Rosebud

by Paul Cornell

“An elegant, elegiac examination of identity, fictionality, God and humanity itself”—Tamsyn Muir

A multilayered, locked-room science fiction novella from Paul Cornell in which five digital beings unravel their existences to discover the truth of their humanity.

“The crew of the Rosebud are, currently, and by force of law, a balloon, a goth with a swagger stick, some sort of science aristocrat possibly, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects.”

When five sentient digital beings—condemned for over three hundred years to crew the small survey ship by the all-powerful Company—encounter a mysterious black sphere, their course of action is obtain the object, inform the Company, earn lots of praise.

But the ship malfunctions, and the crew has no choice but to approach the sphere and survey it themselves. They have no idea that this object—and the transcendent truth hidden within—will change the fate of all existence, the Company, and themselves.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Science Fiction, Novella, Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Time Travel, Adult

96 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 26, 2022

About the author

Paul Cornell is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy prose, comics and television. He's been Hugo Award-nominated for all three media, and has won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, and the Eagle Award for his comics. He's the writer of Saucer Country for Vertigo, Demon Knights for DC, and has written for the Doctor Who TV series. His new urban fantasy novel is London Falling, out from Tor on December 6th.

via Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cor...

Reviews

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany)]

If bizarre, abstract sci-fi akin to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is your thing, then you should check out Rosebud. Unfortunately it really isn't mine and I didn't particularly enjoy reading this. It's a novella about the crew of a spaceship, except that the ship is super tiny and the crew are mostly AI with unusual forms (like a bunch of hands, or a balloon). They encounter a mysterious sphere and try to investigate, but things get weird with space, time, and memory.

The setting is a dystopian, capitalist, conservative future where queer people are even more oppressed than they are now. And I appreciate the nods to addressing things like trans identity, but it's all scattered within this bizarre and somewhat nonlinear story that didn't really hit for me. That said, some readers love this sort of thing, so if that's you, maybe give it a shot. I received an advance copy of this book for review via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

[Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a lot of big feelings about this tiny book, mainly centered around how while I think Cornell has some interesting ideas, the hope-tinged ending doesn't necessarily pull everything together, and I also wasn't prepared to witness a trans woman being executed by the state and it bummed me out a lot. One's expected motley crew of space travelers includes sentient digital constructs who manifest as, for example, a ball of hands, a swarm of insects, and an enraged balloon. During the course of their unexplained indentured "work" for the Company, they run across a weird space ball, automatically assume that it's a bad scene as one naturally should, and experience some ship malfunctions and memory losses that cement that assumption. I don't know if I fully understood the function of the space ball beyond its role in advancing the plot; during their interactions with it, we learn why these constructs are being punished on the Rosebud through flashbacks that are intriguing (Bob), confusing (Haunt), and upsetting (Diana, Quin, Huge). The space ball seems like it has a benevolent, perhaps even revolutionary purpose and it can manipulate time in a manner I found extremely cool, but I think I would've appreciated a few more pages to flesh things out, especially Haunt's ambiguous last thoughts.

[inciminci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five AI's which have been living for centuries on a survey ship in the service of the all powerful “Company” encounter a mysterious black sphere. In their attempt at communicating with and eventually capturing it, they go through a quite particular experience, which will lead them back to their own roots and the nature of things in general.
Don't be fooled by numbers – astonishingly, this small novella is heavy food for thought. I thought I'd fly through this small book but found myself pondering and re-reading many parts and generally enjoyed this quiet, subtly humorous but also partly sad and scary story.

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
This is such a smart, quirky novella. There are some fantastic lines within this little book, but I'm not sure I "got" everything in this one. It's hard to rate when I'm not sure if it's me or the book.

[ReadingWryly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/4 stars

"A scream disguised as a giggle," a blurb by Peter Watts, is the perfect way to describe this hopeful sci-fi novella. The characters in this story are the stars of the show, each distinct and formidable in their own right, they will weasel their way into your heart.

The themes are everything "now," even though it is sci-fi and set in a dystopian future. It is very much a mirror into what our current social and political struggles could, and do represent. The more you get to know the characters and understand how they've ended up on this ship together, the more you are forced to acknowledge the parallels between our world and theirs.

This was an extremely quick read at 107 pages, though I will admit I had to read the final chapter three times before I understood what had actually happened. The ending would have been more impactful were it slightly more straight forward in regard to the verbiage used in wrapping up the story. I also had a bit of a hard time comprehending the writing style and sentence structuring, which slowed me down at first. There is an aggressive use of punctuation which took some getting used to, but after about 20 pages or so I had it down.

Overall this was an extremely creative way to tell an important story, and it's definitely worth the read!

[Tammy - Books, Bones & Buffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The nitty-gritty: An unusual sci-fi mystery with quirky characters, Rosebud is both entertaining and mind-bending.

