The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 28 April 2025
by Emmi Itäranta
The world is turning weird. Global warming will result in Global Weirding, when unexpected things start happening in our climate, things that you won't necessarily expect, because this is a complex ecosystem in which small changes can and will result in sometimes bizarre climatic effects. How will the world really respond? Shall we come together to save the fragile and stable environment that gave rise to human civilization, or let it fall apart further and just come up with technological ways for humans (and pretty much nothing else) to endure? Shall we climb aboard some rich guy's rocket and try to relocate ourselves to far more hostile enivronments on Mars and other balls of ice in the Solar System? The universe envisioned in this moody and deliberately paced novel is a mixture of these ultimate fates. The Earth has been decimated by its climate collapse. Humans have cities and mining colonies on the Moon. There is a large human colony on the planet Mars, which has existed for about a century. Above both of these planets are large cylindrical orbiting cities. There are struggling colonies on moons of Jupiter and Saturn and there is even a hint of exploration on Venus. Meanwhile, mysterious lights shine in the sky, of extraterrestrial origin and not understood. The book is not really about these remarkable advances in human existence. The colonization of the Solar System is a complex landscape that lays behind the quiet story of one person missing the companionship of her partner and the hints of a new kind of rebellion against environmental collapse.
Lumi is a healer, an expert in mystical and traditional herbal arts. She is traveling home to Mars, to be with her partner, Sol, of non-binary gender. That element of the story is not strongly emphasized, which is somewhat refreshing. The reader just has to accept that and move on with the tale. Nevertheless, Sol is missing. They have been awaiting Lumi's return from Europa, but have then quite mysteriously vanished. Not being able to communicate with her partner, Lumi instead keeps a journal of her life as she awaits Sol's return, and then, when they don't return, she records her adventures in trying to find them. Between the two of them is an imaginary house, the Moonday House, which they use as a visualization of their dreams together, and to reflect their mood as they communicate across distance and time. This communication carries itself through the book. There are tantalizing bits of communications from Sol, but everything that is happening is vague and evasive.
At first, we learn of Lumi's career as a healer. Her work is mystical, and there are long passages of the trance-world she experiences in trying to access a sick person's illness and path to healing. It goes beyond sci-fi into a kind of fantasy here, but fills out the universe we are experiencing in the novel. Slowly, it becomes clear that Sol has some connection to a eco-terrorist group called the Stoneturners. They protest the planetary mining operations on the Moon and Mars, and they seek a real path to healing the environment of the Earth. Sol's involvement is unclear, but the reader my discern it over time. Lumi discovers things about her partner's life that she never expected. Where the story goes is not entirely clear, but this reader would not want to give away its surprises. There is a curious second-hand feeling to the story, as Lumi's path is parallel to, but distant from, that of Sol, who remains largely off-stage. The book is brooding and moody. An unusual journey into a not entirely improbable distant future.