Best of All Possible Worlds

by Karen Lord, Karen Lord

336 pages

English language

Published Nov. 6, 2014 by Quercus.

ISBN:: 978-1-78087-168-4

(13 reviews)

Karen Lord’s debut novel, the multiple-award-winning Redemption in Indigo, announced the appearance of a major new talent—a strong, brilliantly innovative voice fusing Caribbean storytelling traditions and speculative fiction with subversive wit and incisive intellect. Compared by critics to such heavyweights as Nalo Hopkinson, China Miéville, and Ursula K. Le Guin, Lord does indeed belong in such select company—yet, like them, she boldly blazes her own trail.

Now Lord returns with a second novel that exceeds the promise of her first. The Best of All Possible Worlds is a stunning science fiction epic that is also a beautifully wrought, deeply moving love story.

A proud and reserved alien society finds its homeland destroyed in an unprovoked act of aggression, and the survivors have no choice but to reach out to the indigenous humanoids of their adopted world, to whom they are distantly related. They wish to preserve their cherished way of …

Now a man and a woman from these two clashing societies must work together to save this vanishing race—and end up uncovering ancient mysteries with far-reaching ramifications. As their mission hangs in the balance, this unlikely team—one cool and cerebral, the other fiery and impulsive—just may find in each other their own destinies . . . and a force that transcends all.

“This fascinating and thoughtful science fiction novel breaks out of the typical conflict-centered narrative paradigm to examine adaptation, social change, and human relationships. I’ve not read anything quite like it, which it makes that rare beast: a true original.”—Kate Elliot, author of the Crown of Stars series and the Spiritwalker Trilogy

5 editions

Erin reviewed Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord

Review of 'Best of All Possible Worlds' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

3.5 stars rounded down. The execution here was lacking for me, but it was still a worthwhile read. This feels like “cozy SF” published before that label really existed. There’s a found family of sorts that I think would satisfy Becky Chambers fans. There’s also a major romance component, which I did not expect until I looked at a review that mentions it. So this also reads as a SF romance but that genre is nowhere near as popular as fantasy romance.

It doesn’t read as very genre romance, though. The couple is older, their behavior and difficulties not super dramatic, the spice minimal - thus the “cozy” label I give it. Personally I did enjoy that they never reacted to their conflicts like angsty teens, which is part of why I have trouble with genre romance.

There were some thoughtful discussions here about the ethical thing to do and how to rebel effectively. But I would say it’s still pretty surface level, partly because of how much this book tries to cover.

It’s episodic as this team of people visit various communities. It sort of worked, but it left a lot of story threads just hanging. So much was started that was interesting but there wasn’t time to explore it more. Not that I needed a tidy ending for everything, but multiple things felt like they weren’t done justice. I probably needed fewer communities visited - not one per chapter.

The world, the setting, also felt on the vaguer side. If I enjoy a book enough, I can ignore that easier. But here it did start to bug me how unclear a lot of the workings of this world were.

It shows it’s age a bit in that poly relationships, queerness are commented on as if they are new. But I’m glad the rep is positive here.

Arturo Urbanos reviewed The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord

Review of 'The Best of All Possible Worlds' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Estamos a mitad de año y ya os puedo decir que Karen Lord es de los mejores descubrimientos que he hecho, sin duda.

La narración de la autora me ha encantado y me ha tocado mucho al corazón. La ambientación es muy guay, los distintos seres que aparecen en la novela son muy muy interesantes y hay unos cuantos detalles relacionados con la representación que son muy TOP. Pero sin duda lo que más me ha gustado ha sido Grace y Dllenahkh en general y es que como empiece a hablar de ellos voy a gritar y llorar mucho y de verdad, no queréis que lo haga xD.

No ha sido una historia perfecta (hay unas cuantas cosas sacadas de la manga que las comprendo pero no me han gustado), pero me ha tocado mucho. Os recomiendo que leáis este libro en inglés si podéis porque he visto que con …

Claudia reviewed El mejor de los mundos posibles by Karen Lord

Review of 'El mejor de los mundos posibles' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Me ha gustado mucho. La relación entre los protagonistas me ha encantado, el subtexto es conflictivo pero interesante, el ritmo es tranquilo y se va desarrollando; tiene todos los puntos para ser uno de mis libros favoritos de este año, y lo ha sido a excepción de la explicación del arranque chungo que tuvo Dllenahkh con su exesposa y que aparece en los últimos capítulos.

Sin embargo, cabe añadir varias cosas de la traducción: entre otras cosas, hay omisión de párrafos, cambio de género de un personaje agénero a un género masculino o traducciones muy literales. Si queréis leerlo, os recomiendo que lo hagáis en su versión original.