originally. This is heresy, and being the most naïve person ever, he elects to make an announcement at the local planetary society. As you might expect, he is quickly chucked out on his ass and then arrested.
But in a shocking twist, the Thalassocretes (of a certain level) already know about the spaceship and even have one in their secret fort, so they all go on a road trip to look at it (because reasons.)
Bilious Quinx, church chief inquisitor (and also a Mason who should already know about the space ship) runs along behind to stop word of this heresy getting out. There are fights and people die and by the end I wanted to stab myself because I was so annoyed with everyone and the pointlessness of the story.
And Hey! Everybody's really racist in this story. Over and over, like Lake is rubbing our noses in how racist everyone is, as if we are puppies who messed on the carpet. (Also, there was a whole lot of "Boy he's really dark so the ladies would find him totally hot" which just seemed forced and out of character, such as: Valdoux was as dark-skinned as any comely lass might hope for in a suitor, with a smile unbecoming a man of serious parts.)
Mostly, this was distracting because Lake didn't seem to have anything interesting to say about racism. (Are we meant to take from this that repressive societies tend to be bigoted? Thanks for the insight.)
Oh, and in case you are wondering, of course everyone is sexist is well, because the Ladies are the biggest threat to the American Way of Life progress.
[1] Of the sort you might find in a Dan Brown novel.