The Best of All Possible Worlds – Review

I just had the opportunity to read  The Best of All Possible Worlds by award winning writer, Karen Lord (Redemption in Indigo). It will be released February 12th, and is available for pre-order.

Set on a planet called Cygnus Beta, the book details the struggles of the Sadiri survivors of a terrible genocide as they attempt to gather what remains of their kind, while reaching out to groups of people with Sadiri DNA in hopes of strengthening their suddenly thin gene pool.

The protagonist, Grace Delarua, is not herself a Sadiri. She’s part Terran, part Ntshune (empath), bright, intuitive, and vivacious. Since she’s a field anthropologist working for the Cygnian government, she is chosen to assist the Sadiri in their mission to contact the groups of Cygnians with high percentages of Sadiri DNA.

Through the various adventures of the team, the book explores what psionic powers like telepathy and empathy would mean to a society, and to individuals within that framework. I personally appreciated the thought that went into this aspect of the book. I haven’t read too many pieces of science fiction that give very much consideration to the ethics of mind contact, especially in such a subtle, thoughtful way.

I also enjoyed the facility with which the book blended science fiction and romance. Lord managed to build an interesting, cohesive world with a unique flavor and background and take the reader through the process of Grace falling in love with Dllenahkh, her Sadiri counterpart, without sacrificing any aspect of the story to the different genres she was blending.

As a whole, I think this was a lovely piece of science fiction, easy to read and entertaining. It’s definintely not as hard hitting as some other pieces I’ve read, not as deep and with less emphasis on science, but it has it’s own merits, for instance, what science the author does touch on is interesting and well thought out. I certainly enjoyed it and would recommend it to both lovers of SF and romance.

I give it four out of five owls. 

~ by lamichaud on January 28, 2013.