| Title | : | Ragamuffin (Xenowealth, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0765315076 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780765315076 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 316 |
| Publication | : | First published June 12, 2007 |
| Awards | : | Nebula Award Best Novel (2007) |
Descended from the islanders of lost Earth, the Ragamuffins are pirates and smugglers, plying the lonely spaceways around a dead wormhole. For years, the Satraps have tolerated the Raga, but no longer. Now they have embarked on a campaign of extermination, determined to wipe out the unruly humans once and for all.
But one runaway woman may complicate their plans. Combat enabled, Nashara is more machine than flesh, and she carries inside her a doomsday weapon that could reduce the entire galaxy to chaos. A hunted fugitive, she just wants to get home before she's forced to destroy civilization—and herself.
Ragamuffin (Xenowealth, #2) Reviews
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Do you enjoy space opera with a little Caribbean flavor? Do wormholes and rum sound like the perfect mixture for a good time? If you are like me (and let’s hope you are not, that could be messy), you likely have no standard in which to answer these questions. I could count on one hand how many Caribbean-flavored space operas I’ve read, and still be sporting a closed fist at the end. Yes that’s right, zero Caribbean space operas for me. I suddenly feel so sheltered.
Luckily, Tobias Buckell decided to enlighten me and write “Ragamuffin”, a Caribbean-styled space opera extravaganza (minus the singing and dancing). I can honestly say it is the best one I’ve ever read, but that doesn’t add to this discussion. “Ragamuffin” takes place in the same universe Buckell created in his fine debut novel, “Crystal Rain”. However, it is not a straight sequel, but more of a standalone with a few recurring elements. The characters of John deBrun, Pepper and Jerome, introduced in “Crystal Rain”, return in “Ragamuffin”, but the story is not a direct continuation of the storyline from the previous novel.
The universe which is a collection of forty-eight worlds connected by a network of wormholes is ruled by the mysterious Benevolent Satrapy (not like we would expect them to name themselves the Malevolent Satrapy). The Satrapy employ the Hongguo as their military arm, using them to curb the development of technology. Humans are treated as a lower caste in the universe, relegated to a various collection of their own colonies and habitats. Nashara is on the run after killing a Gahe breeder at Pitt’s Cross. Barely escaping the planet, Nashara is trying to stay one step ahead of the Hongguo. She finally finds refuge on a Ragamuffin ship. The Ragamuffins are pirates and rebels that maintain their own free society near a dead wormhole. Eventually, Nashara and the crew of Ragmuffins will uncover the insidious plans of the Benevolent Satrapy and the Hongguo.
Meanwhile, John deBrun, Pepper and Jerome are living on Nanagada, when a wormhole above the planet reopens. The Teotl, the alien gods worshipped by the Azteca, have returned, and enlist John, Pepper and Jerome to help them. The Teotl’s survival is in jeopardy, and outside help is needed. Can the Ragamuffins help? Will Nanagadans save the Teotl? Will Nashara escape the Hongguo? And can the Ragamuffins survive the advancing Hongguo onslaught?
The uniqueness and creativity of Buckell’s universe cannot be understated. The universe is vividly imagined and developed. The story is more mature than “Crystal Rain”, as more complications evolve over the course of the novel, and the overall depth of story is more comprehensive. Short chapters of only a few pages keep the action moving for a fast-paced and enjoyable read. Buckell’s character development has also matured from his debut novel. The characters are not as flat, and harbor more complicated motivations for their actions. I still would like to see more world-building in Buckell’s novels; he has so many interesting ideas that I would love to see explored further. But at this point, Buckell appears satisfied in writing fast-paced enjoyable action novels. Still, this is a strong sophomore effort.
Last Word:
“Ragamuffin” is a solid step forward for Tobias Buckell. Showing a maturing sense of story and character development, Buckell has written a tremendously engaging space opera with a slew of turns and twists along the way. If Buckell continues to show the same rate of improvement, his future looks extremely bright. -
4.5 to 5.0 stars. Superb sequel to the excellent Crystal Rain by Tobias S. Buckell. Absolutely loved it. Terrific characters (Pepper is just great), outstanding world-building and alien cultures and, best of all, a well written, really good story. Highly recommended!!
Nominee: Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2008)
Nominee: Prometheus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2008) -
When I read
Crystal Rain in 2008, I thought it was one of the freshest science fiction novels I had read in a long time. It was an exciting adventure story taking place in a well-developed culture. It explored the idea of what would happen if a human colony got cut off from all the other human colonies. I liked it so much, that I did put
Ragamuffin on my mental to-look-for list. I finally checked a copy out of the library and sat down to read it. Sadly, I was quite disappointed.
