Shade

by Emily Devenport

As an Earth Runaway, Shade had been happy to be planetside again, free of the captain of the star freighter on which she'd stowed away. But after one day on her own in Deadtown, Shade knew she'd merely traded one prison for a larger and far deadlier one. For this was a world where you were fair game for anyone's desires if you didn't have plenty of protection.
Still, Shade was a quick learner, and she soon became one of the coolest of Deadtowners, a survivor at any cost. At least until she found herself played for a pawn by the three dominant alien races on the planet- powerful and ruthless beings ready to make use of her talent for scoping into other people's minds....

Genres: Science Fiction, Aliens, Fiction

246 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1991

About the author

Look for MEDUSA UPLOADED, published by Tor, available in paper, ebook, and audio. MEDUSA IN THE GRAVEYARD is due out from Tor in July 2019.

I've been published under three pen names: as Emily Devenport, I wrote SHADE, LARISSA, SCORPIANNE, EGGHEADS, THE KRONOS CONDITION, and GODHEADS. As Maggy Thomas, I wrote BROKEN TIME, which was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award. As Lee Hogan I wrote BELARUS and ENEMIES. My books have been published in the U.S., the U.K., Italy, and Israel. I'm writing as Emily Devenport again, and I have two titles available exclusively in ebook: THE NIGHT SHIFTERS and SPIRITS OF GLORY. (Okay -- almost exclusively. TNS is also available in audio.)

I'm an undergraduate studying Geology, a volunteer at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, and a buyer for the Heard Museum book store.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun read starring another troubled female protagonist in the harsh universe first set up in Larissa, both first published in the early 1990s. Like Larissa, this has a rather unique narrative style that people will either dig or not.

Shade is runaway from Earth (Hollywood specifically) whose mother abandoned her when she was 14. She managed to pay a coyote to sneak about a space freighter using all her money, and after some trials and tribulations, ended up on a gambling planet (Z'taruh)contested by three races. The story unfolds in the form of a linear diary that Shade keeps along with flashbacks as to how she managed to be where she is now; there are no chapters or anything, just a long narrative form.

On Z'taruh, there is only one city (Capitol of course) and the rest of the planet is swamps and drug plantations run by the underworld. Capitol is rather strictly divided into zones if you will, as each alien race has their own enclave along with the space port gambling casinos that are open to all. Between/amid the various enclaves is where the 'street trash' live, in abandoned prefab structures set up by humans long ago now called Deadtown.

Shade is the personification of Deadtown-- tough, not too picky, and just looking to get by with a full belly. Shade also has some kind of ESP that allows her to 'probe' people/aliens; not a mind read, more more like empathy with greater focus. This allows her to be a killer poker player and she also dabbles in betting on the fights in 'the pits', something along the lines of gladiator battles.

Devenport is not shy in her world building here. The sex industry on the planet caters to pedophiles and one large brothel is known as the BabySchool. The novel is basically set in a sleazy underworld with various shady types of characters inhabiting it. Shade, because of her abilities, becomes pursued by various members of races a something of a lock to their gambling vices. Good stuff!! 3 solid stars!!

[Nate D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not usually one to pry back a narrative looking for the underlying experiences that informed it but this seems especially likely to have been a story of punk life in downtown Los Angeles in the 80s recoded as intergalactic sci-fi, and since I'm much more sympathetic to messy punk novels than middling sci-fi novels (despite the silly ultra-cool cover somehow calling me over to this obscurity in a book shop in Hawaii), this is actually completely in its favor. None of the elements see that much development, but as a palimpsest of city street life concerns (poverty, class, survival, work, exploitation, maintaining one's dignity under duress), with one of those overriding L.A. themes, real estate development, plus some commentary on racism and identity, the author's concerns here ring true, and perhaps lived. That the sci-fi context allows certain more desperate bits to be heightened into chilling brutality makes them no less believable. Enough to give this a gritty engagement despite flaws: the occasional Mary Sue elements the sci-fi context provides (how do Shade's actions really justify her importance in these events?) or glaring fails to provide (why is Shade the coolest in Deadtown? why does this matter at all?!), and a few yawning plot holes. It really feels like any weakness of the plot is a result of its actual extraneousness to the core events of one character's escape from her stifling earth-bound (read: suburban) life, attempts to make it in an unwelcoming world, extremely toxic friendship (this one has to have been lived, the characterization is so much more specific than any other and it feels almost familiar), actual camaraderie of the down-and-out, and near self-destructions.

