 | |
| Author | Neon Yang |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | The Nullvoid Chronicles |
Release number | 1 |
| Genre | Science fiction; space opera |
| Publisher | Tor Books |
Publication date | 27 Sep 2022 |
| Pages | 432 |
| ISBN | 978-1-250-78897-9 |
The Genesis of Misery is a 2022 science fiction novel by Neon Yang. It is the author's first full-length novel and is the first work in the planned trilogy The Nullvoid Chronicles. It has been described as a space opera retelling of the story of Joan of Arc.
In a frame story, a human man listens to an angel narrate the story of Misery Nomaki. Hundreds of years ago, eight explorers discovered holystone. They heard the voice of the Larex Forge, the Demiurge, who taught them how to use the stone. Six of these Messiahs founded the Church of the Forge; two of them searched for scientific explanations rather than religious ones. These two became the ancestors of the Heretics, and a centuries-long war began.
Misery (she/they) is a resident of the rural planet of Rootsdown and a citizen of the Empire of the Faithful. She has the ability to use holystone despite not being a saint; Misery suspects she has voidmadness. She begins seeing visions of an angel named Ruin. She is arrested; Misery lies and claims to be the Ninth Messiah. Surprisingly, the Duke of Apis believes her and sends her to the Imperial Capital.
Misery arrives at the capital and is shocked by its corruption. There is conflict between the Throne and the Church of the Forge, led by Archbishop Storm Imogen. She is taken to the Emperor's audience hall. The Emperor's sister Lee Alodia Lightning hears Misery's petition. Misery publicly claims the title of Ninth Messiah and destroys the audience hall, killing hundreds of onlookers. Misery, the Duke, and Alodia are sentenced to death.
Misery is transported to Angelsteeth base, where she uses her powers to fight off an attack by Heretics. General Tsung comes to believe she is the Messiah and trains her to become a mech pilot. She joins a team of fighters including Alodia, Captain Sunyata Diamond, and Spider. Misery's delusions deepen; she has recurrent dreams of a weeping saint and of a man named Jericho.
After a series of seeming miracles from the Forge, including the discovery of a new archangel-class mech, Misery comes to believe that she is actually the Messiah. Misery, Spider, and Lightning[a] make love. Heretics attack the base again, but they are easily destroyed by Misery's archangel mech. In a dream, Jericho tries to convince Misery that killing Heretics is wrong. She rejects him as a liar. The Emperor considers surrendering to the Heretics; however, Church leadership and General Tsung believe that unilateral action could turn the tide of the war effort. Monkglass Station is under siege. The Heretic commander is Esse Temple, who killed many of Captain Diamond's and Spider's crewmates in a previous engagement. Misery learns that the weeping saint from her dreams is Lady Storm Mirelle, the commander of Monkglass Station and the Archbishop's twin sister. She also learns that Jericho is a Heretic prisoner who is held at Angelsteeth. Jericho provides information about how to break the siege. He also claims that Misery is not the Messiah and is actually a telepath, explaining their shared dreams and providing a scientific explanation for her sudden rise to power. Misery is furious about these claims.
Misery leads the attack on Monkglass. She finds that Storm Mirelle has been working with both the Heretics and the Throne in order to secure a permanent peace treaty. Captain Diamond sacrifices herself to destroy many of the Heretics. Temple and Storm Mirelle both survive. Misery is taken into the Throne's custody; she and Jericho are both turned over to the Heretics. The angel finishes narrating this tale to the human man; these characters are shown to be Ruin and Jericho. Jericho implies that Ruin is an AI, that the mechs are alien technology rather than divine gifts, and that the Heretics plan to study Misery further.
