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Venus Ascendant #1
The House of Styx
The first in a ground breaking, action-packed and exciting new science fiction series from the best-selling author of The Quantum Magician.
Life can exist anywhere. And anywhere there is life, there is home.
In the swirling clouds of Venus, the families of la colonie live on floating plant-like trawlers, salvaging what they can in the fierce acid rain and crackling storms. Outside is dangerous, but humankind’s hold on the planet is fragile and they spend most of their days simply surviving.
But Venus carries its own secrets, too. In the depths, there is a wind that shouldn’t exist.
And the House of Styx wants to harness it.
Life can exist anywhere. And anywhere there is life, there is home.
In the swirling clouds of Venus, the families of la colonie live on floating plant-like trawlers, salvaging what they can in the fierce acid rain and crackling storms. Outside is dangerous, but humankind’s hold on the planet is fragile and they spend most of their days simply surviving.
But Venus carries its own secrets, too. In the depths, there is a wind that shouldn’t exist.
And the House of Styx wants to harness it.
332 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 18, 2020
145 people are currently reading
2566 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 214 reviews
June 30, 2020
4.5 Stars
Omg!! I didn’t know this book was going to make me cry!!
When I saw this book was a sci-fi book set around Venus I was hooked. This book was so much more than a space romp. This book is about family, politics, gender identity, corruption, mental health, drugs, love....... the Stars.
I loved all of the characters! Marthe ended up being my favorite!
And Venus, beautiful, deadly Venus. No one can live on you but they can live in your clouds and if they’re important, they can live a bit above your clouds.
Venus holds secrets that one awesome family discovers! But what will all of this lead to, how many will survive and die to find out the answers...
I’m excited for this new series and I can’t wait to have the physical copy in my hands!! The following excerpt isn’t set in stone as this is an advanced copy.
Omg!! I didn’t know this book was going to make me cry!!
When I saw this book was a sci-fi book set around Venus I was hooked. This book was so much more than a space romp. This book is about family, politics, gender identity, corruption, mental health, drugs, love....... the Stars.
I loved all of the characters! Marthe ended up being my favorite!
And Venus, beautiful, deadly Venus. No one can live on you but they can live in your clouds and if they’re important, they can live a bit above your clouds.
Venus holds secrets that one awesome family discovers! But what will all of this lead to, how many will survive and die to find out the answers...
I’m excited for this new series and I can’t wait to have the physical copy in my hands!! The following excerpt isn’t set in stone as this is an advanced copy.
They all tested themselves against Venus, each according to their gifts, all in the process of becoming something else, something better. They might die. They each had lost loved ones to the clouds. And although Venus would resist them, although Venus herself did not know she was beautiful, they would show her.
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
** Thank you to Netgalley and Solaris Books for a digital copy of this book!
BLOG: https://melissa413readsalot.blogspot....
February 19, 2023
A huge thank you to Solaris, Derek Kunsken and Netgalley. Anyone who reads my reviews knows that I do not like science fiction! But, when I came across this author on Netgalley I knew I had to read it! It's always a crap shoot, but I was hoping the sci-fi gods were smiling. Yeah. They were! This was so good. I will confess that Venus is no place for me! Matter of fact, I was so able to put myself in these characters shoes, and thus I spent quite a bit of time just loving planet earth. Really, up until the first 25% I thought I would quit this book. Then everything started coming together. I was at times nervous as heck! Other times, my heart was so full of feelings. Flying through acid storms? Scary and exhilarating! Best of all was the people. Not the bank or government, but these families. I can't tell you how many times I had to wipe tears off my face. Too many! If you are someone who is close minded then do us all a favor and read this book. It may open your heart. Just a wee bit! If you need a review, then it won't be from me. Read others. There's some great ones on Goodreads. I'm just here to tell you how much I loved this. I am anxiously awaiting the next book.
August 8, 2020
I've honestly not had much experience with many SF titles that directly deal with Venus, so this is a very nice treat for me.
Yeah, sure, I've read some older titles that have been made laughable by the ACTUAL conditions on the planet, the huge pressures, the deadly acidic atmosphere, and any number of technical difficulties that would make anyone consider this planet a HELL rather than any sort of love goddess.
Fortunately, I had a really good time with this one because it directly deals with those issues. We get terraforming, survival in the clouds, and the full colonial (and anti-colonial) experience.
It is very much a modern novel in all respects. Our main characters transform this into a family drama that touches on everything from economic disparity, identity politics, how we treat the disabled, all the way to a secretive rush toward a *spoiler spoiler* exciting goal. :)
I enjoyed this quite a lot. There were definite tones of, say, Iain McDonald's Luna series. The technical detail is very much in line with the classic Arthur C. Clarke. But the story... well, the deeper over-story... that is also rather Clarkish. :) That's a good thing, btw. No spoilers, but that part is very, very fun.
Yeah, sure, I've read some older titles that have been made laughable by the ACTUAL conditions on the planet, the huge pressures, the deadly acidic atmosphere, and any number of technical difficulties that would make anyone consider this planet a HELL rather than any sort of love goddess.
Fortunately, I had a really good time with this one because it directly deals with those issues. We get terraforming, survival in the clouds, and the full colonial (and anti-colonial) experience.
It is very much a modern novel in all respects. Our main characters transform this into a family drama that touches on everything from economic disparity, identity politics, how we treat the disabled, all the way to a secretive rush toward a *spoiler spoiler* exciting goal. :)
I enjoyed this quite a lot. There were definite tones of, say, Iain McDonald's Luna series. The technical detail is very much in line with the classic Arthur C. Clarke. But the story... well, the deeper over-story... that is also rather Clarkish. :) That's a good thing, btw. No spoilers, but that part is very, very fun.
October 9, 2024
The House of Styx is bold, imaginative science fiction and it shows that planetary colonization can proceed in was unanticipated. All the action takes place on Venus, or rather, in the atmosphere of Venus with brief touch tags on the surface. Turns out Venus gets colonized by French Canadians and the surface is so inhospitable that the Venusians in La Colonie live in the clouds. The vast majority (about 4,000) live in artificial habitats high in the clouds, venturing into the atmosphere in sealed suits and flying wing suits, diving through the air. They are in hock to the large banks and rationing raw materials and healthcare. Never forget though the atmosphere of Venus is filled with sulphuric acid like acid rain and is deadly to the extreme. The younger generation doesn't know earth and has never seen the surface. Many are caught up in drugs, orgies, and self-destructive behavior with some even worshipping the planet and symbolically burning themselves in honor of the deadly planet.
Lower in the atmosphere are the rebels, about 400 people in small family groups, living in giant trawlers, or giant Venusian plants, harvesting from the atmosphere, hiding out from centralized control, off the grid as much as possible. The D'Aquillon family is one such group of rebels who, when told to abort their Downs child, went rebel and decided that if he wasn't going to get rationed healthcare, no one in the family would. The father rules by force of will, but half the family perished in Venus' harsh world and the remaining two adult children, Marthe and Emile live in the higher levels where Marthe is a delegate and Emil grandfather goes to parties and dates Therese, who has a cult following.
Meanwhile, back at the lower levels, sixteen year old self-taught engineer Pascal (who decides to come out of the closet and then gender identity swap) and his father discover something on the surface that could change the family fortunes like winning the lottery. That is, if they can harvest it and trade it. And it's going to take everything they have to get to the precious discovery.
This story makes it on the incredible world building and it's rather difficult to even picture the floating habitats and the wings. It all builds and builds. Some of the personal stories of the characters were probably unnecessary to the resolution of this story. Nevertheless, quite a creative and fascinating tale.
Lower in the atmosphere are the rebels, about 400 people in small family groups, living in giant trawlers, or giant Venusian plants, harvesting from the atmosphere, hiding out from centralized control, off the grid as much as possible. The D'Aquillon family is one such group of rebels who, when told to abort their Downs child, went rebel and decided that if he wasn't going to get rationed healthcare, no one in the family would. The father rules by force of will, but half the family perished in Venus' harsh world and the remaining two adult children, Marthe and Emile live in the higher levels where Marthe is a delegate and Emil grandfather goes to parties and dates Therese, who has a cult following.
Meanwhile, back at the lower levels, sixteen year old self-taught engineer Pascal (who decides to come out of the closet and then gender identity swap) and his father discover something on the surface that could change the family fortunes like winning the lottery. That is, if they can harvest it and trade it. And it's going to take everything they have to get to the precious discovery.
This story makes it on the incredible world building and it's rather difficult to even picture the floating habitats and the wings. It all builds and builds. Some of the personal stories of the characters were probably unnecessary to the resolution of this story. Nevertheless, quite a creative and fascinating tale.
July 16, 2020
Key to understanding this wonderful SF novel by Derek Künsken is the dedication at the beginning to his Québécois relatives, and the remark that “The exploration of Venus by bigger nations had never amounted to much more than seeing Venus as a dead end on the road to colonising the solar system.”
Künsken notes wryly that “The decision of la colonie to separate from Québec had come a bit suddenly for everyone, including the séparatistes. A scorned Québec had been happy to cut its losses on the expensive colonie.”
This sets the background for a shaggy dog story of the colony’s hand-to-mouth survival in the harsh and unforgiving Venusian environment, where “No one had loved the love goddess, and Venus had no soul because no one loved her. And les colonistes had no souls because they had no world.”
However, the infrastructure and essential commodities for such a colony to survive are owned, mined and produced by a financial superstructure comprised of various banks, with the colonists being the petite bourgeoisie. You can see how Künsken transmutes the elements of colonialism into his SF setting, but he is way too savvy a writer for this to become pedagogical.
Apart from the theme of Venus being the runt of the solar system in genre terms (it does play a key role in the first couple of Expanse novels by James S.A. Corey), Künsken also deconstructs the very concept of colonisation itself, which often has a Western or Imperialist slant, especially in American SF:
Farming in the heights or scavenging in the depths, choices no different from the ones facing the teeming, nameless billions who’d scraped the ground for most of Earth’s history, never walking more than thirty kilometres from where they’d been born. His parents had crossed hard vacuum to reach a world where most of them would be subsistence farmers.
And what a world it is. Künsken’s evocation of the Venusian ecosystem and how to survive there reads like a lavish and riveting David Attenborough nature documentary. Although he has clearly done his homework, the nuts and bolts of the actual science are cleverly hidden in the background of the story.
The reader is mesmerised by the sheer fight for survival of the D’Aquillon family as it painstakingly harvests water and oxygen in the depths of Venus’s atmosphere, living in huge dirigible-like craft, and also harvesting precious metals from volcanic ash in the lowest levels … where the family has a date with destiny as it makes a truly astonishing discovery (definite hints of Arthur C. Clarke here.)