[Bluegravity · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a little known, I suppose, yet excellent book that I found in a random book shop with many many many lost books. Thankfully this one called out to me, because I truly loved it. It's one of my top favorites. Shade is a very diverse character, whose past and present seem to clash. I'd really rather not say anything substantial about the book, because you really must read it on your own- the smallest explanation outside the description may be too much, and it's just too good to give away!

[Scotoma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shade, the debut novel of long-time science fiction author Emily Devenport, is a curious case of me not really caring for either the protagonist or the plot but instead, it’s just the writing itself that reeled me in. On the surface this is about a teenager or young woman who ran away from home, left Earth, stranded on a backwater planet full of politics, and now lives mostly on the street, surviving with her skill and her ability to scope, which is not quite telepathy but gives her uncanny insight into other people.

When I say I didn’t care for the protagonist I mostly mean that her experience of the world is so removed from everything I know that I can’t really relate. She lives a life of scrounging for food, stealing or taking leftovers, of finding holes and corners to sleep at night with no stable support structure or a home of her own. Her life on the street is the stuff of my nightmares and it’s not something I want and even reading about it feels anxiety-inducing to some degree.

As for the plot, it is a sort of coming-of-age story for our protagonist, she has to go through various tribulations until she gets her happy end, finds a good mate, and finds the family she has been longing for all her life. The ending makes up for a lot of the stuff she has to go through.

What Emily Devenport created as the background is kinda interesting, the backwater planet this takes place on is a microcosm of the wider political arena in this future. In the past humanity supported one alien group the Aesopians against the Q’rin, but then the Q’rin won the war. Meanwhile, another, even older alien race, the Lyrri, are stirring woken by contact with humanity to old ambitions. There is a lot of resentment on all sides against each other, both on the galactic scale and on the planetary scale of the world this takes place.

It’s not a world under anyone’s rules, there is no police, and the rich rule with their private security forces. Poor people suffer, whatever race they are from, and when things start to change as a faction of the Q’rin makes a power play to cement their power base on the planet, things move on again in unexpected directions.

All of this makes for a heady mix, commented on from the viewpoint of Shade, our stream-of-consciousness narrator, not really an unreliable narrator in the sense that information gets withheld but she does a lot of drugs, she doesn’t know lots of the bigger things going on and she’s very focused on her survival. This is a breezy read that despite the terrible situation or situations our “heroine” finds herself in repeatedly makes for a compelling experience, since she almost never gives up and is, as a narrator, honest to a fault.

It’s an odd novel in the sense that it doesn’t explore big science fiction ideas, it is more focused on the small scale, on the characters, how they relate to each other, toxic friendships, and good friendships, while the big stuff is unfolding in the background and rarely in focus. You get the impression that the big stuff is happening but you only get glimpses of it.

If you ask whether it’s a good or great novel, I honestly have no good answer. It kept me glued to its pages but I hesitate to recommend it. It’s definitely a fascinating read above all.

[Brian Paterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing. It is a small loss, as Oxfam can keep my $4. What does Shade want? This is not clear to me. I stopped reading on page 39 and moved on to another second-hand book (which I gave 5 stars). Here, the voice and world is engaging but the story rambles through unimportant flashbacky byways (Shade sucks at making milkshakes- how does that move a story forward?).

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the characters, I liked the world building and I liked that it was willing to touch on a lot of difficult issues. Yet none of them managed to come together well enough for me, still enjoyed it but was hoping for more.

[Lindig · Rating 3 out of 5]

A relatively early hip female urbanite story. Enjoyable.