You know how a book sometimes keeps you up late because you only have 50 pages to go and you just have to finish it? Well, I had 20 pages left of
Ragamuffin at 10:00 last night and I put in my bookmark and closed the cover. I just wasn't that interested. Somehow, it felt like the book was rushed into production. Could that feeling have come from the four glaring grammatical errors I noticed? (I'm not talking about the poorly written dialect.) Or, could it have been because the two main story lines never meshed very well.
Part of what made
Crystal Rain so wonderful is that it was a self contained story with terrific characters and a fabulously detailed setting.
Ragamuffin had none of those qualities. It's a sequel to
Crystal Rain, but you don't even get the connection until the second half.
I'm so disappointed. -
I found myself wishing someone would make Ragamuffin into a movie. Or rather, a mini-series, because making it a movie would require remove about three quarters of the plot, but I think most of it could fit into a mini-series. It's got a very cinematic quality. Nashara, the protagonist, does not indulge in a lot of introspection. When faced with problems, she generally responds with the extremely precise application of violence, or perhaps more accurately, forcefully applied kinetic energy.
It could be a bit like the BSG mini-series: a cast of about a dozen, spanning several planets, rebellion, aliens with foreign agendas, humans with sketchy ethics, and the future of the human race in the balance.
I don't usually read books and think "someone should make this into a movie!" I once read, and google is unhelpful in determining the source, a quote the effect of "Having one's book made into a movie is like having one's oxen made into bullion cubes." This seems about right to me; generally speaking, I like the book better than any movie made of it. And anyway, movies are very limiting: they have something like ninety minutes to capture 500 pages, and inevitably, much is lost. All the quite bits, the bits that aren't really about plot, just about story, the slow building of characters, all that is sacrificed to get in a coherent plot squeezed into the timeframe.
Ragamuffin, however, is missing a lot of that in the first place: at one point, Nashara locks herself in the cabin of a spaceship with a captain she mistrusts, and holds her at gunpoint for a week while they travel through space. If I had written that scene, it would take three chapters, and be fraught with sublimated sexual tension even if they never said a word; Buckell deals with the intervening week in a paragraph.
That isn't necessarily a criticism, since obviously I didn't write the book, so I can't exactly complain that it's different than I would have done, but I prefer slightly more in the way of exploring interpersonal dynamics of relationships. But I think it would make a rip-roaring offering on the SF channel.
Of course, trying to put this book on screen would mutilate it beyond recognition since almost no characters in the book are white. There's no way that would survive the transition.
(Re: the cover, it's actually a recognizable scene from the book, and Nashara is easily recognizable! (I do feel it was unnecessary to both portray her with D-cups and leave her jumpsuit unzipped to the navel.)) -
Sequel to
Crystal Rain, more interesting but also less coherent than its predecessor. Here the story zooms out from Nanagada to the wider universe, where humans live under the not-so-benevolent dictatorship of the Satrapy. Nashara has been designed as the ultimate weapon against the Satrapy, and she's trying to join forces with the Ragamuffin, the space pirates who represent one of humanity's last independent forces. A few problems: first, the new characters introduced in part one and the older characters reintroduced in part two don't come together very neatly in part three. Second, Pepper works much better as a supporting character than as a lead, and he dominates the second half of the narrative a bit too much. Third, when I mentioned that I wanted more female characters after
Crystal Rain, I didn't want said female character to be a second-generation clone of an existing male character. That sort of takes away from her being a woman in some ways, you know? Anyway, still lots of fun to read, if flawed; will definitely read next book in this series when it comes out. -
Just as fast paced and exciting as book 1. However, if you're expecting the story to pick up anywhere near where
Crystal Rain left off, you're in for a shock. The story starts in a completely different place (literally) and introduces us to the (much) larger universe. Then about one-third of the way through it takes a sharp left turn and brings us back to familiar characters and locations. And it all works better than I thought it would! The cover art is fantastic, as is the scene it depicts.
The story is pretty bleak overall, which I don't personally prefer. Also, I have the same issues here that I've had with Buckell's other work, namely world building and character decision making. His writing style and I just don't get along. -
Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote -
https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R19D...
Engaging Space Opera.