According to Zhui Ning Chang of Strange Horizons, the novel's main narrative focus is an exploration and inversion of the Chosen One trope. At the beginning of the novel, Misery lies in order to convince people that she is the Messiah. Her journey shows what the "mantle of saviour can do to an individual" as it warps Misery's sense of self. [1]
Each character is introduced with personal pronouns as a matter of fact. The neopronoun "zie" is used to refer to Misery when she melds with the archangel mech. [1]
Publishers Weekly gave the novel a starred review, calling it "a triumph" and praising its "simultaneous embrace and inversion of Chosen One narratives". [2] Writing for Locus, Paul Di Filippo praised the use of the frame story as a "smart and efficient tactic". He called the entire work "a rousing postmodern space opera". [3] Writing for Tor.com, Martin Cahill called the novel "a thrilling, inventive, enthralling book" and particularly praised Misery's character development. [4] Olivia Ho of the Straits Times gave the novel four out of five stars. [5]
A review in Strange Horizons called the novel "weird and wild" and "stylistically adventurous". The review praised the incorporation of mecha, a concept usually reserved for anime and manga. The reviewer also enjoyed the "chaotic complexity" of Misery's character development, as well as the themes of queerness, fanaticism, and religion. The same review critiqued the somewhat repetitive interludes as well as the lack of worldbuilding regarding the "Faithful and the Heretics' culture, politics, and wider power structures", feeling that this weakened Lee Alodia Lightning's characterization. [1]
The Genesis of Misery was a finalist for the 2023 Locus Award for Best First Novel. [6]
Martha Wells is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has published a number of fantasy novels, young adult novels, media tie-ins, short stories, and nonfiction essays on fantasy and science fiction subjects. Her novels have been translated into twelve languages. Wells has won four Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards and three Locus Awards for her science fiction series The Murderbot Diaries. She is also known for her fantasy series Ile-Rien and The Books of the Raksura. Wells is praised for the complex, realistically detailed societies she creates; this is often credited to her academic background in anthropology.
The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh is a collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories, novelettes and novella written by American author C. J. Cherryh between 1977 and 2004. It was first published by DAW Books in 2004. This collection includes the contents of two previous Cherryh collections, Sunfall (1981) and Visible Light (1986), all of the stories from Glass and Amber (1987), stories originally published in other collections and magazines, and one story written specifically for this collection ("MasKs"). Cherryh's 1978 Hugo Award winning story, "Cassandra" is also included.
Misery is a 1990 American psychological thriller film directed by Rob Reiner, based on Stephen King's 1987 novel of the same name, starring James Caan, Kathy Bates, Lauren Bacall, Richard Farnsworth, and Frances Sternhagen. The plot centers around an author who is held captive by an obsessive fan who forces him to rewrite the finale to his novel series.
Endymion is the third science fiction novel by American writer Dan Simmons, first published in 1996. Part of his Hyperion Cantos fictional universe, it centers on the new characters Aenea and Raul Endymion, and was well received, like its predecessors Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. Within a year of its release, the paperback edition had gone through five reprints. The novel was shortlisted for the 1997 Locus Award.
Ancillary Mercy is a science fiction novel by the American writer Ann Leckie, published in October 2015. It is the final novel in Leckie's "Imperial Radch" space opera trilogy, which began with Ancillary Justice (2013) and was followed by Ancillary Sword (2014).
Machineries of Empire is a series of military science fiction/science fantasy/space opera novels by American writer Yoon Ha Lee and published by Solaris Books. It consists of Ninefox Gambit (2016), Raven Stratagem (2017) and Revenant Gun (2018). A collection of short stories set in the same universe, Hexarchate Stories, was published in 2019. The main trilogy follows the young infantry captain Kel Cheris and the traitorous general Shuos Jedao in a war among factions of a despotic interstellar empire, the Hexarchate, whose esoteric technology is based on the population's adherence to the imperial calendar.
Neon Yang, formerly JY Yang, is a Singaporean writer of English-language speculative fiction best known for the Tensorate series of novellas published by Tor.com, which have been finalists for the Hugo Award, Locus Award, Nebula Award, World Fantasy Award, Lambda Literary Award, British Fantasy Award, and Kitschie Award. The first novella in the series, The Black Tides of Heaven, was named one of the "100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time" by Time magazine. Their debut novel, The Genesis of Misery, the first book in The Nullvoid Chronicles, was published in 2022 by Tor Books, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, received a nomination for the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction, and was a Finalist for the 2023 Locus Award for Best First Novel and 2023 Compton Crook Award.