Above all of this riffraff (but still quite a way from the level of the banks) are the habitats of the political elite in the upper Venusian atmosphere, who rule and scheme among the families in order to subjugate and control them.
What made me love this book so much, apart from the impeccable world-building and Künsken’s sheer technical chops as a writer, are the wonderful characters, whose lives and loves and struggles make them achingly and so frustratingly human. Here in particular I am thinking of the teenage Pascal and the fraught journey of self-discovery he makes (to say any more would be to spoil this treasure chest of a novel.)
They all tested themselves against Venus, each according to their gifts, all in the process of becoming something else, something better. They might die. They each had lost loved ones to the clouds. And although Venus would resist them, although Venus herself did not know she was beautiful, they would show her.
Künsken notes wryly that “The decision of la colonie to separate from Québec had come a bit suddenly for everyone, including the séparatistes. A scorned Québec had been happy to cut its losses on the expensive colonie.”
This sets the background for a shaggy dog story of the colony’s hand-to-mouth survival in the harsh and unforgiving Venusian environment, where “No one had loved the love goddess, and Venus had no soul because no one loved her. And les colonistes had no souls because they had no world.”
However, the infrastructure and essential commodities for such a colony to survive are owned, mined and produced by a financial superstructure comprised of various banks, with the colonists being the petite bourgeoisie. You can see how Künsken transmutes the elements of colonialism into his SF setting, but he is way too savvy a writer for this to become pedagogical.
Apart from the theme of Venus being the runt of the solar system in genre terms (it does play a key role in the first couple of Expanse novels by James S.A. Corey), Künsken also deconstructs the very concept of colonisation itself, which often has a Western or Imperialist slant, especially in American SF:
Farming in the heights or scavenging in the depths, choices no different from the ones facing the teeming, nameless billions who’d scraped the ground for most of Earth’s history, never walking more than thirty kilometres from where they’d been born. His parents had crossed hard vacuum to reach a world where most of them would be subsistence farmers.
And what a world it is. Künsken’s evocation of the Venusian ecosystem and how to survive there reads like a lavish and riveting David Attenborough nature documentary. Although he has clearly done his homework, the nuts and bolts of the actual science are cleverly hidden in the background of the story.
The reader is mesmerised by the sheer fight for survival of the D’Aquillon family as it painstakingly harvests water and oxygen in the depths of Venus’s atmosphere, living in huge dirigible-like craft, and also harvesting precious metals from volcanic ash in the lowest levels … where the family has a date with destiny as it makes a truly astonishing discovery (definite hints of Arthur C. Clarke here.)
Above all of this riffraff (but still quite a way from the level of the banks) are the habitats of the political elite in the upper Venusian atmosphere, who rule and scheme among the families in order to subjugate and control them.
What made me love this book so much, apart from the impeccable world-building and Künsken’s sheer technical chops as a writer, are the wonderful characters, whose lives and loves and struggles make them achingly and so frustratingly human. Here in particular I am thinking of the teenage Pascal and the fraught journey of self-discovery he makes (to say any more would be to spoil this treasure chest of a novel.)
They all tested themselves against Venus, each according to their gifts, all in the process of becoming something else, something better. They might die. They each had lost loved ones to the clouds. And although Venus would resist them, although Venus herself did not know she was beautiful, they would show her.
May 29, 2020
Synopsis: 2255 A.D. Venus is sparsely populated by Québécois descendants. Of course not on Venus's hard surface, because it is far too hot there and the pressure is also not sufferable. Instead, they built their homes floating in the acidic clouds, strutted by huge bio-engineered jellyfish similar life forms called "trawler", extracting elements from the atmosphere which are thrown up by the volcanoes.
The story follows the D'Aquillon family living in their habitat Causapscal-des-Profondeurs in the lower levels where it is harder to survive, because they separated from the rest of the colony. The reason for this is that the colony didn't want to support their child handicapped with Down syndrome. The parents faced the decision to either perform an abortion or live without the necessary medicaments. Their motto is "family first", so they decided pro life and their firstborn son Jean-Eudes is charming, warm-hearted, and fully accepted by his siblings.
Some of the family members lost their lifes in the harsh environment. Father George-Étienne tries to hold together the whole family. Jean-Eudes mostly raises young Alexis. Separated from the whole family lives their sister Marthe in a habitat high in the clouds. She was sent out as delegate in the Venusian legislative assembly and proves her value as diplomat drawing strings against the Venusian president. Her brother Émile lives with her, because he fled a confrontation with his stubborn father. He is a lazy going poet trying his luck in a love affair with Therese - an interesting, though self-destructive woman who builds up a kind of new religion worshipping Venus by inhaling the atmosphere and aciding herself.
The story's hero is Pascal, a courageous 16 year old engineering genius. Very early on it is hinted that he doesn't like his body at all and after a while he finds out that he is really a girl in the body of a man. At this instant, he renames herself secretly Pascale and the story continues as "her" which I found extremely interesting and satisfying.
The novel's plot develops around a discovery by George-Étienne where he found out that at floor of Diana Chasma, things behave goofy. It is an extreme adventure to go down to the ground in a kind of floating submarine in the high pressure and temperature. They find a mysterious cave there and start exploring it.
Review: This novel starts a new series but has a satisfying ending without a huge cliffhanger. It is mostly Hard SF with one exception that they interpret from their findings in the cave.
SF on Venus was common in Pulp times, when authors invented jungles and dinosaurs, or even high tech civilizations there - this form is called "Old Venus" and authors still write this fiction topic, e.g. in an anthology edited by GRRM and Dozois. In contemporary SF, authors are mostly invested in Mars or the Jupiter moons, but Venus went out of focus. That's maybe because the living conditions on the ground are hard to describe and living in the atmosphere doesn't seem that interesting.
That's why I love this novel: nearly prosaic narration comparable to Kim Stanley Robinson's visions of Mars describing the several cloud layers with grand views of the transparent layers at Les Plaines and Grande Allée between the cloud decks and the stygian Venusian floor. The inventive, but valid life form of the trawlers, and the humans flying around from habitat to habitat.
It is not only the Hard SF part of this novel with the planet and engineering which fascinated me, but also the social dimension: First the wholesome family centered around a handicapped adult with breaks in its history coming to the foreground later in the story. The founding of a religion. The political workings of a colony depending on a bank which is not exactly altruistic. Those dimensions perfectly balance the narration to a complete setting.
I fully recommend this impressive novel and can't wait for book 2 in the series. Its publishing is scheduled for August 2020.
The story follows the D'Aquillon family living in their habitat Causapscal-des-Profondeurs in the lower levels where it is harder to survive, because they separated from the rest of the colony. The reason for this is that the colony didn't want to support their child handicapped with Down syndrome. The parents faced the decision to either perform an abortion or live without the necessary medicaments. Their motto is "family first", so they decided pro life and their firstborn son Jean-Eudes is charming, warm-hearted, and fully accepted by his siblings.
Some of the family members lost their lifes in the harsh environment. Father George-Étienne tries to hold together the whole family. Jean-Eudes mostly raises young Alexis. Separated from the whole family lives their sister Marthe in a habitat high in the clouds. She was sent out as delegate in the Venusian legislative assembly and proves her value as diplomat drawing strings against the Venusian president. Her brother Émile lives with her, because he fled a confrontation with his stubborn father. He is a lazy going poet trying his luck in a love affair with Therese - an interesting, though self-destructive woman who builds up a kind of new religion worshipping Venus by inhaling the atmosphere and aciding herself.
The story's hero is Pascal, a courageous 16 year old engineering genius. Very early on it is hinted that he doesn't like his body at all and after a while he finds out that he is really a girl in the body of a man. At this instant, he renames herself secretly Pascale and the story continues as "her" which I found extremely interesting and satisfying.
The novel's plot develops around a discovery by George-Étienne where he found out that at floor of Diana Chasma, things behave goofy. It is an extreme adventure to go down to the ground in a kind of floating submarine in the high pressure and temperature. They find a mysterious cave there and start exploring it.
Review: This novel starts a new series but has a satisfying ending without a huge cliffhanger. It is mostly Hard SF with one exception that they interpret from their findings in the cave.
SF on Venus was common in Pulp times, when authors invented jungles and dinosaurs, or even high tech civilizations there - this form is called "Old Venus" and authors still write this fiction topic, e.g. in an anthology edited by GRRM and Dozois. In contemporary SF, authors are mostly invested in Mars or the Jupiter moons, but Venus went out of focus. That's maybe because the living conditions on the ground are hard to describe and living in the atmosphere doesn't seem that interesting.
That's why I love this novel: nearly prosaic narration comparable to Kim Stanley Robinson's visions of Mars describing the several cloud layers with grand views of the transparent layers at Les Plaines and Grande Allée between the cloud decks and the stygian Venusian floor. The inventive, but valid life form of the trawlers, and the humans flying around from habitat to habitat.
It is not only the Hard SF part of this novel with the planet and engineering which fascinated me, but also the social dimension: First the wholesome family centered around a handicapped adult with breaks in its history coming to the foreground later in the story. The founding of a religion. The political workings of a colony depending on a bank which is not exactly altruistic. Those dimensions perfectly balance the narration to a complete setting.
I fully recommend this impressive novel and can't wait for book 2 in the series. Its publishing is scheduled for August 2020.
March 22, 2022
*Now available*
Huge thank you to Netgalley and Solaris for an advanced reader copy of this book. All opinions and views in this review are my own.
So being a huge mythology fan, the first thing that drew me to this book was the title. But once I read the description, I desperately wanted to get my hands on the book. A story set on planet Venus? Yes, please! The only other time I've ever read a book set on Venus was one written by C.S. Lewis.
This book had some major pros:
I loved the setting. And holy cow, did the author think out every aspect of the world building well. In the first handful of chapters, the reader is going to have a hard time following the setting and details, but as time goes on and the science behind their homes, travel methods, and means of survival are explained, it feels markedly organic and plausible. One of the best setting developments I've read in a long, long time.
Also, I loved the dynamic of Jean-Eudes' diagnosis (Down Syndrome) and his father's adamant choice to protect his son and give him life.
Lastly, the author did a good job of giving each character their own voice. I didn't have to remind myself which character POV I was reading.
Cons:
Unfortunately, by the time I was done with the book, there was very little I was latching onto. The setting only carried the novel so far and by that point, the storyline felt flat.
Side-note, this is a very small critique, but initially the French dialog doesn't feel organic to the conversational flow. For the first half of the book or more, this pulled me right out of the story every time it was dropped in. I either got used to it, or the author got better at melding it in naturally. Little things such as one of the main characters rattling off a French phrase and finishing with "pa." I kept thinking, repeatedly, that it would feel more natural for him to say "papa" if their native language was French. And then he did...like...once. And then went back to "pa." Super minor, but the bulk of the French phrases slowed my reading flow over and over.
