Mistworld is a planet under siege. The only thing
preventing them falling to utter destruction at the hands of the empire is a
psychic shield and some rusting, cobbled together technology. But the empire is
patient and resourceful and is constantly looking at ways round Mistworld’s
defences – and sometimes, one of their weapons gets through.
The inhabitants of Mistworld already have a hard time
surviving on the chaotic world, with little law, few resources, bleak
conditions and technology that dwindles with every harsh year, life is already
a struggle. The empire’s machinations could drive them over the edge.
My first note has to be on the genre of this book. When I
was emailed and asked to review this it was heavily implied that the book was
dark fantasy… I had my doubts but I’ve read and liked the author before so didn’t
need much convincing. It’s not an accurate genre description – this leans more
sci-fi than anything else: with strong dystopian elements and a dash of the
mystical in the form of psychics (or espers).
I think this book is a perfect example of “gritty”.
Actual gritty – not Grimdark. So this means that we have some very real
characters, they’re not perfect or shiny or super special, but they’re very
human. And they’ve been put in a very hard situation, it’s not a fluffy story,
it’s not a friendly world setting, life is hard and they know it and act
accordingly. But it doesn’t cross the line to throwing in endless gore and rape
and random horrors just to convince us how DARK AND HORRIBLE it all is.
So we have Mistworld. A world that is independent from the huge and dictatorial empire, though the empire is not very happy about the fact and does have a pretty extreme response to anyone who makes them unhappy. Mistworld maintains its independence in part by having a large number espers – people with special powers – who have flocked to Mistworld because the empire isn’t very accepting of them.
Of course, they’re under permanent blockade and Mistworld
itself isn’t exactly hospital or brimming with resources and what little they
have requires smugglers to bring it in; their technology is obsolete and held
together with duct tape and chewing gum. This is all shown very well – there’s
some telling, but it’s more their daily experiences and views, like being
unable to afford to pave roads any more, to plastic being seen as an incredible
luxury, to characters being unused to the glare of electric lights
This alone would create a fascinating setting, but on top
of that we have a large cast of characters that are very real and very realised
– all of these characters bringing extremely different viewpoint from the
different structures of the society. We have the aging hero who helped build
the society from its independence, we have the corrupt – but not TOO corrupt –
councillor working hard to do his best (though a little lining his pocket). The
on-the-edge fence who just wants to get by and all these life-or-death-the-planet-is-at-risk
are a little beyond her. Or there’s the dedicated and lethal Inquisitor
suffering a major identity crisis and beset with pressures of the past while
still trying to do her very best in the present.