I thoroughly enjoyed Crystal Rain, the first installment of Tobias Buckell's Xenowealth series. That book introduced us to John deBrun and Pepper. Pepper was presented as the most dangerous man in existence; deBrun was presented as extremely competent. The pair are shipwrecked on the fallen and lost human colony world of Nanagada. Buckell bases Nanagada culture on the culture of the Caribean. Nanagada shares a continent with Aztlan which is based on the Aztecs.
Crystal Rain follows the pair as they deal with the consequences of an invasion of Nanagada by Aztlan. The Aztlan are beholden to their "gods", an alien race known as the Teotl. Nanagada's voodoo culture has its gods in the Loa who are a different race of aliens. The book is filled with plots and counterplots, action and adventure, as the two attempt to reach the Ma Wi Jung.
Ragamuffin opens up with a galactic perspective. We discover that humanity is a bit player in the galaxy, and has occasionally been reduced to the status of pets, by aliens. Humanity has only recently been emancipated but the controllers of the political system, known as the Benevolent Satrapy, are in the process of reversing that decision. A human liberation movement is engaging in acts of terrorism and has hired Nashara to perform an assassination. Nashara turns out to be every bit as competent in the ways of killing as Pepper and we follow her as she performs her task, flees, avoids traps and stays one step ahead of everyone. The Natasha sequence makes for engrossing action-adventure.
Buckell's world building is also satisfying. We get glimpses of the human diaspora, alien cultures, and the future history that has brought mankind to its status. We are introduced to the Hunggao, a human mercantile enterprise turned military enforcement for the Satrapy.
Nashara, we discover, is a tool devised on the lost human planet of Chimson, which was sealed off with Nanagada, by the Satrapy out of fear that human technological innovation might overturn the Satrapy. Nashara wants to return to Chimson, so she sets out in search of the Ragamuffins, the surviving military arm of Nanagada and Chimson on the wrong side of the sealed-off wormholes.
Most of the story involves the adventures of Nashara. However, a substantial component of the story involves Pepper and deBrun on Nanangada as their world is overturned by the return of the Teotl who have found a way to unseal the wormholes.
The two strands of the story come together in the end in a life and death showdown between Hunggao, Ragamuffins, Human liberation forces, Teotl and Pepper, all scheming for their own ends.
I found this to be a terrific story. I enjoyed the Jamaican cultural elements that dominate the side of the good guys. Any culture that can name a warship the "Starfunk Ayatollah" is going to be one that can keep a reader's attention.
PSB -
This is the 2nd book in the Xenowealth Series by Tobias S. Buckell. In most series the 1st book is the best and they go down hill from there. In this case the 2nd book, Ragamuffin, is much better than the 1st book, Crystal Rain. I'm not saying that Crystal Rain was a bad read because it was in fact a good read. This book is just much better.
In this one while the humans trapped on the planet New Anegada a.k.a. Nanagada are dealing with their new found freedom from the alien Teotl the rest of humanity is dealing with another alien race, the Satrapy. The Satrapy consider the humans a lesser race and forbid them their own technology and use mind control to keep them a subject race. The Ragamuffins are the warriors of the human race and they fight a gorilla war against the Satrarpy. Meanwhile the Teotl return to Anegada but this time they are seeking help from the humans to escape another advanced race that is trying to destroy them. With the help of the Old Fathers, humans who have lived for hundreds of years, they reopen the wormhole and escape to human space. When they do they are confronted with a major battle between the Ragamuffins and the Starapy. This book is action packed with a very interesting plot twist or two. I recommend it. -
As I mentioned in my review of
Crystal Rain, I enjoyed reading Tobias Buckell's debut novel, but I enjoyed reading the sequel,
Ragamuffin (
Tor, 2008), even more. This may be because Buckell has grown as a writer or it may be because Ragamuffin is more a traditional galaxy-spanning space opera, one of my favorite subgenres. But another reason is that there are more prominent libertarian themes in Ragamuffin than there were in Crystal Rain, enough that it was a finalist for the 2008
Prometheus Award.
Where Crystal Rain was set on a lost colony planet mostly devoid of advanced technology, Ragamuffin opens on an advanced planet ruled by an alien race called the Gahe, who are themselves a client race under the rule of the secretive Satraps. Human beings are officially "free" in the "benevolent" Satrapy, but in fact are forced to live on the margins of society — on space stations in the middle of nowhere, on interdicted planets cut off from the rest of the galaxy by collapsed wormholes (including Earth itself), or on reservations. On the Gahe planet, Astragalai, humans who don't want to serve in the role of intelligent pet for a Gahe master must live on a reservation, which they can only leave when granted a temperary "human safety" pass. Woe to the human who does not return to his reservation before his temporary pass expires: the penalty is death or enslavement.
