Calypso

This was one of the books up for the #SFFBookClub poll that didn't win. The airquotes downside of putting the polls together is that everything on there is something I want to read, so I end up reading them all anyway.

This book was pitched as "a generation ship novel in verse" and it delivered. It felt like such a fresh way to talk about old concepts, and its flowery imagery felt less out of place than it would have in prose. It could have stood to be more weird, but each point of view had striking and effectively different styles, especially in terms of format, but also in imagery and tone and pacing. Overall, the plot didn't strike me as being particularly novel, but it was enjoyable and that wasn't really why I was coming to this book in the first place.

When I heard of this book--a generation ship novel entirely in verse--I was excited and felt some trepidation, because it can be easy for a technical feat like that to overshadow the story. Once I had it in hand and flicked through, I felt both of those things more intensely, because parts of the book employ the sort of creative layouts I associate more with zines than novels.

It turns out that all of that drives the story and characterisation with a singular focus. Even the wackiest-looking page layouts are a guide for pacing and mood, and work fantastically well. I am unusually tempted to just go back to the beginning and read the whole thing through again.

It is also an interesting story, and the three main characters are compelling. It made sense to mostly focus on them at the expense of the ship's crew, but at the end I was left a little frustrated that one question was never addressed: what would have motivated rank-and-file members of the first generation crew to sign up?

It is also a deeply Christian story, enough so that I feel like that needs to be a potential CW. But this is handled in a very interesting way that worked for me as a non-Christian reader.

#SFFBookClub

I was skeptical that I'd have the patience for an epic poem, but I was immediately engaged. Each character has a distinct style, and the verse adds an emotional and metaphorical layer to the narrative. It makes for a softer, dreamier, but perhaps more penetrating story that sings its speculations.

This is a generation colony ship sci-fi novel.

One of the first scenes introduces a Terra-formed Mars. The technological hurdles have been solved. Overcoming technical issues inherent in such a grand project is not the subject of this novel.

It is not nature but human nature Calypso struggles with.

What form should such a colony take? What toll will such a project take on its crew?

Calypso is also a literary experiment, giving different view point characters different literary styles. Including a view point written entirely in verse. I enjoyed this aspect and applaud the audiobook Producers for using distinct narrators for the different viewpoints.