My bigger issue with the book was the fact that it was a soap opera disguised as a sci-fi novel. Downton Abbey has a huge following and, like House of Styx, the characters each have a distinctive voice. One of the reasons it wasn't immediately recognized as a soap was the period it was set in. But at the end of the day, it's a soap opera set in an abbey. House of Styx is a soap opera set on Venus, full of angsty characters. Especially Pascal. His POV was next to unbearable for me to get through and, frankly, felt like a poor substitute for a YA novel. If you pick up the book, don't go into it looking for a sci-fi novel. I think the majority of readers will be heavily disappointed if they enter it with that mindset. Action and classic sci-fi, this is not. If you're into family drama and soap operas, like Downton Abbey, the setting will probably go a long way to engage readers who enjoy that genre.
This is just a plug for readers trying to decide if this is a book to spend your time on, the heavy liberal views by the author are pretty preachy. Just one example, Pascal's character tells his brother that saints are like fairies, a magical, imaginary belief system fools used to cling to. This may not bother some readers at all, so full speed ahead. But be forewarned, the author used this book as a personal platform to project his political views. In hindsight, I'm pretty shocked that one of the driving pieces of the story is a pro-life choice to save Jean-Eudes, his son with Down-Syndrome (not a spoiler- we know that within the first few pages). If any of this would bother you, this wouldn't be a book you would want to spend your time on.
Some mild grammatical errors I'm sure will be fixed before this goes to print.
Two stars for the well-fleshed out setting, but unfortunately, the rest of it fell flat for me.
I'd rate this book an R for strong swearing, sex scenes, drugs and self-harm, and some violence.
Huge thank you to Netgalley and Solaris for an advanced reader copy of this book. All opinions and views in this review are my own.
So being a huge mythology fan, the first thing that drew me to this book was the title. But once I read the description, I desperately wanted to get my hands on the book. A story set on planet Venus? Yes, please! The only other time I've ever read a book set on Venus was one written by C.S. Lewis.
This book had some major pros:
I loved the setting. And holy cow, did the author think out every aspect of the world building well. In the first handful of chapters, the reader is going to have a hard time following the setting and details, but as time goes on and the science behind their homes, travel methods, and means of survival are explained, it feels markedly organic and plausible. One of the best setting developments I've read in a long, long time.
Also, I loved the dynamic of Jean-Eudes' diagnosis (Down Syndrome) and his father's adamant choice to protect his son and give him life.
Lastly, the author did a good job of giving each character their own voice. I didn't have to remind myself which character POV I was reading.
Cons:
Unfortunately, by the time I was done with the book, there was very little I was latching onto. The setting only carried the novel so far and by that point, the storyline felt flat.
Side-note, this is a very small critique, but initially the French dialog doesn't feel organic to the conversational flow. For the first half of the book or more, this pulled me right out of the story every time it was dropped in. I either got used to it, or the author got better at melding it in naturally. Little things such as one of the main characters rattling off a French phrase and finishing with "pa." I kept thinking, repeatedly, that it would feel more natural for him to say "papa" if their native language was French. And then he did...like...once. And then went back to "pa." Super minor, but the bulk of the French phrases slowed my reading flow over and over.
My bigger issue with the book was the fact that it was a soap opera disguised as a sci-fi novel. Downton Abbey has a huge following and, like House of Styx, the characters each have a distinctive voice. One of the reasons it wasn't immediately recognized as a soap was the period it was set in. But at the end of the day, it's a soap opera set in an abbey. House of Styx is a soap opera set on Venus, full of angsty characters. Especially Pascal. His POV was next to unbearable for me to get through and, frankly, felt like a poor substitute for a YA novel. If you pick up the book, don't go into it looking for a sci-fi novel. I think the majority of readers will be heavily disappointed if they enter it with that mindset. Action and classic sci-fi, this is not. If you're into family drama and soap operas, like Downton Abbey, the setting will probably go a long way to engage readers who enjoy that genre.
This is just a plug for readers trying to decide if this is a book to spend your time on, the heavy liberal views by the author are pretty preachy. Just one example, Pascal's character tells his brother that saints are like fairies, a magical, imaginary belief system fools used to cling to. This may not bother some readers at all, so full speed ahead. But be forewarned, the author used this book as a personal platform to project his political views. In hindsight, I'm pretty shocked that one of the driving pieces of the story is a pro-life choice to save Jean-Eudes, his son with Down-Syndrome (not a spoiler- we know that within the first few pages). If any of this would bother you, this wouldn't be a book you would want to spend your time on.
Some mild grammatical errors I'm sure will be fixed before this goes to print.
Two stars for the well-fleshed out setting, but unfortunately, the rest of it fell flat for me.
I'd rate this book an R for strong swearing, sex scenes, drugs and self-harm, and some violence.
May 12, 2022
Künsken's The Quantum Magician was an intelligent heist story with interesting ideas about biology. It was also fun. In the sequel to that story there's an idea casually put out there about an aquatic species possibly colonising a gas giant, which was more than a little exciting.
Then The House of Styx was announced. A story set in the clouds of Venus and, like The Quantum Magician, is a heist story. Just not a fun one, sadly.
It's focus is on a single barely functional family that stumbles upon an opportunity to change their lives forever whilst they struggle with the death of the mother. We're served up a mature exploration of grief and resentment. There's also a delicately handled tale of a trans character coming of age.
It's intelligent in the technical details of what's needed to live in the clouds of a hostile planet, but it was mostly lacking in the big novel ideas that I usually seek from my genre fiction.
Had no idea that it was a prequel to the Quantum Evolution series at the time of reading as it differs greatly in tone and scope. The setting is different and humanity hasn't undergone the changes that are to come. I've no right to be disappointed in The House of Styx for all of that, but I am.
I would much rather have read a story of the mongrels colonising a gas giant and adapting their culture to embrace the hope of a future in place of their live for today attitude as suggested in The Quantum Garden than this very human story.
I'll read the second book in this duology, but won't be banging the drum for The House of Styx as I did and do for the authors others works. Not for now anyway.
__________________
Working through my feelings on this one. Will hopefully return to write a mildly entertaining review at some point in the future.
Then The House of Styx was announced. A story set in the clouds of Venus and, like The Quantum Magician, is a heist story. Just not a fun one, sadly.
It's focus is on a single barely functional family that stumbles upon an opportunity to change their lives forever whilst they struggle with the death of the mother. We're served up a mature exploration of grief and resentment. There's also a delicately handled tale of a trans character coming of age.
It's intelligent in the technical details of what's needed to live in the clouds of a hostile planet, but it was mostly lacking in the big novel ideas that I usually seek from my genre fiction.
Had no idea that it was a prequel to the Quantum Evolution series at the time of reading as it differs greatly in tone and scope. The setting is different and humanity hasn't undergone the changes that are to come. I've no right to be disappointed in The House of Styx for all of that, but I am.
I would much rather have read a story of the mongrels colonising a gas giant and adapting their culture to embrace the hope of a future in place of their live for today attitude as suggested in The Quantum Garden than this very human story.
I'll read the second book in this duology, but won't be banging the drum for The House of Styx as I did and do for the authors others works. Not for now anyway.
__________________
Working through my feelings on this one. Will hopefully return to write a mildly entertaining review at some point in the future.
January 23, 2021
This is the first volume of a series, but can be read as a standalone. To some extent it reminds of Red Mars, but with smaller diversions into science and set on Venus. I’ve read its serialized version in Analog, but it is available as a novel now.
This is story of a family, which decided not to work with a greater Mars society after they were ordered to abort their future child with Down syndrome, for the colony is unable to care for ‘unproductive’ members. Other members of the family include a politics-savvy daughter, “good” and “bad” sons, as well as a patriarch. Once they visited the surface and found something that cannot possibly be, there or elsewhere.
Venus, or more precisely its upper atmosphere (50 km+ from the ground) is colonized by people from Quebec – so you get French as the main language and a local version of Coureurs (akin to a coureur des bois (French: "runner of the woods"), who was an independent entrepreneurial French-Canadian trader who traveled in New France and the interior of North America, usually to trade with First Nations peoples) mistrusting any government.
There is life if Venus atmosphere, onion-shaped living balloon plants and well as unicellular life forms. Coureurs live in inflated balloons close to sulfuric clouds and collect minerals and native lifeforms to exchange for imported goods and repairs for their balloons – after all a temperature around 100 C, high pressure and sulfuric acid are a great combination for destroying any man-made stuff.
There is some political intrigue: le colonie is financed by a bank that plans to return investments even if it means shadow ruling the colony and losing a few less cooperative members. There is a shadow economy, there are bohemian artists and ordinary mechanics.
A very nice SF, both paying homage to the classics and raising modern hype-ish themes. Definitely an author to watch!
This is story of a family, which decided not to work with a greater Mars society after they were ordered to abort their future child with Down syndrome, for the colony is unable to care for ‘unproductive’ members. Other members of the family include a politics-savvy daughter, “good” and “bad” sons, as well as a patriarch. Once they visited the surface and found something that cannot possibly be, there or elsewhere.
Venus, or more precisely its upper atmosphere (50 km+ from the ground) is colonized by people from Quebec – so you get French as the main language and a local version of Coureurs (akin to a coureur des bois (French: "runner of the woods"), who was an independent entrepreneurial French-Canadian trader who traveled in New France and the interior of North America, usually to trade with First Nations peoples) mistrusting any government.
There is life if Venus atmosphere, onion-shaped living balloon plants and well as unicellular life forms. Coureurs live in inflated balloons close to sulfuric clouds and collect minerals and native lifeforms to exchange for imported goods and repairs for their balloons – after all a temperature around 100 C, high pressure and sulfuric acid are a great combination for destroying any man-made stuff.
There is some political intrigue: le colonie is financed by a bank that plans to return investments even if it means shadow ruling the colony and losing a few less cooperative members. There is a shadow economy, there are bohemian artists and ordinary mechanics.
A very nice SF, both paying homage to the classics and raising modern hype-ish themes. Definitely an author to watch!
May 6, 2021
Ok, some things didn't necessarily make sense. For instance, why did the probing camera have to come back to download images from it while they had been sent to the whatever equipment people on the Causapscal-des-Profondeurs? Why couldn't they store the images from there just in case the camera got lost with the precious data. Ok, the data from the transmission could be less granular than from the camera but still... why?
