Review: Far Removed by C.B. Landsdell
Blurb:
On the moon of Knyadrea, the sea yields intelligent life. For a species shaped by tides, change is the only constant.
Little can be hidden in the glare of a spotlight.
Charismatic and innovative, Oklas Sayve has risen to prominence in Apidecca, the moon's capital city. A politician and college director, he has the resources to effect the changes he envisions for the world. But the sovereigns he serves oppose him at every turn and his status cannot protect the low-strata students attending his college. After a young knyad is wrongly linked to insurgent activity, Oklas must find a way to smuggle her out of the city while hiding his involvement from the authorities.
A spark in the dank depths.
Below the grand Assembly Chambers, a knyad in a mask sculpts, grasping for scraps of beauty in her shrinking world. Years ago, Prismer made a costly mistake and now has only her job at the projection booth and a few special interests to fill her days. But it is not her sculptures that draw the attention of a powerful client, and she is soon met with a request to undertake a dangerous mission. Will she answer the call and risk losing the little she has left?
Mysteries surface. A supernatural substance is used in corrupt ways. As identities shift and predicaments are reshuffled, what alliances might be forged?
Review:
Far Removed gently plucks the heartstrings in this dark and somewhat horrific tale. It’s a story of quiet tensions and small rebellions within a stratified dystopian society of knyads.
I suspect this is going to develop into a larger conflict come book two, but I really enjoyed reading about these characters while they’re still living in fear of action. That precipice of just-comfortable-enough-to-survive that keeps people in a state of compliance even in the face of great wrongs.
One’s sense of identity, acceptance, guilt and responsibility, and other heavy themes were addressed throughout the book in intriguing ways that made this one of the more thought-provoking books I’ve read recently. How much of your identity is in your face?
There were no humans in the book, only knyads, and their anatomy was intricately tied into the world, society, and plot. The worldbuilding was comprehensive and included time segments, life cycles, biological variation, historical evolution theories and more. This world is thorough and lived in!
The darker elements of this book, the maskads and scumbling, were as beautiful as terrible. It was really a unique idea presented in a fascinating way. It’s difficult to say anything specific about this without feeling like I’m spoiling things, as part of the pleasure of this read was the slow unmasking of this aspect of the world.
While I read a good amount outside of my preferred subgenres and I don’t reduce stars for something that just happens to not be my niche of SFF, I do always savor these books that are really exactly the sort of dark adult SFF that drives my love of books.
Nothing over the top here, just a dark gritty environment, broken characters, a meticulously crafted world, and an intriguing plot.
I’ll definitely also qualify this as a genre mashup. Nyads are traditionally fantasy, yes, and I see the inspiration there, but these knyads are living with cybernetic implants and other such tech. I think it safely fits into cyberpunk, but also has a dash of fantasy and some light horror.
