#Dllenahkh

[drkarenlord]

I’ve been forgetful, keeping my new DikanaMai art to myself and my twitter. Here’s a major update. Enjoy! I love how she portrays these two!

[accidentalspaceexplorer]

The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord

I have gotten terribly far behind on talking about my reading on here once again. Thus, despite reading this early last year, I’m talking about it now!

Grace Delarua is reassigned from her civil service job to help the Sadiri settle in to their new home on Cygnus Beta after the destruction of their homeworld. Dllenahkh is still grieving the loss of his homeworld, his family, and his friends, but as the de-facto leader of the Sadiri on Cygnus Beta, he has to set all of that aside to try and build a sustainable community on their strange new planet. As Delarua and Dllenahkh try to navigate the changes in their circumstances, they find that more than the Sadiri community is being built between them.

I really enjoyed this - the romance was cute and incredibly slow-burn, the world-building was really neat, and the narration was really enjoyable. I had such a fun time following them around the world, learning about all of the various cultures on the planet and how the various alien races were combined on it. I enjoyed that the planet wasn't monolithic, because of course it wouldn't be! Too often people fall into the trap of "every culture on this planet is the same" because that world-building is hard. My only frustration was at how disjointed the narration could be, at times - there wasn't a great flow between scenes, and things would get brought up really suddenly without much foreshadowing, although I thought they were all followed up on very well and organically. I just wanted more hints about their deep conflicts before we were introduced to them. For example, (spoilers follow!!! until the *** - I repeat, spoilers!) Ioan isn't foreshadowed well at all, and I think he really should have been, since it was such an important part of Delarua's life. *** And since the actual event is then wrapped up pretty fast, it made it feel less important than it was, despite the continued references to it down the line. But ultimately I had a really good time reading this, so I'm still rating it 4.5 stars! Emotional enjoyment takes precedence over nitpicky stylistic complaints any day.

My Rating: 4.5/5

[maradanewrites]

Book Review: The Best of All Possible Worlds

In an effort to not duplicate the efforts of my fellow citizens of Romancelandia, who are doing the Lord’s work in reviewing historical romance, I am doing something a little different. I’m looking at books that don’t fit neatly into any one genre, but are definitely at least romance adjacent. 

I’m addressing the idea that tropes or genre conventions limit creativity and innovation by exploring the periphery. The things that don’t quite fit. 

BUT - the books I review will have happy endings. Maybe they’re romance novels, maybe not, but I want to show that a happy ending does not limit a writer’s ability to tell an engaging story. ANYWAY, ON WITH THE REVIEW ALREADY. 

If I told you this book was a sci-fi romance, I would be telling the truth - and completely setting the wrong expectations. If you’re picturing alien alpha males with psionic powers mating with spunky-but-out-of-their-element Terran lasses, and “this is bigger than two people” issues of galactic politics keeping the leads apart, you’d be ... sort of right, but also so. very. wrong.  It’s definitely science fiction (Caribbean-influenced solarpunk). And it’s definitely a romance. The main plot centers around a refugee race of telepathic humans desperately seeking mates after a genocide nearly wipes them out, and disproportionately eliminates the women. The main characters are Dllenahkh, one of those telepathic Sadiri men, and Grace Delarua, the woman charged with helping them find viable communities where they can intermarry without losing their distinctive culture. 

As far as tone goes, the thing that kept springing to mind was Jane Austen. The Sadiri are not emotionally expressive. They come across like Vulcans in Star Trek (so if you were hoping for SPACE BARBARIANS, sorry, not in this book). Because of their telepathy, they exercise huge restraint over their emotions and instincts. Their favorite word is “appropriate.” Which all ends up making Dllenahkh feel very much like your typical cold-and-reserved-on-the-outside, a-roiling-mass-of-feels-inside Regency lord, tbh. But with telepathy and the ability to politely lift a truck when needed. Grace is mostly Terran but also partly Ntshune, a race gifted with empathic projection. So yeah, he’s the repressed aristocrat and she’s the cheerful chatterbox. You either like that dynamic or you don’t. YMMV. 

It’s also very much a comedy of manners, as the different cultures and classes interact. The Sadiri were highly influential before their catastrophe, and tend to act superior to the three other races of humans. Now they’re the object of pity, but at risk of wasting the current sympathy directed towards them because they can’t stop acting like the arrogant aristos of the Universe, despite being refugees on the brink of extinction. 

The plot also has that Jane Austen “episodic string of events” feel to it. Each chapter almost reads like a self-contained story, but they’re all slowly building on each other, and bringing our leads closer. It’s very much a travelogue, and getting to see the very different communities on Cygnus Beta is part of the enjoyment. If you’ve ever thought “Vulcans are basically elves in space” GUESS WHAT? One of the communities is literally called Faerie. There’s a Seelie and Unseelie Court, and a faerie queen I couldn’t stop picturing as Eartha Kitt.

Assorted other considerations

main character is a WOC (come to think of it, all the races are described as having hair, eyes and skin “somewhere on the spectrum of brown”)

a secondary character is nonbinary and probably asexual

GIANT FLASHING NEON trigger warning for narcissistic manipulation and gaslighting

fade-to-black

the question of exactly why the Sadiri homeworld was poisoned is never conclusively answered. 

SUMMARY: If you dislike wry Vulcans, beta heroes, anthropology, Jane Austen, pastoral romance (IN SPACE!), sci-fi, and HEAs, you would probably dislike this book. If the whole Pride & Prejudice & Zombies “Jane Austen + Horror” thing has you wishing someone would similarly mash-up Austen/Bronte with Star Trek, READ THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY.  

[asteroidaceae]

While I was writing that last post I realised exactly what it is that has me so excited about Nova.

‘Cause on the occasions when I do venture into reading romances with male love interests, whether m/m or f/m or otherwise, a character archetype that always really gets me is the quiet, distant, intense, kind of duty-bound and workaholic type (usually with psychic powers or other ESP) who’s in fact incredibly sensitive and sweet and gentlemanly to close friends and lovers. Hades from A:FK is one example, as is Dllenahkh from Karen Lord’s novel The Best of All Possible Worlds. Spock in many fanfics also qualifies.

What’s got me really excited about Nova is that she’s shaping up to be a bona fide queer woman example of this trope and that’s just, aaaaaa gimme.

[drkarenlord]

Art and original pillowtalk by DikanaMai!

With bonus flirty Grace ...

[drkarenlord]

More from @DikanaMai! I love the expression. This is a Dllenahkh who is still dealing with serious trauma.

[drkarenlord]

DikanaMai does it again. Grace Delarua and Dllenahkh from my short story ‘Sons and Daughters’, available for a tiny fee at Tobias Buckell’s Patreon.

She portrays the intimacy between them so well, it makes me feel all cosy-warm inside :)

[drkarenlord]

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This is Dean Elzinga, a polymath of many talents, and husband to my old friend Ron Buckmire (who is also a genius of many talents, and you may enjoy his blog).

Back in 2013, when The Best of All Possible Worlds came out, Dean filmed himself saying Dllenahkh’s name perfectly. I put it on a tumblr post at the time, but it was lost in the ether when I reorganised my social media. Here it is again for posterity and the pure enjoyment of Dean’s voice :)

[drkarenlord]

‘Morning Meditation’ by @DikanaMai. I love this art so much.