We are first introduced to the protagonist of the novel, Nashara, on one such reservation called Pitt's Cross. Fans of Pepper and John from Crystal Rain will be increasingly disappointed not to see them at the outset, so I think it is best to go into this novel with the foreknowledge that characters from Crystal Rain do not make an appearance until about halfway through. Still, Nashara does quickly grow on you and you will get to see Pepper open a big ol' can o' whoop ass eventually, so hang in there. And if it's Pepper-style whoop ass you're after, Nashara will not disappoint.
So, anyway, Nashara escapes Pitt's Cross and rides on an orbital skyhook and transport pod up to a space station to meet up with a group, the revolutionary League of Human Affairs, for whom she had just completed a dangerous job. The League wants to overthrow the Satrapy and achieve real freedom for humanity. But Nashara's loyalties lie elsewhere and she has a greater mission to accomplish. Things don't go as planned, but Nashara manages to hitch a ride on a spaceship and proceeds to be hunted in a race across the galaxy by agents of the Satrapy.
The way in which the Satraps keep humans and other races in line and under heel is illustrative of our own governments' policies, if only people would make the connection. Earth was discovered by the Gahe and another alien race called the Nesaru, and presumably conquered and enslaved, dragged into the Satrapy involuntarily. But humans are an ornery, uppity, rebellious lot. They rebelled. But the rebellion apparently didn't go very well. The Earth rebels settled for a deal with Satraps to cut Earth off from the rest of the galaxy by collapsing its wormhole. The human-occupied colony planet of Chimson was also cut off for declaring independence.
Aside from these cut off planets and the lost colony planet of New Anegada, the bulk of humanity — "freed" by the Emancipation — live on Satrap space habitats or on reservations on alien worlds, while only 30 million or so live relatively free scattered around the galaxy. Relatively. The Satraps hinder and monitor human communications. They control human movement by prohibiting human ships from using the wormhole routes and fueling up without licenses.
The Satraps also prohibit certain technologies, to prevent the subject races from growing powerful enough to challenge them. Humans are prohibited from making carbon fiber, for example. The Satraps cleverly turn humans on each other by tempting them with power, wealth, and advanced technology. In a good metaphor for how intellectual property
stifles progress, innovation, and civilization, the Satraps use the Hongguo as enforcers against human technological progress. The Hongguo, formerly a merchant company, first attempt to buy patents for technological innovations that are too advanced for the Satraps's comfort, but will resort to killing or reconditioning any humans who refuse to give up their overly advanced tech.
In Crystal Rain there was a local defense force of rangers called the Raga, short for Ragamuffins. But not all the Raga were trapped on New Anegada. Those who remained on the other side of the collapsed wormhole were branded pirates by the Satrapy. The Satraps put up with them for a while, but now the Hongguo have been tasked with eliminating them.
On the other side of a collapsed wormhole in New Anegada, or Nanagada as the natives call it, we're reunited with familiar characters from Crystal Rain — some 10–20 years after the last events in the novel. John's son, Jerome, is a young man now. There is peace between the Azteca and the other Nanagadans. But then the rest of the Teotl show up in a mothership and all hell breaks loose. In the process, we learn more about the origin of the Teotl and the Loa.
The momentum of events propel the central cast of characters on both sides of New Anegada's (Nanagada's) collapsed wormhole into a collision course, some great action, and a big reveal about Nashara's mission. But I'll leave the details of the story and the conclusion up to your reading please.
[
Read the full review.] -
The first half of this book was OK but not captivating. It is set in a far future galaxy where humans are third class citizens, living in what are basically space ghettoes, the wormholes leading to the few worlds they control are a majority. The first book was set in the same universe but confined to a single planet; it had a lot more ongoing relationships. I like Buckell's writing but it wasn't keeping me going as the book flitted around isolated and paranoid heroes. I was trying to remember the name of the oh-so-cool augmented human who dominated the first book.
