Cover of The Folded Sky by Elizabeth Bear. Space ship battle and a disintegrating outpost over a star getting ready to go nova.

I received this book as an eArc via NetGalley. Order link.

It has been a minute since I last read an Elizabeth Bear novel, simply because my TBR pile has become overwhelming over the last decade. I picked up this novel initially not realizing that it was third in a series (Machine and Ancestral Night are the other two titles). The good news is, I can confirm that even coming late to the party did not keep me from enjoying this novel.

Dr. Sunya Song is an archinformist (futuristic cross between an archivist and a historian with a side of space archaeology; her job is to both document and analyze history), headed to the edge of nowhere (space station named Town) to work with a dying alien artificial intelligence, the Baosong, to try to document its language and knowledge before it goes extinct because the star it is near is dying. This is a long and complex assignment, and Sun is looking forward to a bit of focused work and a bit of a break from parenting her two children, although she misses her wife Salvie.

Sunya Song is having a series of very bad days, even before she arrives at Town. The shipmind of her transport to Town really doesn’t like her. Her ex Vickie (also an archinformist) has beat her to Town, and happens to be on the same ship as Sun’s family, who have arrived to surprise her. While Sun is pleased to see her family, she is NOT happy to see Vickie, who was not only emotionally abusive but also stole Sun’s work and passed it off as her own.

Oh, and the star near the Baosong is sending out massive radiation and is going to collapse and kill everyone on the station of Town, humanoid and alien alike. And there are anti Artificial-Intelligence pirates trying to kill anyone trying to get to Town, leave Town, or generally existing while using AI in their vicinity. And also, Vickie’s assistant Trevor has been nearly murdered with brain-eating amoebas. And then there’s another murder.

It’s up to Sun to figure out how to save herself-and everyone else- from everything falling apart.

With tight pacing, pitched space battles, and thoughtful and engaging characters both human and non-human who are doing their best against impossible odds, it’s lovely to spend time in this universe.

Strongly recommended.