Attain Seven Surrenders (Terra Ignota, #2) Conveyed By Ada Palmer Conveyed As Booklet

is the second volume of Terra Ingota series, but more correctly it should be viewed as the second part of the first volume, for the formal first volume, sitelinkToo Like the Lightning, ends up not even with a cliffhanger but just in the middle of the story.
Recently, in September sitelinkHugo amp Nebula Awards: Best Novels group read the first volume as its monthly read and because Ive just recently finished rereading it, I decided to go on with this book.


The story starts where the previous book ended and a great number of characters and their interactions once again make it hard to follow, However, we, readers, get answers to a lot of questions, from what were the reasons for a heinous crime committed by the narrator of both books, Mycroft Canner, to how exactly victims of murders by mass transport system were chosen.
There is much more mass action in this book, for a lot of secrets are made public and after three centuries of peace, the world once again may face war.


From what I see, this is a loveorhate type of SF series, I for one like it very much, for it can use phrases like For three centuries we had lived out our rosetinted daydream, convinced that we were peaceful creatures, good at heart, like Locke or JeanJacquess Noble Savages now we woke to find ourselves still brutish humans in the thrall of Hobbes.
but a lot of readers are turned off by its Baroque ornate style, the unreliability of the narrator and fluid gender attribution among other things,

This world is a utopia, not perfect, not finished, but still a utopia compared to every other era humanity has seen,

I procrastinated on this review by writing other reviews for books Id read afterwards, purely because I dont know how to marshal my thoughts together, As with sitelinkToo Like the Lightning, I am baffled as to how to talk about this series without writing a several thousandswordlong essay, Like its predecessor, it's gloriously ambitious and messy and complicated and thoughtful and bizarre, albeit with a bit more plot/events this time,

Now that were into a second book, my test was whether Ada Palmer would be able to back up her sociological/anthropological/psychological ruminations with a real plot.
And she does, for the most part: some shit goes down in this book that made me literally gasp out loud and my jaw physically dropped on the subway.
Its things that I didnt expect to happen, at all, and which genuinely surprised me,

And theres still so much to dissect! The reason I chose the quote above is because the line between utopia/dystopia is a very fine one, and its difficult to define the world of Terra Ignota.
I think Yoon Ha Lee described it as a utopia that doesnt know its a dystopia and I do like that this shows you dont have to have Hunger Gamesstyle child murder competitions in order to be a dystopia yet I would still rather describe this as a real honesttogod utopia, but with fractures below the surface, ones which might hold or which might rip right open.
And I think that jives with Palmers own view on it, courtesy sitelinkthis interview:

I wanted to depict thata future that is difficult, Wow, I can have ahour work week, ayear lifespan, I can live anywhere on Earth I want to, and still see all of my friends whenever I want, and there's beenyears of world peace.
And yet there's censorship, and people are still incompetent about gender and some race relations, and some things that are incredibly precious to us, like religious freedom, are gone.
That isn't an easy utopia, That is also not a dystopia,

I wanted to push the reader and askif that were the future your efforts built, would you feel your efforts had paid off

In the first book, Palmer introduced us all to her futuristic society and laid out all the pieces and now, shes flipping the table and blowing it all up in the shadow of war.
Youre watching the house of cards come tumbling down, all its warts exposed,

Theres some desperate overuse of Explanatory Monologues ugh, that whole Sister Heloise bit, but the questions raised in them are still so important: big philosophical ideas about war, complaceny, balance, and human strife being the driving motivator behind so much of our accomplishments.
And I think I agree with a lot of it, Because if you become a postscarcity utopia, then where do you go from there How does mankind strive for

the next achievement How do you take risks if your basic lifestyle is so comfortable

Ive been talking about the Terra Ignota series a lot since reading the first book a month ago.
Like, a lot. So as with the first one, it may be flawed but its still so thoughtprovoking, and I love that sci fi can be like this now, that it can try tackling these questions in a serious way.


Some other random thoughts:
My favourite characters are, hands down, Papadelias and The Major which is so predictable, because of course I would love the dogged Inspector Javerttype and the gruff war veteran.
I also love Bridger, that sweet precious summer child,

Im still so goddamn charmed by the narration style, Trading off narrative duties and different punctuation for different languages, so you get a sense of this codeswitching polyglot mindset, a fluidity in language so everything isnt quite so Anglocentric.


Gender: I saw that a few readers were livid in the first book about Mycroft purposefully misgendering characters without those characters input, but the thing is, were supposed to know that hes wrong to do so.
Palmer has been very open about the fact that we should question Mycroft as a narrator, and not take his word as gospel, Thats the whole point. So like, the fact that Im discomfited by him calling a hermaphroditic character “it” is actually exactly purposeful and I think we should be questioning his decision.


Sexuality: The mingling of sex amp politics still drives me, personally, batty, I think it was Jo Walton who described this series as being about extraordinary people doing extraordinary things, but the way it all circles back to the sexytimes salon it makes me despise every single world leader in this world, for being such hapless slaves to their sexual appetites.
And once again, I do believe that its all a purposeful choice on the authors part look at these brilliant people, all undone by sexuality because we ignored dealing with it, we moved on too quickly before society could integrate it healthily, but a lot of the scenes in the salon still left me irritated because it felt gratuitous, unnecessary, overthetop.
And mostly because it paints a picture of us as weak, inherently ready to be steered and completely manipulated due to our baser urges, but a I would like to think we have better selfcontrol than that, and b where do asexual amp demisexual people belong in this, then Theyd be like goddamn superheroes for being able to resist this temptation while everyone else trots to Madame dArouets drum.


I still love the Hives, I still think that nongeographical strats rather than nations are, honestly, the way to go, The European Union, Humanists, Masons, Utopians, Cousins, MitsubishiGreenpeace, and Gordians the other good thing about them is that, unlike the shallow factions of e, g. sitelinkDivergent, these strats reflect the way you look at the world, Not just which personality traits you value, but what avenues of research you endorse, What sort of political system, Which language. Where you think the human race should focus its efforts and development the Utopians are terraforming Mars, and the Gordians are working on transhumanism, And since you can change your citizenship at the drop of a hat, its all about selfdetermination, and choosing the exact place where you belong,

Again, as with its predecessor, the plotting gets a little loose and wild and sloppy at times I found my head spinning trying to remember what all the different loyalties and betrayals and triplecrosses were supposed to be but I forgive it once more due to its staggering ambition.




Anyway, In conclusion: Too Like the Lightning and Seven Surrenders are depicted as part one amp part two of a single narrative, and they definitely do feel like one single massive book I didnt feel complete until Id finished the second one.
And then what a corker of an ending!

I cant recommend these books to absolutely everyone because they require a lot from you its not a fast fun frothy read, but rather a meandering and philosophical one.
I think it might appeal to a certain type of reader and, even then, a particular mood for that reader, If someones looking for more thoughtful, experimental sci fi and loves worldbuilding and questions of what is the ideal society, point them in the direction of this series, Im eagerly awaiting the next book not out until December, sob,

I tried to avoid this review turning into an essay, but then it happened anyway, .