His name was Pepper, as it turns out. I know this because he shows up at the start of the second half. While definitely a nerd trope, he has whatever the literary equivalent of screen presence is. My interest level ticked up as soon as he arrived and didn't really let up. Not going to rush out and get the sequel but not going to give up on the series as well. -
This was definitely out of my comfort zone in terms of what I’m used to reading. But I’m glad I stepped out and got through this one. The premise of the plot was something original that I’ve never heard of before, plus the main character was an absolute badass, almost like a sci-fi james bond/rambo, and together with her crew, they were able to complement each others personalities quite well. The dialogue sometimes was confusing because of how far into the future it was, but it was easily understandable when looking at the big picture. I rated this a 3 of 5 because this book is a part of a series, and I didn’t know that, so naturally it was hard to understand how the characters met and how the plot came to be. Although, if I had read this after the previous entries it would easily be a 4-5 star book for me. Super good lesson on why stepping out of your comfort zone can pay off.
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Couldn't make it through this one. And it wasn't even the full piece. I wanted to like Tobias S. Buckell, I really did. He's a well-known blogger, and he's popular among the other writers I read. But I just couldn't get my head around it. Just couldn't care. Some girl escapes an enclosed city to go into space. I never get a grasp on what world she's in, what she's trying to do, or why I care. The people around her do things for seemingly no reason. This is one of the things I don't like about sci-fi--a lot of it is too hard (hard in the sense of lots of technical detail and scientific accuracy) leaving it inaccessible to the dumbass that is moi. Sorry, Toby. I tried.
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Entertaining sci fi novel. Nothing too crazy or unique but what it does it does well. It has some interesting concepts. I read it while travelling and it's a good, short novel for that.
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Another one where the ideas were super interesting, but the plot confused me and I never get really engaged in the story.
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THRILLING!
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"Bring me guns," Pepper said. "Lots of guns."
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![[ J o ]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1673171874i/4639825._UY200_CR4,0,200,200_.jpg)
[ read the first book in the series, 'Crystal Rain', and did not enjoy, therefore will not be continuing with the series ]
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Buckell's sophomore effort is a mixed bag, with a medley of characters that span the cosmos. You will be wowed on this journey. And then you will be confused. There is a lot going on here.
Maybe I missed the inter-galactic bus here by jumping in at book 2 (Crystal Rain is the predecessor), but I don't think so. The book lacks clear labeling as to being a sequel, and it is apparent in its writing that the author wished for this to stand on its own.
As a whole, it starts strong, alternates in quality and then tries to bring it together at the end but veers wide of perfect wormhole-center.
Despite problems, I see the appeal of Buckell's storytelling: The technology is well conceived and utilized in a setting that is real and gritty. World-building is high quality and interesting in a universe with humanity under the yoke of alien masters. Under the tentacled-heel they rebel, and Buckell explores how these outliers of humanity survive. The rough-edged Ragamuffins refuse to submit, while the brainwashed enforcers of the Benevolent Satrapy--the Hongguo--up the anté in a battle that quickly escalates and reaches a head (in what I can only call too convenient in timing to fully swallow).
My biggest qualm is character, though it is clear from some chapters that Buckell can get inside their head like the cybernetic implants that abound in his story. Other times, he loses sight of their personality to serve an element of story.
Nashara is a self-centered bad ass and the central character. But then she becomes a total softy for a girl that serves no purpose. For someone that has read the story, you may call me heartless; but what point does that entire storyline serve, other than to show the Satrap's disregard for life--believe me, I was already well aware. Buckell could have still docked the ship and retrieved the much needed fuel (bloody battle and all) without any need of getting the girl or her brother. Maybe he wanted to show Nashara's humanity. But what made Nashara most human was her willingness to sacrifice herself (and others--remember, she's a bad ass) for a people she had no way of knowing still existed.
Then there is the grammar. I am no expert and feel grammar is my weakest point, but there ARE mistakes. It wouldn't have bothered me as much, except for the Carribean dialogue that compounded it all. The author pays homage to the dialect with an amount of fervor that doesn't do the story justice. The odd word order, in a substantial portion of the dialogue, just ripped me out of the story. But that's me. I like a flavor of a dialect in my stories, not an entire dish and certainly not the whole meal.
When it came to the final conflict, there was a snag that had the Ragamuffins up against the very edge, the clock laughing at them and humanity's future on the brink. I should have been chattering my teeth in dreadful anticipation of who would live or die and if anyone would survive the day at all, but you know what? I didn't. This was THE climactic scene, but what ruined it was that it was rushed through and not given the chance to breathe and be its own. It just felt like a rehashing of events that had already occurred. I didn't feel present in those scenes. There was no sense of urgency. No peril. So, as a climax to the book: it failed.
For moments of goodness and technology that intrigued I give this a halting 3 stars. Given time and proper page space I think Buckell can turn out a much better read. I'll read another, have no doubt, but for now it's on to something else.
