A centuries-old war captures the attention of an alien behemoth in this thought-provoking political sci-fi adventure.
It has been two hundred years since the people of Umoja escaped an increasingly hostile Earth. The planet, ravaged by environmental destruction, had split into those who had the power and those who didn’t.
Like countless times before, the Umoja, people of the African Diaspora, got the short end of the stick. So they set their sights outward to the vast possibilities of space. New planets to settle without the prejudices that had proven so deadly to their race time and time again. Escaping old oppressors is never that easy though. Not when you have something they want.
For a century, the Dyson Almond, a colossal alien construction as large as a solar system, has inhabited Loango’s Reach, the area of space the Umojans had claimed to rebuild their shattered lives. Dr. Ashley Walker’s only goal is to study it. To find out as much as she can about its capabilities and its purpose. Once the Concord, those the Umoja sought to escape from in the first place, learn of it, war is inevitable. A battle for ownership of something that should never be owned.
What no one expects is that while the Umoja and Concord are studying the Dyson Almond, it is studying them right back. And very soon, it intends to act.
The Emissary, the first book in the Umoja Universe, is a compelling space opera adventure that doesn’t skimp on action. Throughout, African mythology fuses
seamlessly with alien technology to create a part dreamlike, part hard sci-fi dynamic. Deeply political and echoing current events, this book navigates the world we’re in, even though its characters are no longer living on it.
I love the way technology is described in this novel. The spaceships feel like something lived in, worked in. Actual tools that carry the marks of the battles they’ve
seen. The weight of time exists more clearly here than in most sci-fi novels. Space is vast and crossed in decades, not months. And the Almond Dyson, that hulking great
alien creation, feels just as uncanny on the page as it does to the characters encountering it.
There is so much scope to the worlds the Umojans inhabit. From the plight of those they left behind on Earth to the fact that even forging a new life for themselves
lightyears away from their homeland hasn’t kept them safe. They build and create and endure in the hopes of some day being able to help those who could not come with them.
While the technology and worldbuilding of this future is impressive, it is ultimately an analogy of the world we still live in. It intelligently explores systematic oppression and the ways those in power justify the actions they take to keep it. It also questions what is owed should the balance of power shift.
The Emissary has strong bones but not much internal infrastructure to see the story built on those bones. The prose, emotional arcs, and conversations can be difficult to understand because they are so sparse. When strange things happen, no one asks questions. There isn’t much explanation of how things work or what is happening
either. The logistics can be lost on some, but the appendix can help carry some of that load.
This is a complex, multifaceted story about navigating a volatile world. It dips into the history of political injustices and shows how these crimes become a foundation that even more injustices are built on. In the end, a positive story of endurance and hope.
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