Q:
No one had loved the love goddess, and Venus had no soul because no one loved her. And les colonistes had no souls because they had no world. (c)
Q:
Grand-mère and I didn’t come to Venus just to get away from the cities and from an empty life. We wanted to explore, to see things no one had ever seen.” (c)
Q:
No one had loved the love goddess, and Venus had no soul because no one loved her. And les colonistes had no souls because they had no world. (c)
Q:
Grand-mère and I didn’t come to Venus just to get away from the cities and from an empty life. We wanted to explore, to see things no one had ever seen.” (c)
August 20, 2020
Let me tell you how I thought this review would go. As I began reading The House of Styx (which I received free via NetGalley and publisher Solaris), I thought that I would enjoy this book, for sure. Derek Künsken had, after all, reignited the faint embers of my love for posthumanism with
The Quantum Magician
and then fanned those flames with a dose of time travel in
The Quantum Garden
. However, I also thought that the thesis of this review would be, “This is a fun SF book that I liked but did not love as much as The Quantum Evolution books.” I prejudged it based on its being a planetary romance rather than a space opera.
I am so, so wrong. The House of Styx surpassed my expectations in every conceivable way. Not only does Künsken deliver another excellent, diverse science-fiction future, but he does so with humour and grace—and he just drops a trans character in my lap like oops no big deal. More on that at length, I promise, in a bit.
Trigger warnings in this book for portrayal of gender dysphoria/gender incongruence, as well as scarification.
In the future, humans have colonized the upper atmosphere of Venus. More specifically, Québécois have colonized Venus—yes, Künsken, Canadian, reaches into his Québécois heritage for some cultural inspiration here, exposing a wider audience to the glorious, sacrilegious profanity of Québécois French. La colonie, in debt to a powerful bank, barely scraps by, and the D’Aquillon family is even worse off. That is, they make a discovery, in a cave on the inhospitable and nearly unreachable surface of Venus, that could change everything. It could certainly alter the fortunes of the family, not to mention all of la colonie—if this monumental discovery doesn’t fall into “the wrong hands.”
So the book quickly turns into a race of against time: how does the family recruit enough trustworthy allies to capitalize on this discovery before the executive powers that be complete their political de-clawing of Marthe, the family’s representative in l’Assemblée? It’s going to take a combination of political and social negotiation as well as good ol’ engineering know-how! Along the way, Künsken gives us these amazing scenes of what he conjectures life in the Venusian clouds could be.
From herding, modifying, and even bio-engineering the “trawlers” (gigantic Venusian life forms that live in the lower clouds) to flying with wing packs while wearing survival suits designed to resist the corrosive and toxic atmosphere, The House of Styx is replete and resplendent with a fantastic imagining of what life on (or at least, above) Venus might entail. I haven’t read much fiction concerning Venus; Künsken lampshades this in the book by reminding us that the major exploratory nations kind of wrote Venus off as a dead end after their few probes. So I love that Künsken looked at this planet and said, “No, there is so much more to talk about here,” and then turned that into reality. While this imagination was present in The Quantum Evolution books, it was spread across the numerous settings within those novels. Here, Künsken deploys it in a more concentrated way. There are exciting, cinematic scenes that would be incredible to reify on film if anyone ever wanted to adapt this series. After the success of The Expanse I could easily see this working as a TV show.
Beyond the poetical vistas and musing on the stark, brutalist beauty of Venus’ surface and atmosphere, The House of Styx also features excellent characters and relationships. First we have the interplay among the D’Aquillon family themselves. Künsken invests each character with such an interesting, three-dimensional personality, from the steady, dependable Marthe to the black sheep of Étienne. There’s the relentlessly warm Jean-Eudes, who has Down’s syndrome, and then of course, there is my personal favourite character, Pascale.
I was not expecting a trans character in this book, and I think that says something important about our expectations for trans representation in literature. There is this misconception sometimes, I think, that for books to feature trans characters then their coming out/transition/journey must be the main focus of the story. That’s all that’s important about us, right? So the fact that here it’s not the main plot, and that feels unusual, is so important. Künsken’s portrayal of Pascale’s journey—the questioning, the agonizing over the questioning and her dysmorphia, the acceptance she receives from the people in whom she has confided so far—is excellent. Yet it all happens as a subplot within a book that is, really, more about exploration and the power struggles within a small colony.
Other cis authors, pay attention: this is how you do it. Normalize trans people existing against the backdrop of your larger story. Pascale is far from the only character who grows and undergoes challenges in this book. Each of the main characters struggles with the responsibilities that the D’Aquillon discovery foists upon them, as well as their own flaws and fears. And of course, there is a truly heartbreaking event at the climax of the story that no doubt will set up some intra-family conflict in the sequels.
Indeed, the character dynamics in The House of Styx are just great. There are very few one-dimensional characters here—even the nominal antagonist, Présidente Gaschel, gets some page-time from her third-person limited perspective so that we can understand why she’s acting the way she does and avert the idea that she is a bumbling, maniacal villain. Meanwhile, the people who ally themselves with the D’Aquillons do so cautiously. There is no automatic, trite pledges of loyalty here. There is careful discussion of the economic and political ramifications of what they plan to do. There are also other power dynamics at work: sex and attraction, resource management in a resource-scarce environment, etc. Künsken carefully layers all of the rich ingredients that together form our spheres of human motivations.
So, in the end, what do we have here? The House of Styx is a science-fiction novel set on/above Venus but with the potential to open up into so much more in the sequels. It focuses on a core group of characters who are diverse in personalities, sexualities, gender identities, etc., including an excellent portrayal of a young trans woman. I do want to be clear: I’m not giving this book 5 stars just because there’s a trans character here (though that helps); even without such a character this novel is an excellent story in every respect. But Künsken’s attention to so many aspects of characterization truly elevates it. After the clunky, sexist read that was Foundation and Earth , this was such a refreshing contrast from the tunnel-vision of so-called “classic” science fiction. The House of Styx is exactly what I want from modern-day science fiction: it is imaginative, inclusive, and incredible.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
I am so, so wrong. The House of Styx surpassed my expectations in every conceivable way. Not only does Künsken deliver another excellent, diverse science-fiction future, but he does so with humour and grace—and he just drops a trans character in my lap like oops no big deal. More on that at length, I promise, in a bit.
Trigger warnings in this book for portrayal of gender dysphoria/gender incongruence, as well as scarification.
In the future, humans have colonized the upper atmosphere of Venus. More specifically, Québécois have colonized Venus—yes, Künsken, Canadian, reaches into his Québécois heritage for some cultural inspiration here, exposing a wider audience to the glorious, sacrilegious profanity of Québécois French. La colonie, in debt to a powerful bank, barely scraps by, and the D’Aquillon family is even worse off. That is, they make a discovery, in a cave on the inhospitable and nearly unreachable surface of Venus, that could change everything. It could certainly alter the fortunes of the family, not to mention all of la colonie—if this monumental discovery doesn’t fall into “the wrong hands.”
So the book quickly turns into a race of against time: how does the family recruit enough trustworthy allies to capitalize on this discovery before the executive powers that be complete their political de-clawing of Marthe, the family’s representative in l’Assemblée? It’s going to take a combination of political and social negotiation as well as good ol’ engineering know-how! Along the way, Künsken gives us these amazing scenes of what he conjectures life in the Venusian clouds could be.
From herding, modifying, and even bio-engineering the “trawlers” (gigantic Venusian life forms that live in the lower clouds) to flying with wing packs while wearing survival suits designed to resist the corrosive and toxic atmosphere, The House of Styx is replete and resplendent with a fantastic imagining of what life on (or at least, above) Venus might entail. I haven’t read much fiction concerning Venus; Künsken lampshades this in the book by reminding us that the major exploratory nations kind of wrote Venus off as a dead end after their few probes. So I love that Künsken looked at this planet and said, “No, there is so much more to talk about here,” and then turned that into reality. While this imagination was present in The Quantum Evolution books, it was spread across the numerous settings within those novels. Here, Künsken deploys it in a more concentrated way. There are exciting, cinematic scenes that would be incredible to reify on film if anyone ever wanted to adapt this series. After the success of The Expanse I could easily see this working as a TV show.
Beyond the poetical vistas and musing on the stark, brutalist beauty of Venus’ surface and atmosphere, The House of Styx also features excellent characters and relationships. First we have the interplay among the D’Aquillon family themselves. Künsken invests each character with such an interesting, three-dimensional personality, from the steady, dependable Marthe to the black sheep of Étienne. There’s the relentlessly warm Jean-Eudes, who has Down’s syndrome, and then of course, there is my personal favourite character, Pascale.
I was not expecting a trans character in this book, and I think that says something important about our expectations for trans representation in literature. There is this misconception sometimes, I think, that for books to feature trans characters then their coming out/transition/journey must be the main focus of the story. That’s all that’s important about us, right? So the fact that here it’s not the main plot, and that feels unusual, is so important. Künsken’s portrayal of Pascale’s journey—the questioning, the agonizing over the questioning and her dysmorphia, the acceptance she receives from the people in whom she has confided so far—is excellent. Yet it all happens as a subplot within a book that is, really, more about exploration and the power struggles within a small colony.
Other cis authors, pay attention: this is how you do it. Normalize trans people existing against the backdrop of your larger story. Pascale is far from the only character who grows and undergoes challenges in this book. Each of the main characters struggles with the responsibilities that the D’Aquillon discovery foists upon them, as well as their own flaws and fears. And of course, there is a truly heartbreaking event at the climax of the story that no doubt will set up some intra-family conflict in the sequels.
Indeed, the character dynamics in The House of Styx are just great. There are very few one-dimensional characters here—even the nominal antagonist, Présidente Gaschel, gets some page-time from her third-person limited perspective so that we can understand why she’s acting the way she does and avert the idea that she is a bumbling, maniacal villain. Meanwhile, the people who ally themselves with the D’Aquillons do so cautiously. There is no automatic, trite pledges of loyalty here. There is careful discussion of the economic and political ramifications of what they plan to do. There are also other power dynamics at work: sex and attraction, resource management in a resource-scarce environment, etc. Künsken carefully layers all of the rich ingredients that together form our spheres of human motivations.
So, in the end, what do we have here? The House of Styx is a science-fiction novel set on/above Venus but with the potential to open up into so much more in the sequels. It focuses on a core group of characters who are diverse in personalities, sexualities, gender identities, etc., including an excellent portrayal of a young trans woman. I do want to be clear: I’m not giving this book 5 stars just because there’s a trans character here (though that helps); even without such a character this novel is an excellent story in every respect. But Künsken’s attention to so many aspects of characterization truly elevates it. After the clunky, sexist read that was Foundation and Earth , this was such a refreshing contrast from the tunnel-vision of so-called “classic” science fiction. The House of Styx is exactly what I want from modern-day science fiction: it is imaginative, inclusive, and incredible.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
December 16, 2021
The good things: Venus and the world Künsken creates is excellent. He definitely put some thought and research into how Venus is and how people might actually live there. Drifting/flying up and down the levels was a fun maze for the mind.