Visit my blog:
http://www.CliftonH.com for more reviews, to comment on this one, or for samples of my own writing in the fantasy genre. -
Humans are second-class citizens in the galaxy, technically free but realistically under the control of the aliens of the Satrapcy, who control the wormhole network and also have ways of controlling minds. But Nashara is an agent from a sealed-off human world who carries a weapon.... one that might be humanity's only shot, as the Satraps may be switching from a policy of repression of humanity to one of extermination.
Ragamuffin is part of Tobias Buckell's Xenowealth universe. It's technically the second book, and they're supposedly stand-alones except that there are some recurring characters. This is the first book I've read of his, so I have the rare (for me) experience of not just guessing how someone might react to coming in on the second book, but to give my own impressions.
Of course, it's hard to tell how much I've actually missed and how much I just imagine I might have missed, but if I were to guess, I think I was highly enjoying the book up until it started tying directly in to the previous one. The setting was innovative, the main character interesting, and I was digging the plot. It wasn't perfect, but I was enjoying it and looking forward to seeing where it went.
And then, about halfway through the book, it switched to a completely different plot. And stayed with that for most of the rest of the book, save a brief bit at the end where the storylines came together.
The second storyline never seemed as interesting to me, the planetary setting felt a little hokey, and there was overall a sense that these were characters not being introduced but reintroduced, and yet I never really managed to care about them as much.
The problem may be largely structural... if they alternated between the two plots from the beginning, I wouldn't have been so impatient with and disappointed by the second plot, could learn the details about both at the same pace, but spending almost half the book on one story and then jumping to a completely separate one for again, almost half the book, just made the second suffer by comparison. By the time we got back to the first plot, I'd almost forgotten what I was liking about it, and so my overall impressions of the book are unduly burdened by the part I didn't like.
One other thing of minor note. Buckell was born and raised in the Caribbean, and his universe is inspired by this. Mostly, this was an interesting and refreshing change (although I admit I don't know enough of that area of the world to get all the cultural references), although there is one area where it grew a little distracting, where many characters spoke in patois. Slangs and dialects can always be an iffy thing, whether invented or attempting to replicate the way real people speak in some part of the world. The main problem here, at least for me, is that it often reads as though a word or verb ending is just dropped, so whenever I come across one of these snippets of dialogue, my mind stops and thinks "editing error," and even though I quickly remember what's going on, there's an interruption of flow and I'm briefly taken out of the story. The patois isn't used consistently enough that I just grow completely used to it (nor do you have the benefits and cues that you'd have were you actually hearing the language spoken, such as a specific person's voice whenever it's about to be used) and so while it was probably intended to add some vibrance and diversity, instead it remained merely distracting.
There were some cool ideas here, and a few nifty set-pieces, so despite my problems with the book, I'd be willing to give the author another look somewhere down the line. -
Ragamuffin is my book from Grenada for the Read The World challenge. It’s a science fiction novel about a universe where humans share space with various other species and can travel from world to world via wormholes. Some of them come from a world which was settled by people from the Caribbean, hence the title and a certain amount of West Indian-inflected dialogue.
It was quite entertaining, I guess; I’m not really much of an SF fan. I read a lot at one stage because my brother used to read them, but since we don’t live in the same house anymore, I’ve largely stopped. I think the most interesting thing about SF is when it’s used to explore ideas: so for example, Iain M Banks’s Culture novels are in a sense a contribution to the Utopian tradition, and among other things, they raise the question of what human society would be like in a situation with limitless material wealth.
Ragamuffin is not really a novel of ideas in that way; it’s inventive enough, but it’s inventive within the standard tropes of science fiction. In a way this kind of space opera is really futuristic fantasy; swords and sorcery, with bionic implants taking the place of magical powers. I always thought it was interesting, incidentally, that two of the most popular works of C20th narrative, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, have such a medieval shape to them. But maybe that’s too much of a detour for this post.
Anyway, sub-genres of SF aside, what really makes the difference between good novels and bad ones is not the genre, it’s always the quality of the writing. Which in this book was perfectly reasonable but nothing remarkable. Even though it’s not the kind of book I usually read, I picked it up thinking it might be a bit of treat to read some escapist fiction. But it never really grabbed me. -
Aw, darn. I didn't realize till looking here on goodreads that this is #2 in a series. I even own #1, sitting somewhere in the TBR boxes. So - I have to admit that perhaps some of my issues with the book might be cleared up by having read the first book first.