I’ve read some weird books in my time, but Rosebud might be the very weirdest! And I say that with fondness, because I really did enjoy it. Paul Cornell takes ideas like how an individual's history shapes them, mixes in absurdist humor, adds a splash of high concept hard SF ideas, and creates strange but lovable characters. Somehow it all worked, although I’m not sure how!

The story revolves around the exploratory vessel Rosebud, which is only 1mm wide (yes, I thought that was a typo in my ARC but no, this is a TINY spaceship!) The Rosebud is crewed by five digital individuals with different appearances: a balloon named Bob, a ball of hands named Huge, a goth named Haunt, a swarm of insects named Quin and a transwoman named Diana. When the Rosebud and its crew encounter a strange black sphere, they decide to investigate. What follows is an odd adventure with time jumps, forgotten memories and plenty of self discovery.

The story is rather light on plot and focuses instead on ideas and the characters, and the characters and humor were by far my favorite element. As I was reading, I was imagining this odd group of individuals as existing on a real ship. But when you stop to think about the size of the Rosebud and therefore the size of its inhabitants, you can imagine things turn bizarre very quickly. It was better for me to imagine what each one looked like and how they interacted in real space with each other. All five characters have been crewing the Rosebud for 300 years, so they know each other pretty well. The dialog is hysterically funny, and I especially loved Bob, who loves to swear:

"I'm really gonna fuck something up," says Bob. "I will find something. And...I...will...fuck it up."
"You almost certainly will," agrees. Diana.

There are some nice emotional moments, especially when Diana remembers how she was persecuted for going against her assigned gender. One of the other characters “sees” an old family photo, which triggers a feeling of sorrow for them. I loved these glimpses into the emotional memories of the characters, who are really nothing but digital data in their present state.

The story is a bit of a mystery, as the crew is trying to figure out what the sphere is and why it appeared to them. The reader is just as much in the dark as the characters are—why does the sphere seem to evoke long buried memories about their lives before they came aboard the Rosebud? Are these real flashbacks or merely alternate lives? By the end of the story, the characters seem have a better understanding of their place in the universe, although I was hoping for a bit more clarity. 

Still, I enjoyed the journey, and now I’m curious to read more from Paul Cornell.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

[Gabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a delightfully weird little story about a very diverse crew onboard a 1 mm patrol space ship that finds a BDO (in this case a very small one) onboard of which they have to face some cruel facts about themselves.
(warning: extreme trans- and homophobic inworld experience)

[Ivo Stoyanov · Rating 2 out of 5]

Книгата определно не ми хареса, изкуствен интелект екипаж е пратен на мисия ,открива тъмна сфера .Звучи интерсно малко в стил Кларк и Галактическия стопаджия, но после следва греда и общо взето нищо не се случва.

[cycads and ferns · Rating 4 out of 5]

The crew of the spaceship Rosebud surveyed and collected particles on Saturn for their employer, the Solar Company, for the last three hundred years. Five digital beings form the crew: the goth, Haunt; a ball of human hands, Huge if True; the scientific autocrat, Diane; a swarm of insects, Quin; and a ballon, Bob. One day, the Rosebud detects a black sphere and the crew decides to investigate the alien object, hoping to curry favor with their employer.

“…if they put a foot wrong. If the Company misinterpret their loyal boldness as wilfulness. That's why, in all their time out here, they haven't put a foot at all. After all, several of them put several feet wrong, back in the day. And they're all still living down the shame.”

The five digital crew members assume five printed physical bodies and upon contact with the black sphere experiences a sense of deja vu. The crew finds themselves back on the Rosebud, repeats the discussion about whether to contact the sphere, and heads out to explore the foreign object again. Eventually, Quin detects a difference between the lived memories of the crew and the external backup memories of the many journeys to and contacts with the sphere.

“But we also back up our memory…and run our moment-by-moment selves off that, and…the memory there does not match with what you are all saying, and it does not match our own memories here!”

The crew concludes that with each contact, the sphere reviews their memories and assesses their actions to detect possible threats.

“It’s like a macro version of the Schrodinger’s cat thought experiment. The ship is both here and not here, and if the bad thing doesn’t happen, it decides to have been there all along, but if it does happen, then it chooses to not have been there. A totally passive but highly effective defence system.”

The five crew members’ past lives are revealed, including crucial “ missteps” that explain their current digital forms and resulting contracts with the Solar Company. Because contact with the alien object returns the members to a previous point in their lives, the crew members consider possible ways to change their present condition and the future uses the Solar Company will find for the black sphere.

The novella explores themes such as fear and free will, bigotry and personal identity, and the nature of work. Haunt believes he “loves the Company. He can’t help but do so. His heart is copyrighted to them.…” While after reliving his past lives, Bob says, “And I never asked to be sentient, I could have done fine without, but central thought it was better in those days. So you're a person who gets chucked from what they're about, chucked from what they're meant to do, from satisfying work and a life away from work that’s what you live for, and you’re put somewhere you don’t live for and didn’t ask for, and they’ve made you into….”

