Lessons in Birdwatching
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
A smart sci-fi epic interwoven with political intrigue; set on a dystopian world ravaged by a time-plague where a brutal murder will start a civil war.
Perfect for fans of Dune, A Memory Called Empire and Ninefox Gambit.
During their temporary research post on Apech – a planet ravaged by a time distorting illness – Wilhelmina Ming and four other elite students of the Crysthian empire have witnessed such illogical brutality that they’ve resorted to psychedelic antidepressants and group sex to take the edge off. After a night of indulgence following a gruesome execution, they wake to find an oblique warning in the form of an impaled corpse dangling from the exterior of their residence.
When their subsequent investigation uncovers a web of collusion and conspiracy in the ranks of their own diplomatic corps, the envoys find themselves caught in the middle of a bloody civil war. As bodies pile up above ground, a deranged fanatic stokes an existential threat below, coaxing the embers of a forgotten god, and its temporal virus, to life.
File Under: Science Fiction [ Timing is all | Amateur heroics | Body of God | Birdsong ]
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Watson debuts with a disorienting and gruesome work of far-future science fiction set on the distant planet Apech, where five students take up temporary research positions in the midst of a civil war involving elusive god-magic and mysterious time distortions. As the group bears witness to the violence and surrealism of life on Apech, they take refuge in sex and drugs. Watson drops readers into the deep end of this wild worldbuilding with little explanation, expecting them to sink or swim. By the time it's clear who all the characters are (many go by more than one name), readers may have missed important plot details. Adding to the confusion is the nature of the magic system itself: gods exist in this universe, and there's talk of "deimancers" who can control or destroy them, but one particular god affects time, creating illusions of things that appear as if they're about to happen and sometimes do, and sometimes don't. It makes for a very slippery narrative punctuated by moments of gore and gross-out horror. Readers will need to be up for a challenge to get into this one.