It's space opera.
It is an action book. It goes at a mile-a-minute, and something totally new is happening every 3 pages. There is no pausing for explanation, introspection, or anything else.
It's in 3 parts.
The first part deals solely with the bad-ass heroine Nashara, who's a cyber-clone designed to take out the alien masters of humanity, or something (it's not specified). I really liked and enjoyed this part, even though interesting things kept getting brought up and then zipped swiftly by, never to return...
The second part starts very abruptly, and with no seeming connection to the first part. Suddenly, we are on an alien planet where there are Azteca, whose rivals are the Tolteca, and there are recently re-arrived aliens, who some humans regard as gods, called the Teotl. Ok, all fine and good. But there needs to be at least Some Tiny Explanation of why human settlers would re-create a dead civilization, complete with ethnic rivalries. Nothing. Not one line of explanation. And I kept going, "Who are all these people, and how is this supposed to tie in with the first story?"
OK, the third part ties it together. Sort of. Nashara hooks back up with the fleet of Ragamuffin (rebel Caribbean people) ships and uses her cyber powers to take over the Chinese/Japanese ships that are in league with the alien Satraps (these are different aliens than the Teotl), and form a sort-of alliance with the untrustworthy Teotl, who claim to be refugees from some Other aliens, and some children are rescued, and a lot of other people get blown up but the good guys win... for now. -
I love a space opera, but the science bits were a bit hard to wrap my head around in this one, particularly the novum of the lamina, which is a kind of data interface--it's obviously a very complex thing but it made the first few chapters a hard read. It might be that it translates better as visuals, not text. Once the plot gets going, though, it was a swift read, with compelling characters--even the side characters who start off antagonistic are worth being sad for. (I feel an Etsudo/Cayenne ship coming, pun intended.)
The direct link to CRYSTAL RAIN only comes in the second half of the book which takes us back to Nanagada, to John DeBrun and Pepper and Jerome. I'm not crazy about Jerome, because he hasn't really changed all that much from the previous novel. The evolution of the politics between Aztlan and Capitol City has become more intense with a grim outlook on humanity and our proclivity to stick to DOING WRONG THINGS EVEN WHEN WE'RE PROVEN WRONG. Also, I must have been slow because when the link between Nashara and Pepper become clear I almost yelled out loud because it was in retrospect so OBVIOUS.
The stakes have grown higher, and the aliens are more antagonistic. The changing dynamic between Teotl and human is brutal and sympathetic. And the conclusion is a bringing down the house that heralds a huge change in the status quo.
I appreciate the expansion of the galaxy, with humans spread out and managing to not become a homogenized white crowd. In fact, I think there's nary a white face in this cast, which I dug... not to say none of them could be imagined as white (although several important characters are described outright as black so only a racist could read them any other way), but whiteness is not intrinsic to them.
Anyway, I dug it, and will be looking out for SLY MONGOOSE next. -
Tobias Buckell is one of the hidden secrets of the universe. He writes science fiction space opera that is so packed with action and technology that it crackles like a bowl of rice crispies. The adventure and tension never let up from the first page through to the last. What hides behind the veneer of wild action and fascinating aliens is the fact that it’s also really good science fiction.
Buckell doesn’t spend much time on the morality of his characters, he lets us make up our own minds on that score (some of them sound like really nice people, some of them I would avoid like the devil himself). He also doesn’t waste any time telling us how the technology works or where the aliens came from or what led up to the enslavement of man by the alien Benevolent Satrapy. He lets us figure it out as we go along and the story gains considerable richness for it.
Ragamuffin is a sequel to Crystal Rain. Both of them feature Caribbean descendants in space, only notable because of how rare it is to see a non-white caste in science fiction.
Nashara is being hunted across space by the Satrapy because she possesses forbidden technology that could free humans from the totalitarian rule of the Benevolent Satrapy. Her flight downstream, through wormhole after wormhole, takes her to the dead end that used to be the wormhole to New Anagada. The wormhole was destroyed three hundred years previous by an explosion.
Buckell isn’t writing anything that will change your life or turn you into a philosopher over night. He is writing a story that is so fun to read that it feels much like falling down a long tube, propelled by a chain gun, hoping that he can land you safely when you get to the other end.
And maybe he will. And maybe some of your friends will live through it as well. -
Caribbean pirates IN SPACE! Battling hordes of aliens! With internet viruses in place of wombs! Woah!