The not so good: Although I loved Quantum Magician and the followups, the writing here is weak at best. The characters all seem like silos, distinct, somewhat fleshed out yet not really meshing with each other. The society, although somewhat believable with our current bad guy of the day, banks, doesn't really function how I think it should. If there isn't enough resources to support an atypical kid, there absolutely, definitely won't be enough to support a sex change. Politically, grabbing a rival's habitat for spare parts for everyone else, would be far too transparent and a non-starter. The drug use and alcoholism also doesn't make a ton of sense given the, apparently, viciously tight resources.
4 stars for the world, 2 stars for the characters and writing. Too many books to read, I doubt I will continue with this series. Now I will go read Ryan's review and see what he thought.
The not so good: Although I loved Quantum Magician and the followups, the writing here is weak at best. The characters all seem like silos, distinct, somewhat fleshed out yet not really meshing with each other. The society, although somewhat believable with our current bad guy of the day, banks, doesn't really function how I think it should. If there isn't enough resources to support an atypical kid, there absolutely, definitely won't be enough to support a sex change. Politically, grabbing a rival's habitat for spare parts for everyone else, would be far too transparent and a non-starter. The drug use and alcoholism also doesn't make a ton of sense given the, apparently, viciously tight resources.
4 stars for the world, 2 stars for the characters and writing. Too many books to read, I doubt I will continue with this series. Now I will go read Ryan's review and see what he thought.
December 5, 2020
La colonie has built a life in the inhospitable clouds hovering above the hellscape that is the surface of Venus. They live their lives in man-made habitats or native floating plant-like trawlers, surviving in any way they can despite the roiling storms, extreme temperatures, and acid rain.
One family, les D’Aquillons, has sunk to the dangerous depths, cut off from the government’s aid and grieving their losses. Until one day a trip to the surface leads to a discovery that could change everything.
The House of Styx is one of the most fully realized hard sci-fi novels I’ve ever read. La colonie has history. They have developed their own culture and hierarchy. They struggle to find meaning in the formless clouds above a planet that will do anything to end their lives.
This novel explores grief and loss, gender identity and queerness, addiction and self-harm, and so much more. The characters are incredibly well developed and deeply flawed, and I found myself quickly getting attached. I was also pleasantly surprised that les colonistes originally hailed from Québec, as a bilingual Canadian myself.
There is a dangerous beauty to the setting of this tale, and Künsken’s imagery captured my imagination from the start.
I honestly can’t think of anything I could want from this story that I didn’t get, and I can’t wait to read the next installment.
Trigger Warnings: Loss of a parent, self-harm, abuse of drugs and alcohol, suicidal ideation, gender dysphoria, violence
Thank you to NetGalley and Solaris for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
VIDEO REVIEW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7yvk...
One family, les D’Aquillons, has sunk to the dangerous depths, cut off from the government’s aid and grieving their losses. Until one day a trip to the surface leads to a discovery that could change everything.
The House of Styx is one of the most fully realized hard sci-fi novels I’ve ever read. La colonie has history. They have developed their own culture and hierarchy. They struggle to find meaning in the formless clouds above a planet that will do anything to end their lives.
This novel explores grief and loss, gender identity and queerness, addiction and self-harm, and so much more. The characters are incredibly well developed and deeply flawed, and I found myself quickly getting attached. I was also pleasantly surprised that les colonistes originally hailed from Québec, as a bilingual Canadian myself.
There is a dangerous beauty to the setting of this tale, and Künsken’s imagery captured my imagination from the start.
I honestly can’t think of anything I could want from this story that I didn’t get, and I can’t wait to read the next installment.
Trigger Warnings: Loss of a parent, self-harm, abuse of drugs and alcohol, suicidal ideation, gender dysphoria, violence
Thank you to NetGalley and Solaris for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
VIDEO REVIEW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7yvk...
August 9, 2020
The book is based on a great irony. Quebec has always wanted to separate from Canada. In this very original SciFi Venus in the 2200s is populated by a group of Quebec separatists. For a SciFi this had the feel of reality - life is tough in the Venus sky, it's too torrid to live on so the people live in various orbiting platforms, resources are tight and need constant recycling, the governing body has to allocate resources on the basis of economic priority, ingenuity is essential and life is dangerous.
One family of outcasts stumble on a possible wormhole, and opening up a potential for many subsequent books, which may lift them from a life of struggle to one of independence from the corrupt government and the Banks that seem to control the government.
But there's more. Sex, sexual identity, family, loyalty and sacrifice are as much a part of the story as the SciFi bits. The author puts a lot of effort to describe the conditions around and on Venus and how the people have to adapt to achieve.
A good start to a potential epic series.
One family of outcasts stumble on a possible wormhole, and opening up a potential for many subsequent books, which may lift them from a life of struggle to one of independence from the corrupt government and the Banks that seem to control the government.
But there's more. Sex, sexual identity, family, loyalty and sacrifice are as much a part of the story as the SciFi bits. The author puts a lot of effort to describe the conditions around and on Venus and how the people have to adapt to achieve.
A good start to a potential epic series.
November 29, 2023
The settlement of Venus in Künsken's telling is a pretty marginal affair. In 2255, there are only about 4,000 settlers total, all living in free-floating habitats in the Venusian atmosphere. It's a very hostile place to live. Deaths and mysterious disappearances are common, most often from storms. It's a poor colony, by mid-23rd century standards. And heavily in debt to the predatory Bank of Pallas. Kunsken's settlers are almost exclusively Quebecois, as is the author, and he draws on the colonial history of New France for background. My mother's side of my family were mostly Louisiana French, so I was happy to see this. Everything sounds better in French! Settlers on the North American frontiers often struggled just to survive, let alone prosper. Many sad stories. . .
That said, the solar system in Künsken's 23d century future history is wealthy. Even the hand-me-down imports the Quebecois settlers can afford are pretty neat. The personal flying-wings that seem to be universal on Venus are inexpensive and pretty reliable. Künsken did his homework on the Venusian atmosphere. It's mostly CO2, with sulfuric acid clouds and violent storms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus Native Venusian life in the clouds could be possible. But working on the planet's surface would be a formidable challenge!
I read the somewhat intimidating hc edition, which clocks in at 600+ pages. Indeed, the novel could have been trimmed. Overall, Künsken's writing abilities are improving, and this is a first-rate book. This was a solid 4-star read for me. Recommended reading, especially for hard-SF and pioneer settlement story fans. Do be aware that the novel ends on a cliffhanger. The sequel has just been published, and I plan to read it.
The author's introductory comments are well-worth reading: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2020/08/2...
That said, the solar system in Künsken's 23d century future history is wealthy. Even the hand-me-down imports the Quebecois settlers can afford are pretty neat. The personal flying-wings that seem to be universal on Venus are inexpensive and pretty reliable. Künsken did his homework on the Venusian atmosphere. It's mostly CO2, with sulfuric acid clouds and violent storms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus Native Venusian life in the clouds could be possible. But working on the planet's surface would be a formidable challenge!
I read the somewhat intimidating hc edition, which clocks in at 600+ pages. Indeed, the novel could have been trimmed. Overall, Künsken's writing abilities are improving, and this is a first-rate book. This was a solid 4-star read for me. Recommended reading, especially for hard-SF and pioneer settlement story fans. Do be aware that the novel ends on a cliffhanger. The sequel has just been published, and I plan to read it.
The author's introductory comments are well-worth reading: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2020/08/2...
May 9, 2022
One reviewer called it a "character-based story;" another called it a "soap opera in space." They're both right. But the author has also done a LOT of hard-SF research and extrapolation about how to get around in the atmosphere if this planet.
Like many books these days, this one tries to push quite a few diversity buttons at once, and does so well. Occasionally it occurs to me that the diversity of a story should not exceed the diversity of its setting; but I balance that with "the old white engineers had 50 years, let's balance for a while."
Early on I wondered why so few people seemed to die in this viciously harsh environment, and I had to tell myself that all the careless ones died a generation ago. To the author's credit, not everyone we meet makes it to the end.
I understand that the author had to decide to take the larger setting as a given, and just tell us that some thousands of people are "farming" Venus. It would have been incredibly hard to write, but I think there's a good book in the how-did-they-get-to-there part of this story. What came after the probes? How did they discover the trawlers? How did they decide that they could be adapted, and what was the death rate among early colonists? How did they get all the high-tech stuff TO Venus, and most of all why isn't there a giant hi-tech orbiting platform that doesn't have to fight Venus constantly?
Still not sure about the believability of the in-atmosphere travel, with the spur-of-the-moment 8-hours-in-a-wingsuit trips, the planes, drones, etc. etc. but I was impressed by the calculations on winds, updrafts, varying speeds relative to the surface, etc.
Like many books these days, this one tries to push quite a few diversity buttons at once, and does so well. Occasionally it occurs to me that the diversity of a story should not exceed the diversity of its setting; but I balance that with "the old white engineers had 50 years, let's balance for a while."
Early on I wondered why so few people seemed to die in this viciously harsh environment, and I had to tell myself that all the careless ones died a generation ago. To the author's credit, not everyone we meet makes it to the end.
I understand that the author had to decide to take the larger setting as a given, and just tell us that some thousands of people are "farming" Venus. It would have been incredibly hard to write, but I think there's a good book in the how-did-they-get-to-there part of this story. What came after the probes? How did they discover the trawlers? How did they decide that they could be adapted, and what was the death rate among early colonists? How did they get all the high-tech stuff TO Venus, and most of all why isn't there a giant hi-tech orbiting platform that doesn't have to fight Venus constantly?
Still not sure about the believability of the in-atmosphere travel, with the spur-of-the-moment 8-hours-in-a-wingsuit trips, the planes, drones, etc. etc. but I was impressed by the calculations on winds, updrafts, varying speeds relative to the surface, etc.
Read
February 21, 2023DNF at 25%
There is a hint of an interesting story there. Unfortunately, it's bogged down by a lot of exposition and characters I could care less about. I quit when I realized that even the big discovery on the surface of Venus left me indifferent.
This is my first book by this author, but I had heard praises about his Quantum Magician series, though I haven't read them either. Now I'm not sure if I even want to give it a try.
Don't get me wrong, the science behind Venus and how people could actually exist in this hostile environment is fascinating. Problem is, the story itself feels soulless and sterile like the surface of Venus. The characters are more a set of quirks or enough particular traits to differentiate them from one another, but never feel "alive" or interesting enough. And when you don't care about the characters, the politics of the place fall flat as well. I didn't care about the stakes because I didn't care about the characters.
PS: I received an advanced copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
There is a hint of an interesting story there. Unfortunately, it's bogged down by a lot of exposition and characters I could care less about. I quit when I realized that even the big discovery on the surface of Venus left me indifferent.
