Pearl in the Void

The Stone Moon Trilogy #2

by M.C.A. Hogarth

When emissaries of the Stone Moon arrive in het Narel, Keshul, the charlatan seer of House Akkadin, is suspicious. Who are these prosperous, well-fed people, and why do they care whether the Houses of het Narel have better wells and healthier crops? It doesn’t take long for Keshul to see the breadth of their ambitions and to know they must be fought. But in that battle he discovers that bringing about the downfall of the Stone Moon may undo everything its emperor has planned for the species… including its survival.
Is freedom the price the Jokka must pay to stave off extinction? And what price will Keshul be forced to personally pay to see his mission to its end?

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction

446 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 31, 2013

About the author

Daughter of two Cuban political exiles, M.C.A. Hogarth was born a foreigner in the American melting pot and has had a fascination for the gaps in cultures and the bridges that span them ever since. She has been many things—-web database architect, product manager, technical writer and massage therapist—-but is currently a full-time parent, artist, writer and anthropologist to aliens, both human and otherwise.

Her fiction has variously been recommended for a Nebula, a finalist for the Spectrum, placed on the secondary Tiptree reading list and chosen for two best-of anthologies; her art has appeared in RPGs, magazines and on book covers.

Reviews

[Francesca Forrest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keshul is a charlatan fortune-teller, playing at being the Voice of the Void, the dark, death-dealing god that's part of the jokka species's trinity, along with Brightness and the World. At least, he thinks he's a charlatan--he certainly doesn't believe in the gods--but he may in fact be a tool of the divine, and what he senses coming is doom.

The jokka people already are doomed, though few like to think about it. Their crops fail, famines sometimes come. Worse, childbirth steals away the minds of their females, and their males can similarly lose their minds if they're overtaxed. Only the neuters are robust--but neuters can't beget or bear children. Newcomers arrive in Keshul's village with big plans that will turn around the fortunes of the entire species--but at a dreadful cost for two-thirds of it.

The first half of the story is the fast-paced unfolding of what I've described. It's *very* tensemaking and exciting. The second half of the story is much more meditative, as Keshul and the story's antagonist debate the cost of survival and Keshul muses on what he sees going on around him. I really love Hogarth's way of bringing ideas up in her works, and how her characters discuss things:

"The Void is the destroyer god," Iren said.

"Are only good things destroyed?" I asked, and wondered where the question had come from, and grieved that I had had to ask it."

Things like that.

So this section is slower, but very satisfying, if you like Hogarth's style (which I do). The book ends at an emotionally satisfying point: there is an alternative that may yet bring down the cruel empire that still holds the jokka in its grip.

My ebook also contains a companion short story that was excellent.

[Elizabeth McCoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the sequel to The Worth of a Shell, which -- if people go look in the right review places -- had me threatening to turn the author upside down and shake till the sequel fell out. Well, it finally fell out, hooray! ...and it's book 2 of a trilogy. *facepalm*

But hey, we have progress!

There are some motivation-spoilers in this review, but I tried to mark them below. Sorry about the incoherencies. I'm kind of excited!

So, not only is this a sequel to Shell, it's also a sequel to "Fire in the Void." The narrator for Pearl is the same as Fire's: Keshul, a charlatan seer who isn't always as fake as he'd like to be. Keshul doesn't want to believe in the Void (the god or ur-spirit of at least one Jokka religion), and he doesn't want to believe he's a prophet with the real ability to foresee the future (and/or hear the decisions of the Void...), and he's about to have a Very Bad Day. Lots of them, really. In fact, just about everything he ever knew and loved is going to be ripped away from him, he's going to be handed a task which he really doesn't want, and it's going to be a long time before he gets even a sniff of the good life again.

See, he's going to run into Roika -- remember Roika? All male, all ego, all control-freak? Yeeeeaaaaah, about that... So, that's Emperor Roika to you, these days. Roika has a dream, a dream of Jokka not, y'know, dying off. Physically, anyway. Emotionally? Spiritually? Who cares about that stuff! Roika, you're a control-freak jerk, and your little biases against neuters are going to be a real problem for you later... Unfortunately, Roika has indeed identified a problem -- and one that is also at the root of why his little Survival Of The Species At All Costs arrangement is also doomed in the form he's created.

The problem is this: Jokka have three sexes. Jokka can, and frequently do, change between them at least once and sometimes twice (so a Jokka could potentially be all three in its lifetime). Fertile Jokka (male and female) are at risk of mind-death when under stress. The females tend to be particularly fragile. And therefore any Jokka should know, "That could be me, losing my mind in childbirth, had I not turned male/neuter." Their empathy is *killing* them, because they're loathe to be the ones breeding (go re-read Worth of a Shell), and they're loathe to breed to even replacement levels, since it's not fun to breed with a brain-damaged female, and when one survives a birthing with her mind intact, risking mind-death again is scary for all concerned...

But Roika's empire, based on Male supremacy at the expense of Neuters and Females, is also forgetting this aspect -- possibly because Roika was always a Male, just as Dlane was always Female and Thenet was always Neuter. But many-to-most other Jokka will Change; the males may be "on top," but they know their childhood companions might become neuter slaves, or female wombs-on-feet... Or that they themselves might change in a second puberty. This... is not a recipe for a stable, sex-linked caste system, no matter how hard they try to indoctrinate the children in their creches.