And yet, not. The first half is rip-roaringly excellent, and can be found in pdf form here:
http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/sampler/...
It begins with Nashara, a mysterious and lethal woman, trying to get out of the human ghetto before anyone discovers the dead body she's leaving behind. It's gritty, it's believable, and it's chilling. Through a mixture of ruthlessness, self-control and superhuman abilities, Nashara escapes into the wider galaxy, where humans are pets at best. She seeks to break the control of the Benevolent Satrapi (mind controlling aliens) and achieve freedom for the few ragtag clusters of humans that still survive. Luckily, she has a few allies, including a killing machine named Pepper and a terrorized little girl named Kara.
Unfortunately, Buckell seems to get impatient about halfway through the book. Not well-ended, but what cyperpunk is? -
Nashara is on the run. She wants to get back to New Anegada, if she can, and she needs to escape from the Hongguo who are on her trail. She carries inside her a powerful weapon which could save her, but perhaps at a huge cost, both to her and to the balance of order of the galaxy. Complicating her escape and her decision about the use of her weapon is her discovery that the ruling aliens of the Benevolent Satrapy are planning to wipe out all humans.
Although I really appreciated the kick-ass female protagonist and the other female characters (after noting the relative lack of women in Crystal Rain), I actually liked Ragamuffin a little less. The book just seemed a little incoherent and choppy to me, on a prose level and on an overall narrative level. It jumps back and forth among different characters and even in time a little, and the confusion this created meant I wasn't as pulled along with the story as I was in Crystal Rain. I did like the focus on the larger universe, beyond the New Anegada setting, and getting to learn more about that larger world, but I'd have preferred having that focus through fewer different characters and settings. (And this might well be my issue, not the book's, as I've always preferred less jumping around in POV.)
I do look forward to reading Sly Mongoose, though, and seeing what's coming next for Buckell's fascinating universe; I just wish his prose style worked better for me. -
Ragamuffin captured my attention from the first page, and unlike Crystal Rain, which took a while to get into, never let go.
Buckell's aliens are great. They're very nonhuman, a threat even to the physically and cybernetically enhanced humans. There are species mentioned but not seen, as well, so I'm looking forward even more to future books in this universe.
The book starts out on a different world than Crystal Rain, with a different character, Nashara. She's interesting to follow and the story sticks with her and her escape from a world where "free" humans are confined to a compound and other humans are nothing more than alien pets. As strange and controlling as these aliens are, however, they're not really the ones in charge - a much more powerful race controls them and controls the growth of technology to maintain their position as rulers of this corner of the universe.
We return to the world we came to know in Crystal Rain/ about halfway through the book, leaving Nashara at a cliffhangery moment. The story stays here for a while, giving plenty of time to catch up with the familiar characters, before everyone meets each other. After that it's nonstop action - I really intended to go to bed earlier last night but I couldn't stop reading until the end. -
There are not many authors out there who can write entertaining fast-paced space opera stories, tightly built political intrigues and introduce diversity in their cast of characters. Tobias Buckell is one such authors and does it all effortlessly it seems. Ragamuffin is smart, fast, serious science fiction but no info dumps. It's refreshing and highly recommended.
Book one, Crystal Rain, hit home because it took place in a Caribbean setting that reminded of my childhood. Book two, Ragamuffin, reminded of why I loved space opera so much.
Also note that, though this is the second book in the series, you may read them in whatever order you feel like. Another smart thing on the author's side: each book is standalone. Sure some characters appear in several or all three books, but you don't have to have read them all to enjoy. That's for all of you who are tired of never-ending genre series.
I'm eagerly waiting for Sly Mongoose (which is the third book and for now it seems final book in the series) to come out in paperback. -
I loved Buckell's short story Stochasti-city in Metatropolis and found this book while looking for more content by Buckell. In the beginning it was a bit tough for me to get into the story due to the unique type of story and the Caribbean accent of some of the characters. The science fiction and steampunk blend was new to me so just trying to understand and visualize everything was difficult initially. Also, it probably didn't help that I started the series with this book as opposed to Crystal Rain. (I didn't realize that Crystal Rain and Sly Mongoose were in the same universe as this book.) Anyways, as I got more comfortable with the new elements and style, I started to enjoy the story more to the point of not wanting to put it down. Buckell has a style of writing action that resonates with me and it made the last third of this book a joy to read. I got used to the Caribbean accents and enjoyed them once I felt like I was reading them the right way. Overall I enjoyed Ragamuffin and I can't wait to read more of Buckell's original stories.
