This future-Hugo-award-winning novel is a queer sci-fi fairy tale that is both intimate and epic, leaving the reader dazzled with visions and questions. I couldn't put it down and couldn't sleep after reading it, immediately wanting to go back and check different points in the book to reaffirm different theories (I read it on Kindle but now I need to have it in print).

The novel weaves three time periods and casts of characters that are interlocked in questions of fate, future and devotion. Like Octavia Butler, Bryne's characters are serious, sensual and convinced that they must shape the outcome of events. Also like Butler, the books themes deal with questions of inequality, inter-generational trauma and colonialism.

The book is challenging in that it does not give easy answers or obvious villains, and requires you to piece things together, whether it be drawing conclusions about connections between past and future, deciphering symbolic visions or reading in Kriol or Spanish. But it is ultimately an inspiring, exciting and FUN read, because it argues that despite technology or knowledge, the main feature of how societies function is how we relate to one another- something we have with in our power to play with and change, even though we never find a perfect solution.