About the Book
Locus Award nominee 2014.
Karen Lord’s debut novel, the multiple-award-winning Redemption in Indigo, announced the appearance of a major new talent — a strong, brilliantly
innovative voice fusing Caribbean storytelling traditions and
speculative fiction with subversive wit and incisive intellect. Compared by critics to such heavyweights as Nalo Hopkinson, China Miéville, and
Ursula K. Le Guin, Lord does indeed belong in such select company — yet,
like them, she boldly blazes her own trail.
Now Lord returns with a second novel that exceeds the promise of her first. The Best of All Possible Worlds is a stunning science fiction epic that is also a beautifully wrought, deeply moving love story.
A proud and reserved alien society finds its homeland destroyed in an
unprovoked act of aggression, and the survivors have no choice but to
reach out to the indigenous humanoids of their adopted world, to whom
they are distantly related. They wish to preserve their cherished way of life but come to discover that in order to preserve their culture, they may have to change it forever.
Now a man and a woman from
these two clashing societies must work together to save this vanishing
race — and end up uncovering ancient mysteries with far-reaching
ramifications. As their mission hangs in the balance, this unlikely
team — one cool and cerebral, the other fiery and impulsive — just may find
in each other their own destinies... and a force that transcends all.
“This fascinating and thoughtful science fiction novel breaks out of the
typical conflict-centered narrative paradigm to examine adaptation,
social change, and human relationships. I’ve not read anything quite
like it, which it makes that rare beast: a true original.” — Kate Elliot,
author of the Crown of Stars series and the Spiritwalker Trilogy