It's difficult to define this book. If I had to write one sentence about it, I would say: A group of young adults, born in the socialist economy of Mars and educated in the capitalist economy of Earth, struggle to find where they fit and to define what freedom means to them.
But that hardly encompasses the experience of Vagabonds. Reading it is like following guides as they work through philosophical thought experiments while considering economics and politics. That sounds much more dry than the book is, though: our main character, Luoying, is the "princess of Mars" - at least, she's the granddaughter of the consul of Mars (regarded as a hero on Mars and a dictator on Earth), so she's the closest to it.
Luoying is a dancer who spent her years on Earth training, traveling, partying, protesting, and falling in love with one of the other Martian students. Now, back on Mars, her official tasks are to present what she's learned (goal: jump higher than anyone has jumped before), decide her life path, and report on her experience of Earth. Unofficially, she's determined to find out why her parents died in exile when she was young, unearth the differing political factions arguing the future of Mars City, and identify her responsibility as a political power.
Every time I picked up Vagabonds, I got something out of it. Sometimes it flew in chunks of 50 or 100 pages at a time, sometimes I sat and mused over a handful of pages. It's the type of book that will be worth rereading, because I'll get something new every time. The book took me a while to read, but that was more due to the pacing and size of the novel than anything; I enjoyed it every time I was reading it.
Though the novel builds to the decision about whether Mars City will be moved or surrounded by a river, it's almost a series of anecdotes: Luoying's performance on Mars after returning from Earth, an expo from all the students of Mars to present their research, a journey to discover the reason behind the original Mars/Earth war...
I'm very glad I read this novel, and would recommend it!
But that hardly encompasses the experience of Vagabonds. Reading it is like following guides as they work through philosophical thought experiments while considering economics and politics. That sounds much more dry than the book is, though: our main character, Luoying, is the "princess of Mars" - at least, she's the granddaughter of the consul of Mars (regarded as a hero on Mars and a dictator on Earth), so she's the closest to it.
Luoying is a dancer who spent her years on Earth training, traveling, partying, protesting, and falling in love with one of the other Martian students. Now, back on Mars, her official tasks are to present what she's learned (goal: jump higher than anyone has jumped before), decide her life path, and report on her experience of Earth. Unofficially, she's determined to find out why her parents died in exile when she was young, unearth the differing political factions arguing the future of Mars City, and identify her responsibility as a political power.
Every time I picked up Vagabonds, I got something out of it. Sometimes it flew in chunks of 50 or 100 pages at a time, sometimes I sat and mused over a handful of pages. It's the type of book that will be worth rereading, because I'll get something new every time. The book took me a while to read, but that was more due to the pacing and size of the novel than anything; I enjoyed it every time I was reading it.
Though the novel builds to the decision about whether Mars City will be moved or surrounded by a river, it's almost a series of anecdotes: Luoying's performance on Mars after returning from Earth, an expo from all the students of Mars to present their research, a journey to discover the reason behind the original Mars/Earth war...
I'm very glad I read this novel, and would recommend it!