Everfair by Nisi Shawl

On today’s docket is Everfair  by Nisi Shawl. I read this for a one of my final college courses, but I’m not mad at it. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Although the beginning, which spans several decades during what would have been the Dutch occupation of central Africa under their King Leopold, was a bit of a slog for me, part two more than made up for it. I am honestly unsure how much of the trouble I had getting into the story at the start had to do with the fact that I usually do struggle a bit with assigned reading no matter how interested I may be in the assigned text. What can I say, I’m (a loner, Dottie;) a rebel.

 

Anyway, this story has a lot going for it – the cast of main characters seems to be well fleshed out, and there were a few who really stood out to me: I loved Lisette, Lucy, Josina, and Fwendi. That list looks gender-imbalanced, and it is, but hear me out – the women in this story are honestly just a far cry more interesting than the men. But, no harm, no foul, right? I mean, men have so many, manymanymanymany stories about them, where they are the interesting ones that it was kind of just a nice change of pace. Although I did like Tink as well, just for the record. But I digress.

 

Everfair is the name of a colonized area within central Africa where there are a mix of non-African settlers living more or less in conjunction with the natives of the area. However, over the years, the relationship grows and changes, and sometimes it’s great, and sometimes it is not very good at all. The story deals a lot with the political maneuvering that is necessary in order to make a situation of this type work, if it even will. And the invading Dutch armies complicate things but good.

 

So there is the backdrop of the Dutch occupation. There is a war. There is lots of love found, love lost, love temporarily misplaced, and even knife hands! Wait, knife hands? Really? Yeah. I think I may have failed to mention that this is a steampunk novel, in case the cover art didn’t clue you in. And it’s actually a really well rendered vision and creative use of the genre. I love that the inventions allowed the citizens of Everfair and the people of central Africa to have the bulk of the technological advances in the fighting. Take that Leopold! They have airships, and knife guns, and seriously, THEY HAVE KNIFE HANDS (well, some do anyway). There’s even a wee bit of actual magic woven into the story, which was well handled.

 

I think I will give this book another go at a later date, when it is of my choosing and possibly re-evaluate my current rating, but I say 3 out of 5 arbitrary items of rating. I enjoyed the second act a lot more than the first, although overall it was still an enjoyable book. I also want to reassess since it actually won the following awards:

Everfair
 by Nisi Shawl
 Tor Books
 2016