This is my first book by this author, but I had heard praises about his Quantum Magician series, though I haven't read them either. Now I'm not sure if I even want to give it a try.
Don't get me wrong, the science behind Venus and how people could actually exist in this hostile environment is fascinating. Problem is, the story itself feels soulless and sterile like the surface of Venus. The characters are more a set of quirks or enough particular traits to differentiate them from one another, but never feel "alive" or interesting enough. And when you don't care about the characters, the politics of the place fall flat as well. I didn't care about the stakes because I didn't care about the characters.
PS: I received an advanced copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
July 8, 2020
Although the premise of this novel is intriguing and different, its execution fails to live up to expectations. On the surface, this novel explores life on Venus where French Canadians have built colonies amongst the clouds. The colonists work to harvest oxygen and other raw materials from floating plants while enduring their own personal hardships. Focusing on one family, the story traces their survival in a harsh environment with even more complicated politics looming in the background. It is at once a novel of survival and family, while also showcasing a world that reminds me of the American Western Frontier. It feels a little bit like "Little House on the Prairie," but in space, and there's sulphuric acid rain.
If you are one for detail and explanation, then this is the novel for you as Künsken's writing is full of lengthy descriptions and poignant vignettes that capture daily life on Venus. There are even a few interesting and creative solutions to the inherent problems that living on Venus presents, and if you enjoy this part of science-fiction world-building, you'll enjoy this novel.
In my mind, however, the novel suffers from its own desire to world-build. Like the story's inhabitants, it remains in the fluffy clouds, never grounding into an interesting narrative. Even the first few pages are overwhelming, word-vomiting all this detail without giving readers anything to hook on. I actually had to reread the first few pages because I didn't understand the use of trawler (or a fishing-boat) with the over-fraught description of the floating plants. As when any writer over-explains, the reader begins to question the details--which is exactly what happened. I was taken out of my suspension of disbelief to then begin questioning the minutiae. Like, how do they have ropes in a world of sulphuric acid?
It feels almost like a rookie novel. Characters are flat and one-dimensional, each chapter barely scrapes into the next, and whatever plot there is isn't tied up by its finale (meaning another book is on its way). There's also an overwhelming use of awkward French. The novel makes it clear from the beginning that the characters are speaking in French (as if the text has been translated), but then has some characters explicitly speak French sometimes, but not others. And what words are in French are fairly simple to translate, like "oui," "maman," or "non." As the words are in italics, it is also frustrating to constantly be bombarded by simple French words that stand-out and it feels almost patronising to readers. It made me, as a reader, question the "translation" of the text. It would have been far more interesting if the difficult words were in French, or if they were phrases/idioms that do not have an English equivalent. The writing felt like some of my high school students' where they over-use dialects, accents, or foreign words because they do not trust in their own readers' ability to remember.
I think this novel had a lot of potential in its premise, but it gets lost in all its detail and description. It forgets its story and characters along the way.
If you are one for detail and explanation, then this is the novel for you as Künsken's writing is full of lengthy descriptions and poignant vignettes that capture daily life on Venus. There are even a few interesting and creative solutions to the inherent problems that living on Venus presents, and if you enjoy this part of science-fiction world-building, you'll enjoy this novel.
In my mind, however, the novel suffers from its own desire to world-build. Like the story's inhabitants, it remains in the fluffy clouds, never grounding into an interesting narrative. Even the first few pages are overwhelming, word-vomiting all this detail without giving readers anything to hook on. I actually had to reread the first few pages because I didn't understand the use of trawler (or a fishing-boat) with the over-fraught description of the floating plants. As when any writer over-explains, the reader begins to question the details--which is exactly what happened. I was taken out of my suspension of disbelief to then begin questioning the minutiae. Like, how do they have ropes in a world of sulphuric acid?
It feels almost like a rookie novel. Characters are flat and one-dimensional, each chapter barely scrapes into the next, and whatever plot there is isn't tied up by its finale (meaning another book is on its way). There's also an overwhelming use of awkward French. The novel makes it clear from the beginning that the characters are speaking in French (as if the text has been translated), but then has some characters explicitly speak French sometimes, but not others. And what words are in French are fairly simple to translate, like "oui," "maman," or "non." As the words are in italics, it is also frustrating to constantly be bombarded by simple French words that stand-out and it feels almost patronising to readers. It made me, as a reader, question the "translation" of the text. It would have been far more interesting if the difficult words were in French, or if they were phrases/idioms that do not have an English equivalent. The writing felt like some of my high school students' where they over-use dialects, accents, or foreign words because they do not trust in their own readers' ability to remember.
I think this novel had a lot of potential in its premise, but it gets lost in all its detail and description. It forgets its story and characters along the way.
June 12, 2020
Thank you NetGalley for giving me an ARC copy of this book.
4,5 stars rounded up.
Well, this novel wasn't exactly what I expected. I thought it'd be some hard science-ficiton with a lot of action. There is a lot of science elements, but it isn't some fast-paced book with battles and aliens. It is more exploration about a new inhabitat of humans wchich is Venus. Yes, people colonized the planet but it is still a mystery for them.
But the main focus are characters. This book is a really great character study, with three main voices and some side characters worth looking into.
There is Pascal - a girl in the body of a boy who struggles with her identity.
There is Martha - the one who wants to merge her family together and probably the real hero of the story.
There is Emile - man of the edge of addiction who doesn't know what to do with his life and wants to find a purpose.
The are also others member of The D'Aquillon family whose rebellion started when mother and father refused to abort a child with the down syndrome.
There is a lot about family in this novel, also a lot about tolerance and acceptance. There are hard decisions and choices that can lead to grave consequences.
Characters are what keeps this story going. Pascale and Marthe were my faovurites, but I liked others, too.
I have a one little issue about the ending. Not of what had happened, but of the way it was portrayed. I had a felling that author wanted to make the final gut punch a little harder, but getting to the final conclusion took too long and it lessened the impact. I can't say more without spoilering the plot.
Still, it is a great read, not only for fans of science-fiction, but also for those, who are looking for great characterization.
4,5 stars rounded up.
Well, this novel wasn't exactly what I expected. I thought it'd be some hard science-ficiton with a lot of action. There is a lot of science elements, but it isn't some fast-paced book with battles and aliens. It is more exploration about a new inhabitat of humans wchich is Venus. Yes, people colonized the planet but it is still a mystery for them.
But the main focus are characters. This book is a really great character study, with three main voices and some side characters worth looking into.
There is Pascal - a girl in the body of a boy who struggles with her identity.
There is Martha - the one who wants to merge her family together and probably the real hero of the story.
There is Emile - man of the edge of addiction who doesn't know what to do with his life and wants to find a purpose.
The are also others member of The D'Aquillon family whose rebellion started when mother and father refused to abort a child with the down syndrome.
There is a lot about family in this novel, also a lot about tolerance and acceptance. There are hard decisions and choices that can lead to grave consequences.
Characters are what keeps this story going. Pascale and Marthe were my faovurites, but I liked others, too.
I have a one little issue about the ending. Not of what had happened, but of the way it was portrayed. I had a felling that author wanted to make the final gut punch a little harder, but getting to the final conclusion took too long and it lessened the impact. I can't say more without spoilering the plot.
Still, it is a great read, not only for fans of science-fiction, but also for those, who are looking for great characterization.
February 23, 2022
Actual rating: I'm torn between a 3.75 and a 4
Disclaimer: I requested a review copy of this book from the publisher
So... keep in mind this is my first time reading Derek Kunsken and I'm really excited to continue!
House of Styx is a hard sci fi disguised as a family drama set on a colonised Venus. Let me just get it out of the way first, I loved the more hard scifi elements of the novel, every time we had someone explaining to us how to survive rather in the surface or up in the clouds I was sooooo happy.
Also some very intriguing political maneuvering with the different families, that made me really excited cause this is a very complex novel.
More over, the LGBT+ representation was on point in my humble opinion.
Overall House of Styx was a great read though I have to say that some of the family members weren't really to my liking, and some issues felt a bit dragged but honestly like most families would.
Cannot wait to read The Quantum Magician trilogy.
More thoughts coming on a video!
Disclaimer: I requested a review copy of this book from the publisher
So... keep in mind this is my first time reading Derek Kunsken and I'm really excited to continue!
House of Styx is a hard sci fi disguised as a family drama set on a colonised Venus. Let me just get it out of the way first, I loved the more hard scifi elements of the novel, every time we had someone explaining to us how to survive rather in the surface or up in the clouds I was sooooo happy.
Also some very intriguing political maneuvering with the different families, that made me really excited cause this is a very complex novel.
More over, the LGBT+ representation was on point in my humble opinion.
Overall House of Styx was a great read though I have to say that some of the family members weren't really to my liking, and some issues felt a bit dragged but honestly like most families would.
Cannot wait to read The Quantum Magician trilogy.
More thoughts coming on a video!
August 4, 2020
There are no spaceships, battles scenes or interstellar journeys in this first instalment of Derek Künksen’s Venus Ascendant duology. Rather, it is an intimate tale of family, identity and belonging, set in the richly symbolic and sulphuric clouds of Venus.
“Forty-eight kilometres of dark, poisonous, baking atmosphere beneath them. Thirty kilometres of bright, poisonous, cooling atmosphere above them. Nothing around them but clouds and haze.”
The House of Styx is written from the perspective of the D’Aquillon family, Québécois colinistes who inhabit the Venusian skies, real estate long since dismissed as too hostile by other Earthen territories.
Patriarch George-Étienne has led the D’Aquillons to the lowest levels of Venus’ acid clouds, far from the reach of the government and the bank that controls it. There they work their trawlers, giant floating plants that allow them to collect minerals and resources from the atmosphere and live out a modest life.
While his daughter Marthe represents the D’Aquillons far above in l’Assemblée and his estranged son Émile seeks out new kin in fellow artists, George-Étienne risks his remaining family to travel to the planet surface and investigate a wind that shouldn’t exist. When they realise this discovery might help the family’s future, the D’Aquillons fight to keep it a secret.
The House of Styx is contemporary science fiction writing at its absolute finest, with Künsken striking the perfect balance with his characters, politics and world-building.
While the book is rich in detail, it isn’t weighed down by technical language. Instead, Künsken’s description of chemistry, physics and technology illustrate the hardships and dangerous beauty of life on Venus, enriching the story.
With themes of family, love and identity that transcend the genre, and important characters with Down syndrome, autism and one coming to terms with their gender identity, The House of Styx is a clear reminder that SFF is an under-appreciated literary genre.