And it's up to Keshul to figure a way out of this mess, before the empire comes down around their heads, whether for the reasons of rot at the core, the mortality of a mere Male, or the pressure of the rebellious lot who dislike being micromanaged even when species survival is at stake. Indeed, the tension between individual dignity and species survival is very strong in this book... And Keshul is the Void-chosen rope between.

Also included in the book, at the end, is "Stone Moon, Silk Scarves" -- a short story about an enforcer for Roika's empire. If you've already got that short story, you won't have to change files to read it. If you don't already have it... now you do, and it's important, because Pathen is going to take over our story in book 3.

[erforscherin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh dear... this is a tough one to review. Technically this is a sequel to The Worth of a Shell, but I'm not sure if that's really the right word: it's told by an entirely new narrator, and while it builds on the events of the first book, all but one of the characters from the previous story remain offscreen the entire time, and the other doesn't even show up until about halfway through.

I enjoyed the first half of Pearl: we slowly meet our new narrator, a fortune-teller who is making it all up as he goes along and doesn't really believe in the god he supposedly represents... right up until that god chooses him, which makes things a little awkward. But there's larger action in play as a group of strangers moves into town and begins work on a mystery construction project. The suspense is actually very well-handled here: the story takes its time before revealing the strangers' affiliation, and then once the stage is set, turns into a shadowboxing match as each side tries to guess what the other will do and make the first move. It's a very clever way to reveal just how well-organized and foresightful the villain's operation has become, in only a few short years since the previous novel's events...

...which makes the other half of the book, where we actually meet Roika, a bit of a let-down, especially when the plot grinds to a halt almost immediately. I understand that the Fire in the Void is feeling rather conflicted about Roika, for all sorts of good reasons - he conquered his home-town! He's divided up the sexes! His Claws are thugs! And yet... this might be the only way to save civilization! - but the sudden flip from "I want to tear your throat out" to - semi-lovers? "I feel obligated to protect you", at least - didn't feel very convincing to me. Especially because we have proof that at least some of Roika's lieutenants are quite competent in their own right: is there really nobody who could step in to fill the power void? Nobody *whatsoever* who he could start training as his replacement, and who our hero might be able to persuade to go a little easier on the whole divided-genders and unnatural-love topics? Really?)

Ultimately it's those reasons that take this one from a possible four-star venture down to three stars for me... but I'm invested now, and still holding out hope for a satisfying ending to this series.

[Karen A. Wyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm rounding up.

The narrator is a compelling character, and a study in personal evolution/transformation/self-understanding. The personal and societal dramas in which he plays an important part are complex and fascinating. This series explores difficult questions having to do with apparently irreconcilable conflicts between personal feeling, ethics, and the necessities biology and environment can impose.

[Rita · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book alternates between enraging and depressing. The final part will have to be REALLY uplifting to begin to make up for the first two.

[Alexia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story in an incredible setting

I think that this is without question my favourite universe from all the books I have ever read. The 3 sexes, their turnings, the flaws and merits of the Stone Moon, and last but not least, the incredible depth of the characters... I can't wait to read the last book of the trilogy, but I'm trying to wait a bit because it's the last book I have to read from this universe and I'm not ready to say goodbye to it yet!

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm impressed by Hogarth's flexibility in writing this series. The first book focused very heavily on internal struggles and largely romantic conflict. In this second book, the plot is driven by a reluctant gods-touched seer and a rising empire. Some themes of cultural mores versus personal feelings do carry over, but they're much more heavily contextualized in the religion of the Jokka.

There's a neat twist about halfway through where what seems like the main plot resolves into an apparently different storyline entirely, even though they end up being connected eventually. I'm glad that Hogarth continues to mostly avoid trite happy endings, although a way out from the conflict between survival of the species and the rights of the individual is hinted at towards the end.

I was kind of surprised to discover that whatever passes for gods in this series are very much real, at least to some extent. Throughout the first book and for a great deal of this one, everyone, especially the main character, acts like the gods probably don't exist. The eventual impact this has on our hero and the people around him is very interesting to watch unfold.

The social commentary parallels continue to be noticeable, but not so much that they distract from the story itself. It enhances the reading experience far more than not, lending some welcome weight and meat to the characters and their struggles.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pearl in the Void is the sequel to "Worth of a Shell," which begins the Stone Moon Trilogy. As a "second book," you may expect it to be a mere bridge, but you'd be very wrong. This book is brilliant, sharp-edged, sad, hopeful, and wonderful. It is a self-contained story, though if you have read Worth of a Shell, you will have a different experience than those reading it as a stand-alone would.

We follow the narrator, Keshul, an unwilling avatar of the Void, one of the Jokka's trinity of gods. He does not want to be a true seer, but he is, and his visions have led to an invasion of his home by the Stone Moon Empire. He realizes that they are attempting to annex his home to the Empire, and begins to try to subvert the empire's takeover.

His small successes lead to complications, and an eventuality that takes us directly to the heart of the Empire--and Keshul to the darkness that is the Void's hand on him.

I give this the highest recommendation-- it is *better* than the first book, and if you enjoyed that one, you will love this one and be dying for the third, as I was.