This is one of those sci-fi/fantasy as social commentary stories that initially had me rolling my eyes (“Oh, racism is BAD? You don’t say!”), but won me over by the strength of its characters.
There are three races on whatever planet is hosting the story. The indigo, who are (duh) blue, the gulden, who are gold, and the albinos. The indigo are a supremely matriarchal society – only females can inherit land, grandmothers arrange marriages for their granddaughters, and the men just marry who they’re told and go live on the estates. The gulden are strictly patriarchal – women are rarely seen and never heard, and are pretty much considered property. The albinos…don’t get much screentime. For generations, the indigo have lived their way in Inhrio, the gulden have lived their way on Gold Mountain, and the albinos…are never mentioned. All is well and good, until the City is built, and the races are all suddenly living together. This goes about as well as you could expect, and there are scuffles and fights and threats and eventually, an uneasy peace.
Enter Kitrini Solvano, the daughter of a renegade indigo sociologist, who ran away to live and raise his daughter among the gulden. She’s in love with Jex Zanlan, the son of the gulden king, who is currently incarcerated for a terrorist bombing of an indigo construction site. Kitrini is smart and fierce and angry at her race for being so horrible to the gulden, but wise enough to see that the gulden have their problems too.
Nolan Adelpho is a biologist in the city, and the first male in his family to leave the countryside and get a real job. He’s engaged to a proper blueskin heiress back home, and will eventually leave the city to go live on her estates. But the longer he’s in the city, and the more he learns about his gulden co-workers, the more he doubts the life he’s always known.
When a dangerous virus starts striking down gulden in the city, it’s up to Nolan to find the source and the cure, and Kitrini to get the word to the gulden, using her innate status as a liaison. The two butt heads often, questioning their upbringing, the social mores of their world, and how to make life better for future generations.
This already-overly wordy plot summary feels kind of stark, but Sharon Shinn is a wonder. I felt everything Kitrini was feeling, and struggled along with Nolan as he wrestled with unfamiliar thoughts, and rooted for the team at the Biolab (all three races), and worried for those struck by the disease. Some of it leans a little on the melodramatic side, but it fits with a certain melodramatic character (Kitrini has Feelings about things like she’s a high school sophomore). Shinn took what could have been an overly simplistic tale of how our differences aren’t so different and elevated it with terrific writing and really relatable characters.
I took a few points off for a slow start and for the albinos…I’m not really sure what they were there for. There are no main albino characters, we never really get their viewpoint about anything, and it seems like it doesn’t fit for them not to be included. If the indigo and the gulden hate each other so much for being different, it seems like they would each hate the albinos too. Mostly they seem like an afterthought.
But Kitrini and Nolan, Jex Zanlan and his father, the scientists and the side characters – all great. Recommended!