I would recommend this book to fans of slow burn, deliberate space operas like Ancillary Justice and A Memory Called Empire. It also reminded me of Yoon Ha Lee’s Phoenix Extravagant having similar elements of family, art and rebellion.
Read my full review on jakeisreading.com
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Trigger warning: self-harm, suicide, addiction
“Forty-eight kilometres of dark, poisonous, baking atmosphere beneath them. Thirty kilometres of bright, poisonous, cooling atmosphere above them. Nothing around them but clouds and haze.”
The House of Styx is written from the perspective of the D’Aquillon family, Québécois colinistes who inhabit the Venusian skies, real estate long since dismissed as too hostile by other Earthen territories.
Patriarch George-Étienne has led the D’Aquillons to the lowest levels of Venus’ acid clouds, far from the reach of the government and the bank that controls it. There they work their trawlers, giant floating plants that allow them to collect minerals and resources from the atmosphere and live out a modest life.
While his daughter Marthe represents the D’Aquillons far above in l’Assemblée and his estranged son Émile seeks out new kin in fellow artists, George-Étienne risks his remaining family to travel to the planet surface and investigate a wind that shouldn’t exist. When they realise this discovery might help the family’s future, the D’Aquillons fight to keep it a secret.
The House of Styx is contemporary science fiction writing at its absolute finest, with Künsken striking the perfect balance with his characters, politics and world-building.
While the book is rich in detail, it isn’t weighed down by technical language. Instead, Künsken’s description of chemistry, physics and technology illustrate the hardships and dangerous beauty of life on Venus, enriching the story.
With themes of family, love and identity that transcend the genre, and important characters with Down syndrome, autism and one coming to terms with their gender identity, The House of Styx is a clear reminder that SFF is an under-appreciated literary genre.
I would recommend this book to fans of slow burn, deliberate space operas like Ancillary Justice and A Memory Called Empire. It also reminded me of Yoon Ha Lee’s Phoenix Extravagant having similar elements of family, art and rebellion.
Read my full review on jakeisreading.com
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Trigger warning: self-harm, suicide, addiction
February 2, 2021
You can also find my review here: https://rww.home.blog/2021/01/29/the-...
The House of Styx is not just one story.
It is a collection of journeys made by many people who are all connected by one thing: Venus.
“Venus is a lover who takes us only with pain,” she said, “not because she’s cruel. She’s alien, unknowable, unfathomable, but her price is the same price as any goddess: she wants to be embraced.”
It’s a story of a young man who finds himself to actually be a young woman, a government that finds itself in an endless pit of debt, a young man trying to find his place in a society that doesn’t need poets, and a young woman who tries to navigate the complicated world of politics.
The story takes place on Venus, a planet that some love and some hate, but one that still manages to stun everyone with its beauty. It’s a hard life and everyone is working themselves to the bones to be able to support themselves, so there’s no time for anything remotely fun.
The colony is bankrupt and seems to keep digging their grave deeper, and it’s going nowhere. It’s a dead end for everyone, until the D’Aquillions uncover something that will change their fortune.
“A rage didn’t tower. A loss cast no shadow. A heart couldn’t ache.
And yet they did. Words were all he had to touch another heart.“
I am going to admit that the synopsis mislead me into thinking that this was an action-packed novel. I expected a mystery, but what I got was a heartfelt story about people just trying to survive. I definitely did not except to cry.
This is definitely a character-driven book, which I prefer over a story-driven book. There’s a lot of tech-talk, which I skimmed, but it didn’t take away from the story, as well as a lot of French phrases used, but given the context of the words, you can figure most of them out by yourself.
If you’re looking for a story about people in a tough world, finding themselves as they go through hardship and turmoil, then this is the perfect book for you!
“Venus needs poets more,” Therese said. “It needs painters, even if the only canvases we have are ourselves.”
*I received a free arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest book review.
May 16, 2020
The House of Styx is by Derek Künsken, author of The Quantum Evolution series. It's set in the 23rd century, when Earth has colonised the inner planets and some asteroids. The story is based on Venus, which has been colonised by Quebec (the author is from Canada), and where families live on bio-engineered plant-based dirigibles in the cloud layers, extracting what they can from the atmosphere to survive.
The D'Aquillon family live in the lower levels, and when they discover something on the surface that shouldn't be there, plans start being made to solidify their claim before the governing body beats them to it.
The author has created an remarkably detailed and realistic portrayal of living in the clouds of Venus; the changes in conditions as one moves up or down through the layers (including the "goldilocks zone" at about 50km from the surface), keeping safe from the deadly sulfuric acid rain, and the difficulties of surface exploration with the crushing atmosphere and high temperatures.
There's some notable differences to the previous Quantum Evolution books, the main being The House of Styx feels to have less hard SF elements (though there is plenty of science about Venus, probably also anything "quantum" starts to make most minds boggle to a degree), but also there's more of a human element in this book. It explores the family unit and issues of loyalty, identity and gender within some of the characters, and it's done quite well too - the struggles the youngest son Pascal goes through is quite heartfelt.
I realised after about half to two-thirds through that the story was going to be continued in another book (didn't know this beforehand), which means there wasn't full resolution on the plot lines. I'm in two minds on this - if it was contained in one novel it would have made for a punchier, more exciting story; but at the same time there's now anticipation for book 2!
But overall this was an impressive novel, and a worthy entry on the colonization of Venus in modern SF!
The D'Aquillon family live in the lower levels, and when they discover something on the surface that shouldn't be there, plans start being made to solidify their claim before the governing body beats them to it.
The author has created an remarkably detailed and realistic portrayal of living in the clouds of Venus; the changes in conditions as one moves up or down through the layers (including the "goldilocks zone" at about 50km from the surface), keeping safe from the deadly sulfuric acid rain, and the difficulties of surface exploration with the crushing atmosphere and high temperatures.
There's some notable differences to the previous Quantum Evolution books, the main being The House of Styx feels to have less hard SF elements (though there is plenty of science about Venus, probably also anything "quantum" starts to make most minds boggle to a degree), but also there's more of a human element in this book. It explores the family unit and issues of loyalty, identity and gender within some of the characters, and it's done quite well too - the struggles the youngest son Pascal goes through is quite heartfelt.
I realised after about half to two-thirds through that the story was going to be continued in another book (didn't know this beforehand), which means there wasn't full resolution on the plot lines. I'm in two minds on this - if it was contained in one novel it would have made for a punchier, more exciting story; but at the same time there's now anticipation for book 2!
But overall this was an impressive novel, and a worthy entry on the colonization of Venus in modern SF!
July 25, 2020
There's parts of this book that I really adored. I thought it had some fascinating ideas that it propounded to do with the setting, and the world-building was marvellous in parts, but it got perhaps too bogged down in the creation and not so much in the characters and their drive. The characterisation was lacking severely, and while there were some touching moments (especially between siblings), they didn't connect with the rest of the story. It felt like this was trying to broach into the epic annals of Dune whilst balancing being a family saga- I just don't think it struck that balance quite as well as it could've.
I do have to give props to the author for some fairly solid queer representation throughout the book, and the exploration of trans identity was pretty good too. It's not a representation that we get to see very often, and so it was really nice to see a book that went into that. I did feel like the French was a little shoehorned in, and it didn't really fit the rest of the book particularly well. I feel like there was a wonderful opportunity to take it a bit further- and there was such a sad disconnect there. I can understand that there was a point to be made regarding the lack of termination of the child with Down's Syndrome as well- but it felt a little clunky in its making and the meaning got a bit ambiguous.
More than anything, I just hoped for a bit more from this, and I didn't get it. It was a disappointing state of affairs, and there were just so many missed opportunities in this book that I wish the author had taken.
I do have to give props to the author for some fairly solid queer representation throughout the book, and the exploration of trans identity was pretty good too. It's not a representation that we get to see very often, and so it was really nice to see a book that went into that. I did feel like the French was a little shoehorned in, and it didn't really fit the rest of the book particularly well. I feel like there was a wonderful opportunity to take it a bit further- and there was such a sad disconnect there. I can understand that there was a point to be made regarding the lack of termination of the child with Down's Syndrome as well- but it felt a little clunky in its making and the meaning got a bit ambiguous.
More than anything, I just hoped for a bit more from this, and I didn't get it. It was a disappointing state of affairs, and there were just so many missed opportunities in this book that I wish the author had taken.
September 19, 2021
At first seemed to be a soap opera taking place in the atmosphere of Venus. I was about to give it up until the plot finally kicked in. After a long while, I realized this novel is set in the same universe as the Quantum Magician, though there is no overlap between the stories.
Sadly, the book finishes with no ending. I suppose if enough people like it, or if Künsken has already written more, there will be a sequel. I see it is listed here as Venus Ascendant #1, so I guess there is another one coming. Not excited for it.
Sadly, the book finishes with no ending. I suppose if enough people like it, or if Künsken has already written more, there will be a sequel. I see it is listed here as Venus Ascendant #1, so I guess there is another one coming. Not excited for it.
November 14, 2023
Autant la colonisation de Mars est un thème prolifique en science-fiction, autant celle de Vénus se rencontre plus rarement. Disons qu’avec une température en surface de 470°C, une pression atmosphérique 90 fois plus forte que sur Terre et une météo assaisonnée de fréquentes tempêtes d’acide sulfurique, les défis techniques sont de taille, même pour les romancier·ères. Mais cela n’empêche pas Derek Künsken de s’y attaquer, pour un résultat franchement bluffant.
Vénus a été colonisée, oui… en atmosphère plutôt qu’en surface, là où les conditions sont, disons, un peu moins atroces. Les plus jeunes générations ne conçoivent même plus l’idée d’un sol rocheux sous leurs pieds. En haute atmosphère, où se concentrent les élites politiques, financières et culturelles, la vie peut être presque confortable, quoique très strictement rationnée, mais les conditions sont très dures en basse atmosphère, domaine des « coureurs des vents », champion·nes de la débrouille, toujours à la recherche de nouvelles ressources pour améliorer le sort de la colonie. C’est là que les d’Aquillon, une famille de la basse atmosphère, fait une découverte qui pourrait tout chambouler… à condition de protéger leur trouvaille de la voracité des banques qui ont financièrement permis la colonisation de la planète.
L’aspect hard science du récit, avec tous les problèmes techniques causés par les dures conditions de Vénus, est vraiment époustouflant. Mais Derek Künsken n’en oublie les enjeux humains pour autant. La famille d’Aquillon a été contrainte de s’exiler en basse atmosphère pour avoir voulu garder leur fils Jean-Eudes, trisomique, contre l’avis du personnel médical qui a jugé qu’il représenterait une bouche inutile à nourrir dans un monde aux ressources limitées. Un choix qui aura des conséquences différentes sur la vie de chaque membre de la famille – ce qui permet à l’auteur d’aborder de nombreux sujets : l’art, la politique, la transidentité… Cela rend son microcosme vénusien particulièrement vivant. Les personnages m’ont paru très touchants – j’ai adoré Marthe à la lecture, mais quelques semaines plus tard, c’est surtout Pascal(e) qui me reste en tête.
