The Genesis of Misery
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- £8.99
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- £8.99
Publisher Description
A Goodreads Best Science Fiction Choice Award Nominee
A New York Public Library Top 10 Book of 2022
An immersive, electrifying space-fantasy, Neon Yang's debut novel The Genesis of Misery is full of high-tech space battles and political machinations, starring a queer and diverse array of pilots, princesses, and prophetic heirs.
"This is Joan of Arc meets Gideon the Ninth with a touch of Pacific Rim thrown in as a treat. A mind-blowing rollercoaster ride of a space opera, propulsive and strange in the best way."—Rebecca Roanhorse, New York Times bestselling author
It’s a story you think you know: a young person hears the voice of an angel saying they have been chosen as a warrior to lead their people to victory in a holy war.
But Misery Nomaki (she/they) knows they are a fraud.
Raised on a remote moon colony, they don’t believe in any kind of god. Their angel is a delusion, brought on by hereditary space exposure. Yet their survival banks on mastering the holy mech they are supposedly destined for, and convincing the Emperor of the Faithful that they are the real deal.
The deeper they get into their charade, however, the more they start to doubt their convictions. What if this, all of it, is real?
A reimagining of Joan of Arc’s story given a space opera, giant robot twist, the Nullvoid Chronicles is a story about the nature of truth, the power of belief, and the interplay of both in the stories we tell ourselves.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this vibrant tour de force, Yang (The Black Tides of Heaven) presents a simultaneous embrace and inversion of Chosen One narratives. Misery Nomaki, an apparently unremarkable resident of a down-and-out mining planet, is able to shape and manipulate holystone, a skill only available to two classes of people: saints of a holy order and those in the lethal throes of voidmadness. Misery's unsure which they fall into. As the increasingly powerful voice of the angel that Misery hears in their head draws them into a galaxy-wide political conflict, they must decide whether to trust new allies, including the intense and magnetic royal renegade Lady Lee Alodia Lightning, and determine whether their purpose is truly divine—or irreversibly damned. Yang's prose is lush and gripping throughout, and they accomplish the tall order of seamlessly weaving worldbuilding into the dynamic motion of the story, incorporating fascinating details without ever risking expository fatigue. Themes of faith, suffering, queerness, and duty are given plenty of room to breathe as Misery and their ragtag gang of friends struggle to navigate a universe as complex and gorgeously rendered as it is hostile to those on its margins. This is a triumph. Correction: An earlier version of this review incorrectly noted that the author had won a Nebula award.
