"Sometimes the fight over the treasure is more important than the treasure itself." Remember this line. It is taken from the first few page of Vagabonds and to this reader seems to be the entire theme of the book. An interesting worldview that is set to challenge your own and after all that is the point of all great fiction of all great science fiction of great political science fiction and this is a masterful piece of literature and a bold take on science fiction that really is a work of political science fiction that in these times is much more interesting than straight sci-fi.
Vagabonds is set in a future where Mars has been colonized ans where Martians have revolted against Earth in a drawn out violent war. The two worlds exist in mutual conflict and distrust. Mars is a social oligarchy and Earth has itself as a whole turned into a ultra-capitalist planet. The themes coming from the point of view of Chinese novelist Hao Jingfang are immediately relatable and its easy to see where she is coming from. The inventiveness of it all and the familiarity of the story and the beautiful language put into place to tell this long and slow moving, slow moving in a great engaging way, tale.
Vagabonds takes a journey into identity and politics, and what it is to be an individual within society; within societies. Vagabonds questions what is society. Thankfully Jingfang does not give any answers into these explorations, but the questions are important ones, and the characters and plot drive the questions further and further directly from the first pages it does so from the perspectives of politicians, artists, and most importantly children who grow up in opposing communities and learn to deal with the internal conflicts raised by their experiences and by the adults around them; the previous generation and the previous generations generation.
In this lyrical tale of political science fiction Hao Jingfang has created a large cast of characters across worlds and across time. Vagabonds is thoughtful, reflective science fiction novel exploring these themes across deep(ish) time and deep space.
Jingfang's Vagabonds is not fast paced, but rather moves slowly, in a good way, to introduce the reader to different characters, getting to know the worlds they live in and the windows through which they view their lives, their opportunities and communities. Multiple viewpoints from different perspectives highlight the greys in their and our society, the ways in which nothing is ever so simple as right or wrong, and the ways in which sometimes things are not so different as they might at first appear. The cycle of history has a tendency to repeat itself, the question is how much is learnt.
This is science fiction as exploration of what home is of what culture is of what humanity is, of what society can become. As a US based reader was a pleasure to read a totally different perspective on science fiction and to my reading its political science fiction and appropriately so in my mind as its coming from a Chinese perspective. Vagabonds is dealing with a lot of ideas - about living, about love, about plans for the future, about revolutions, about what it means to be home, about what it means to be free, etc. It's not a particularly focused book on these ideas, but the questions it asks about each of them tends to be fascinating and thought provoking.
The basis for this exploration is its two different worlds, which each carry elements you can see in today's governments. The Earth in this book is ultra-capitalist, with everything being done for the sake of profit and nothing else, and where squabbling governments may still exist but are secondary in importance to the billionaires and corporations who have real power. Still, it's a world where everyone is certainly free to choose whatever life they wish to lead, to the extent they can stay out of poverty, and partying, rebelling, or altering the way one expresses themselves are an expected and ordinary part of life
It’s a journey into what it is to experience and explore where the boundaries lie in society. Its a novel you need to dig into because as the world is on lockdown and is sure to soon be out of lockdown the opinions and ideas that come out of isolation are the ones that can and will change what comes next.
Thank you to Netgalley and Lauren Jackson at Saga Press for my free ARC
Vagabonds is set in a future where Mars has been colonized ans where Martians have revolted against Earth in a drawn out violent war. The two worlds exist in mutual conflict and distrust. Mars is a social oligarchy and Earth has itself as a whole turned into a ultra-capitalist planet. The themes coming from the point of view of Chinese novelist Hao Jingfang are immediately relatable and its easy to see where she is coming from. The inventiveness of it all and the familiarity of the story and the beautiful language put into place to tell this long and slow moving, slow moving in a great engaging way, tale.
Vagabonds takes a journey into identity and politics, and what it is to be an individual within society; within societies. Vagabonds questions what is society. Thankfully Jingfang does not give any answers into these explorations, but the questions are important ones, and the characters and plot drive the questions further and further directly from the first pages it does so from the perspectives of politicians, artists, and most importantly children who grow up in opposing communities and learn to deal with the internal conflicts raised by their experiences and by the adults around them; the previous generation and the previous generations generation.
In this lyrical tale of political science fiction Hao Jingfang has created a large cast of characters across worlds and across time. Vagabonds is thoughtful, reflective science fiction novel exploring these themes across deep(ish) time and deep space.
Jingfang's Vagabonds is not fast paced, but rather moves slowly, in a good way, to introduce the reader to different characters, getting to know the worlds they live in and the windows through which they view their lives, their opportunities and communities. Multiple viewpoints from different perspectives highlight the greys in their and our society, the ways in which nothing is ever so simple as right or wrong, and the ways in which sometimes things are not so different as they might at first appear. The cycle of history has a tendency to repeat itself, the question is how much is learnt.
This is science fiction as exploration of what home is of what culture is of what humanity is, of what society can become. As a US based reader was a pleasure to read a totally different perspective on science fiction and to my reading its political science fiction and appropriately so in my mind as its coming from a Chinese perspective. Vagabonds is dealing with a lot of ideas - about living, about love, about plans for the future, about revolutions, about what it means to be home, about what it means to be free, etc. It's not a particularly focused book on these ideas, but the questions it asks about each of them tends to be fascinating and thought provoking.
The basis for this exploration is its two different worlds, which each carry elements you can see in today's governments. The Earth in this book is ultra-capitalist, with everything being done for the sake of profit and nothing else, and where squabbling governments may still exist but are secondary in importance to the billionaires and corporations who have real power. Still, it's a world where everyone is certainly free to choose whatever life they wish to lead, to the extent they can stay out of poverty, and partying, rebelling, or altering the way one expresses themselves are an expected and ordinary part of life
It’s a journey into what it is to experience and explore where the boundaries lie in society. Its a novel you need to dig into because as the world is on lockdown and is sure to soon be out of lockdown the opinions and ideas that come out of isolation are the ones that can and will change what comes next.
Thank you to Netgalley and Lauren Jackson at Saga Press for my free ARC