Les personnages ont pour particularité d’être Québécois·es et j’avoue avoir été ravie de retrouver noms et expressions typiques de la Belle Province (je mettrai toutefois un bémol sur la traduction, qui aurait à mon avis mérité une révision québécoise pour les dialogues : voir des personnages utiliser parfois des expressions typiquement franco-françaises telles que « faire la grasse mat’ », ça m’a un peu sortie du roman). Le choix de personnages québécois ne me semble pas purement gratuit, parce que le récit de la colonisation de Vénus rappelle beaucoup celle de la Nouvelle-France au 16e-17e siècle : l’implantation dans un nouveau territoire aux conditions de vie plus qu’hostiles, la fracture sociale entre la haute atmosphère au rythme de vie citadin et les coureurs des vents directement inspirés des coureurs des bois, la mainmise des banques anglophones sur la circulation des ressources… A priori, il ne manquerait que les relations avec les Autochtones (on a des formes de vie locales avec les chalutiers, mais le parallèle n’a pas l’air très pertinent…)
En bref, une superbe lecture à laquelle je reprocherais peut-être un découpage narratif un peu étrange. C’est peut-être parce qu’il s’agit du premier tome d’un diptyque, bien que l’histoire se suffise à elle-même. J’espère en tout cas pouvoir lire la suite bientôt. D’ici là, j’irai me consoler en allant (finalement!) lire Le Magicien quantique en me demandant pourquoi je ne l’ai pas fait plus tôt.
Vénus a été colonisée, oui… en atmosphère plutôt qu’en surface, là où les conditions sont, disons, un peu moins atroces. Les plus jeunes générations ne conçoivent même plus l’idée d’un sol rocheux sous leurs pieds. En haute atmosphère, où se concentrent les élites politiques, financières et culturelles, la vie peut être presque confortable, quoique très strictement rationnée, mais les conditions sont très dures en basse atmosphère, domaine des « coureurs des vents », champion·nes de la débrouille, toujours à la recherche de nouvelles ressources pour améliorer le sort de la colonie. C’est là que les d’Aquillon, une famille de la basse atmosphère, fait une découverte qui pourrait tout chambouler… à condition de protéger leur trouvaille de la voracité des banques qui ont financièrement permis la colonisation de la planète.
L’aspect hard science du récit, avec tous les problèmes techniques causés par les dures conditions de Vénus, est vraiment époustouflant. Mais Derek Künsken n’en oublie les enjeux humains pour autant. La famille d’Aquillon a été contrainte de s’exiler en basse atmosphère pour avoir voulu garder leur fils Jean-Eudes, trisomique, contre l’avis du personnel médical qui a jugé qu’il représenterait une bouche inutile à nourrir dans un monde aux ressources limitées. Un choix qui aura des conséquences différentes sur la vie de chaque membre de la famille – ce qui permet à l’auteur d’aborder de nombreux sujets : l’art, la politique, la transidentité… Cela rend son microcosme vénusien particulièrement vivant. Les personnages m’ont paru très touchants – j’ai adoré Marthe à la lecture, mais quelques semaines plus tard, c’est surtout Pascal(e) qui me reste en tête.
Les personnages ont pour particularité d’être Québécois·es et j’avoue avoir été ravie de retrouver noms et expressions typiques de la Belle Province (je mettrai toutefois un bémol sur la traduction, qui aurait à mon avis mérité une révision québécoise pour les dialogues : voir des personnages utiliser parfois des expressions typiquement franco-françaises telles que « faire la grasse mat’ », ça m’a un peu sortie du roman). Le choix de personnages québécois ne me semble pas purement gratuit, parce que le récit de la colonisation de Vénus rappelle beaucoup celle de la Nouvelle-France au 16e-17e siècle : l’implantation dans un nouveau territoire aux conditions de vie plus qu’hostiles, la fracture sociale entre la haute atmosphère au rythme de vie citadin et les coureurs des vents directement inspirés des coureurs des bois, la mainmise des banques anglophones sur la circulation des ressources… A priori, il ne manquerait que les relations avec les Autochtones (on a des formes de vie locales avec les chalutiers, mais le parallèle n’a pas l’air très pertinent…)
En bref, une superbe lecture à laquelle je reprocherais peut-être un découpage narratif un peu étrange. C’est peut-être parce qu’il s’agit du premier tome d’un diptyque, bien que l’histoire se suffise à elle-même. J’espère en tout cas pouvoir lire la suite bientôt. D’ici là, j’irai me consoler en allant (finalement!) lire Le Magicien quantique en me demandant pourquoi je ne l’ai pas fait plus tôt.
March 23, 2021
I would like to thank Solaris Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book for free. I would also like to thank Lisa for leading me to Derek Kunsken’s work.
So, you think life on Earth is hard? Imagine living around Venus. No one lives on the surface of Venus. Conditions are much too harsh. The rain that falls from the various levels of clouds above the planet is sulfuric acid and the temperature on the surface will cook you. The Quebecois folk who make up the colonists there live above the planet in giant habitats that float in the winds of the upper atmosphere. George-Etienne D’Aquillons lives with his sons, Jean-Eudes and Pascal(e) and his grandson, Alexis, on the Causapscal-des-Profondeurs. His other son, Emile, and daughter, Marthe, live on the Causapscal-des-Vents. Everything is shared, re-used and rebuilt and don’t even think of going outside without double-checking your space suit and helmet. Like many families, not all of the D’Aquillons get along, but their family ties remain strong. When George-Etienne and Pascal investigate the surface (two of only a dozen or so people to actually visit the surface), they discover a cave with enough resources to make them rich many times over. Their problem is how to mine and extract the minerals there without everyone on the planet wanting to take their find away from them. I believe this was the first scifi story I’ve ever read which takes place around Venus. I enjoyed it very much. There was lots of action, some romance, and a lot of conspiring. Both the story and the characters were great. I especially liked 16-year-old engineer, Pascal, who just wants to feel good about himself. I thought his story was written with a lot of sensitivity. It actually seemed like a lot of the inhabitants of the giant floating habitats just wanted to feel good about themselves, but not all of them will survive to do so. I thought this was a very exciting story. I had a hard time putting it down and I will be looking forward to Mr. Kunsken’s continuation of the D’Aquillons’s story (and not just so that I can learn more ways to swear in French).
So, you think life on Earth is hard? Imagine living around Venus. No one lives on the surface of Venus. Conditions are much too harsh. The rain that falls from the various levels of clouds above the planet is sulfuric acid and the temperature on the surface will cook you. The Quebecois folk who make up the colonists there live above the planet in giant habitats that float in the winds of the upper atmosphere. George-Etienne D’Aquillons lives with his sons, Jean-Eudes and Pascal(e) and his grandson, Alexis, on the Causapscal-des-Profondeurs. His other son, Emile, and daughter, Marthe, live on the Causapscal-des-Vents. Everything is shared, re-used and rebuilt and don’t even think of going outside without double-checking your space suit and helmet. Like many families, not all of the D’Aquillons get along, but their family ties remain strong. When George-Etienne and Pascal investigate the surface (two of only a dozen or so people to actually visit the surface), they discover a cave with enough resources to make them rich many times over. Their problem is how to mine and extract the minerals there without everyone on the planet wanting to take their find away from them. I believe this was the first scifi story I’ve ever read which takes place around Venus. I enjoyed it very much. There was lots of action, some romance, and a lot of conspiring. Both the story and the characters were great. I especially liked 16-year-old engineer, Pascal, who just wants to feel good about himself. I thought his story was written with a lot of sensitivity. It actually seemed like a lot of the inhabitants of the giant floating habitats just wanted to feel good about themselves, but not all of them will survive to do so. I thought this was a very exciting story. I had a hard time putting it down and I will be looking forward to Mr. Kunsken’s continuation of the D’Aquillons’s story (and not just so that I can learn more ways to swear in French).
October 14, 2020
I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
The House of Styx was a pretty interesting read. I mean how cool would it be to live on Venus? Pretty freaking awesome if you ask me. On this planet, we get to see the colonist work, eat, and live. It was pretty cool to figure out how they harvest oxygen because that isn't something that I would automatically think of.
The one thing that I had a like/dislike relationship with was the wording. It was nice of the author to go into such great detail about certain things but at the same time I just felt like piles and piles of information were being dumped on top of me. My poor brain hurt that I had to take a breather, or two, just to digest everything my eyes saw.
Then on top of that, I couldn't really connect with any of the characters in this book. I really wanted to but it just never happened. Besides being disappointed about that, it was just an okay book with some frustrating parts.
The House of Styx was a pretty interesting read. I mean how cool would it be to live on Venus? Pretty freaking awesome if you ask me. On this planet, we get to see the colonist work, eat, and live. It was pretty cool to figure out how they harvest oxygen because that isn't something that I would automatically think of.
The one thing that I had a like/dislike relationship with was the wording. It was nice of the author to go into such great detail about certain things but at the same time I just felt like piles and piles of information were being dumped on top of me. My poor brain hurt that I had to take a breather, or two, just to digest everything my eyes saw.
Then on top of that, I couldn't really connect with any of the characters in this book. I really wanted to but it just never happened. Besides being disappointed about that, it was just an okay book with some frustrating parts.
January 5, 2024
De la hard sci-fi comme je l'aime. J'ai absolument adoré l'univers créé par l'auteur, qui nous fait découvrir Vénus sous un nouvel angle et apporte plein de concepts intéressants et originaux pour décrire sa colonisation. L'histoire prend du temps à démarrer, mais le tout finit par accélérer dans la deuxième moitié. J'ai aussi bien aimé l'aspect drame familial qui occupe une bonne partie du roman.
May 17, 2020
The House of Styx drops us onto planet Venus where in the future Quebec has finally declared independence from Canada and taken to the stars. For the most part I found this a really enjoyable book and the idea of a quite literal cloud city was fun to imagine. Because of the wild west nature of space exploration there is plenty of intrigue both political and apparently financial which should be developed in upcoming books. I was also really pleased to see some queer representation, thoughtfully handled. I did feel at times that the technical aspects were a little heavy handed and I found myself skimming these once I was familiar with the environment as I'm not sure I really needed to know or would even understand so much shifting information. I also found the name Styx for the family to be an odd choice when literally everything else is so solidly Quebecoix. Maybe as a title it was just snappier but I found it jarring and the explanation sparse. It is the family connection that I found most interesting though, so I expect this will make me return to Venus in future.
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