Rebecca Roanhorse is an American science fiction and fantasy writer from New Mexico. She has written short stories and science fiction novels featuring Navajo characters. Her work has received Hugo and Nebula awards, among others.
The Black Tides of Heaven is a 2017 LGBT fantasy novella by Singaporean author Neon Yang. The story centers around the twin children of the Protector, whose magic powers cause them to become entangled in the political machinations of their mother. It is one of the first two novellas in the Tensorate series, the other being The Red Threads of Fortune. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novella, Locus Award for Best Novella, and World Fantasy Award for Best Novella.
Trail of Lightning is a 2018 fantasy novel, the debut novel by Rebecca Roanhorse. After a supernatural disaster destroys most of North America, Navajo monster-slayer Maggie Hoskie must navigate a world of monsters and gods. The novel won the 2019 Locus Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Nebula awards.
The Red Threads of Fortune is a 2017 LGBT fantasy novella by Singaporean author Neon Yang. After the death of her daughter, Tensor Sanao Mokoya has abandoned her position as prophet and now spends her time hunting naga in the wilderness. She must confront her past while protecting her Machinist allies.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Anima, shortened as Evangelion Anima, and formerly Neon Genesis Evangelion -Anima-, is a Japanese light novel series written by Takuma Kageyama and later by Ikuto Yamashita, based on the Neon Genesis Evangelion series created by Khara. It was originally serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Dengeki Hobby Magazine from January 2008 to January 2013. It was later republished into 5 tankōbon volumes from 2017 to 2019. Set on an alternate timeline, three years after the events of the original Evangelion anime series, it focuses on the events where Shinji Ikari manages to avert the Human Instrumentality Project, the culmination of the plot of the original series. Seven Seas Entertainment licensed the novels series for an English release from 2019 to 2021.
The Vanished Birds is a 2020 space opera novel, the debut work by Simon Jimenez. In a plot that spans millennia, the story focuses on the interconnected lives of several characters, including a boy whose special ability may hold the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe. The novel received critical acclaim. It was nominated for the 2021 Locus Award for Best First Novel and the 2021 Arthur C. Clarke Award.
Hench is a 2020 superhero fiction novel by Natalie Zina Walschots.
Akemi Dawn Bowman is an American author, best known for her William C. Morris Award Finalist young adult novel Starfish, which follows a Japanese-American teenager named Kiko Himura who grapples with a toxic home life and attempts to find a back-up plan after being rejected for a place at her dream art school. Bowman's earlier work centered around realistic fiction, but she now writes across genres, starting with her sci-fi series The Infinity Courts which was released in April 2021.
Agatha of Little Neon is a 2021 literary fiction novel by American author Claire Luchette. Agatha of Little Neon was praised upon its debut and was included in several best of 2021 lists.
Black Water Sister is a 2021 fantasy novel by Zen Cho. It focuses on Jessamyn Teoh, a closeted lesbian who moves from the United States to her birth country of Malaysia. In Malaysia, she meets the ghost of her deceased grandmother and becomes involved in a conflict related to a local deity. The book received critical praise, and was nominated for the 2022 Ignyte Award, Locus Award for Best Novel, and World Fantasy Award.
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is a 2022 novel by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It is loosely based on The Island of Doctor Moreau, an 1896 novel by H.G. Wells. The novel received critical acclaim, with reviewers particularly praising its exploration of feminism and colonialism. The novel received nominations for the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Novel and 2023 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
What Moves the Dead is a 2022 horror novella by Ursula Vernon, writing under the pen name T. Kingfisher. It is based on the short story The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. The novella received critical acclaim, including a win for the 2023 Locus Award for Best Horror Novel and a nomination for the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Novella.