Continues in the excellent universe that Salvage is set in, only this time, on a research vessel to the deep sound of space. Some of the plot mechanics make me itch, but the story was great, fast paced, and the cast is enjoyable diverse. I think it's the lack of consequences that I have a hard time with, given how the characters seem to struggle with those consequences that do occur, but that might just be a really good representation of how teen brains see the world differently. ( )

Let me start my adoring gush by saying that I had this book preordered. PREORDERED! Me! The person who considers reading The Orphan Master's Son this year a reasonable time frame for getting around to a book I really want to read! And the best part about preordering? It was like a surprise gift to myself: I'd forgotten when exactly it was coming, and then one day there was a package waiting on my doorstep.

Duncan's strengths are on stunning display once again: her strong, feminist characters and unique but believeable cultures. The latter was a bit slow off the ground--the story takes place in deep, empty space rather than overcrowded earth--but when it comes...wow!

There's a little less urgency in the opening chapters, though that should come as no surprise to those who read the previous book. We catch up with Miyole about ten years after we left her in Salvage, having grown up in privilege she could never have imagined on the Gyre. Yes, she stands out--maybe a bit more than expected, given the amount of cultural mixing going on in other parts of the universe, but kudos to Duncan for showing us how race and gender can still be treated as serious issues that still need addressing (unlike certain sci-fi reboots that strip down representation of both because we're all *equal* now, so why bother with the *effort* of adding diversity?). Even more kudos for tying those issues into a real culture instead of inventing an alien race of white people who are a *metaphor* for racism.

While Miyole's situation is less tense up front--simply because embarking on her adventure is actually a conscious choice, unlike Ava's whirlwind rush to escape certain death. What Sound's opening lacks in action, though, it more than makes up for in the end. I was about four chapters from the end when I reached my stop on the subway today and I was seriously tempted to grab a private call room and just finish it so I wouldn't be in agony all day.

That, friends, is a good book. Because let's face it, this is a young adult book. It's highly unlikely that a character we've been following since the beginning is going to die--but I was still almost literally on my toes (on the R train, no less!) as the plot came to a head.

One word of note that very few other people will care about: there's a bit more romance in Sound than in Salvage, simply because the love interest is actually present. That does mean that we see more human interactions: this is no super-unhealthy Twilight story, perfect soulmate tale, or fable of absence and pining. Miyole's relationship with Cassia progresses slowly because they both have other things on their mind--and they talk about this fact rather than ignoring it, which means they avoid some of the most cliched misunderstandings. This and both characters' complexity (as well as the refreshing relief of a non-heterosexual relationship) made the romance bearable for this curmudgeonly (demisexual) crocodile. In the past I've felt like I had to seek out those authors who write only about homosexual relationships to get any front-and-center diversity, though this was often at the expense of a story about something other than sex and sexuality...so while it's not surprising to see that Duncan writes both hetero and homo superbly, it's an extra nice treat to see an author with characters who aren't straight at front-and-center without making the whole story about the fact that they aren't straight.

Funny, isn't it, how easily Duncan shows us how race and sexual orientation can still be important parts of a character without stripping that character of any other defining characteristics or story arcs. It's almost like...like characters can reflect real life! Gasp! Is that legal in fiction? (Heavy sarcasm for that whole paragraph.)

On a completely unrelated topic:

1) I desperately want to see a bioengineered deep space vessel. I have this image of a drifting blue-black seashell, but that doesn't really do it justice. I always thought about what it would be like to live in a shell, when I was a little girl--Duncan makes it sound even more delightful than I would have expected.

2) How in heck has no one snatched up the movie rights? These books are so cinematic! On the other hand, thank goodness no one's bought the movie rights--you know they'd whitewash as many of the roles as possible. Rubio definitely would succumb. Probably the Enceladans as well.

Last note: Once again, what is with the cover? I mean, props for actually showing a young black woman, but her jeans and zippered down jacket are way too obviously contemporary to feel very space-y. At least she's better than the limp, helpless figure on the front of Salvage. Still, I feel like the planet and the ice would have been enough.

On to the Quote Roundup!

p. 188 - "Apex. Isn't that one of those company-states?"
This gave me the willies, mostly because I can definitely see that happening. As companies get bigger and conglomerates start running out of rivals to merge with, what will they turn to next? Why not a city? A state? A country? It's all too easy for me to imagine that happening in the future.

p. 228 - "It took balls, is all."
Rubio wins the "most un-feminist comment in the otherwise feminist book" award. "Guts," Rubio--think gender neutral/universal! And yet on the same page...
"[As you get older] you start seeing so much wrong everywhere you go, and you know you can't fix all of it, so you start to think you can't fix any of it."
Rubio perfectly voices a major part of my crippling apathy and depression. To be honest, I'd be lying if I said I felt anything when I read that. It was more like, I read it and I recognized it. I don't often do that, for all I read and like so many books.

p. 375 - "Feelings are the worst." "Yeah," I agree. "They're the worst." ... "If there's something i'm supposed to be doing, you have to tell me. I usually get my friends drunk when they break up, but, I don't know . . . is that a guy thing?"
A) More recognition--though while I hate feelings, I hate even more how shallow they seem lately. I get emotional but I don't really feel any of it. Sorry. I mope in my reviews because I know no one actually reads them. Anyway, B) Rubio shows us that it is, in fact, possible to recognize general societal assumptions about the differences between the sexes in a society closer to legal and occupational equality than our own. Feminism is not the desire to erase sexual difference, but to be conscious of it in a way that will ultimately benefit society overall. Okay, off my soapbox...

p. 380 - Ava and Soraya love me, but they don't depend on me. The only things that have ever truly depended on me were the butterflies, and someone else could care for them as easily as I did. There's nothing unique about me, nothing irreplaceable. So doesn't my life have more worth if I'm using it to save other people?
Further recognition. Minus the duty to my interesting history, tragic backstory, and resolve to buck the authority in order to do something that feels right. But that's why we read, right?

All in all, this was another amazing book, not slavishly following the formula of Salvage but also not completely discarding that book's characters and strengths. I did miss Ava's language quirks, though from the GoodReads reviews I read, I might be the only one! But there's more to love in here in the way that the lucky can love their siblings: they're related, but they're different, but you love them both uniquely and truly.

Like sci-fi? Feminism? Strong female characters? Diversity? World building? Good storytelling and vivid writing?

Read it! ( )