As Haunt, Huge, Diane, Quin, and Bob makes contact with and then enters the maze-like structure of the sphere, the story becomes nonlinear, including fragments of individual memories and disjointed vignettes. Though accounts of the crew member’s past lives were tragic, the story was also at times quite humorous and even absurd. Haunt, in the digital form of Christopher Lee’s Dracula, encounters Santa Clause within the black sphere. He thinks, “It seems odd to feel afraid in a simulation or game, but nevertheless it’s getting to him. He stands as tall as he can and wraps his cape around him, giving them an imperious glare. But he knows it’s all front. Where’s this going? Is Father Christmas going to fight Dracula?”

The novella ends with the existence of the Solar Company and the past lives and therefore the current lives of the crew members on the ship altered.

[Brian Clegg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paul Cornell is probably now best known as the author of excellent urban fantasies such as London Falling, but he is well grounded in writing science fiction and in this novella demonstrates the impressive range of his imagination. I need to say up front that Rosebud is a really interesting piece of writing, and the reason I've only given it three stars is that I am not sure that it works.

Rosebud is a tiny spacecraft, less than a millimetre across, crewed by five AI entities that we first meet in a range of forms from a goth to a sweary balloon to a creature constructed only of hands. These entities are already in an uncertain relationship with the distant Earth – now, more concerns are thrown their way by the arrival of what appears to be another tiny spaceship, perhaps of alien origin.

Over the years, very few SF books have successfully tackled truly alien protagonists. Here we have the alien but (to some extent) anthropomorphic AI entities plus that initially inscrutable new arrival. In tackling a topic like this, Cornell has really tried something extraordinary, which must be lauded. Sadly, though, for me the experiment didn’t work. Perhaps the reason that we don’t usually get truly alien protagonists is that they are difficult to identify with. I couldn’t engage with the AI characters – in fact I nearly gave up reading half way though. I’m glad I persevered, but for me the process of working through this novella was more an intellectual reward than true enjoyment.

It probably doesn’t help that, presumably as part of underlining that alien feel, we are thrown in at the deep end at the start, and in the interaction with the new micro-ship, it’s quite difficult to follow what is happening. Another potential issue is the use of the easily misunderstood physics concept of time crystals, which are nowhere near as impressive as they sound, as a MacGuffin. I don’t require totally solid science in SF – it’s the ‘fiction’ part that’s key, but this is a topic where the science itself is extremely obscure, so it piles on extra potential for a lack of engagement. (It was also somewhat eyebrow raising that somehow the AI’s were able to assume nano-scale human bodies – biological organisms simply can’t physically scale to that degree – but that’s more the traditionally acceptable face of unlikely science in science fiction.)

I don’t want to put anyone off trying Rosebud. It’s daring and original. But it wasn’t for me.

[L (Nineteen Adze) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I planned to think more about this one, but then realized I've forgotten the names of half the cast. On reflection, this is still about 2 stars for something that's not at all my taste and feels clumsily executed.

There are some good elements, particularly in the way the Company controlling this little ship feels so oppressive even when it's far away. These characters have corporate Company propaganda in their heads that forces them to think (or say) loyal boilerplate if they drift too close to the wrong subjects or say anything that could possibly be construed as negative. They're not safe even in their own heads, so there's a real sense of desperation about having glimpses of mental freedom in between remote updates.

I also think there could have been something great here in the background of these characters, particularly in the contrasts. Most of the group is oppressed humans who were forced into this digital format as a punishment for being queer, polyamorous, or otherwise undesirable. Haunt, our narrator, is more of a composite: he's the leftover echo of a video game action hero personality. This could have been fascinating with a rotating POV where those diverging histories created more friction. Instead, we're mostly in Haunt's head and only see secondhand flashbacks of the most traumatic moments in the other characters' lives that led them to this oppressive Company life (including a grim execution scene).

Unfortunately, I'm left mostly with my initial impressions. The story spends a lot of time on digital avatars and new physical bodies as a shorthand for inner character, but the emotional impact of moments like "this is why I was forced to be a ball of hands" just didn't hit for me. With more time to explore these characters and their world, or a shorter piece that focused on just a few characters, this could have been fascinating-- as it is, trying to develop all five characters in this space led to a rushed-checklist mood at the end.

If you like your sci-fi with a heavy touch of surrealism, this one might be a better fir for you.

Content warnings: moderate; this isn't gory, but there's some grim discussion of state-sanctioned bigotry, including the backstory execution of a trans character.

//
First impression: I'm not sure what to make of this one. There are some good ideas here, but they're scattered among the kind of surreal imagery that often lands as "weird for the sake of weirdness" for me. It felt like this needed to be either shorter (like a novelette) or a multi-POV longer novel to build investment in these characters. To me, there was way too much time spent describing all five crew members' weird digital bodies and then the other physical bodies that they shift to to explore a strange ship-- it just takes up so much space in proportion to the actual plot. There's a lot of imagery and some science-babble over how stuff works, but it mostly feels choppy and disorienting.

This would be a good afternoon read, since it's barely 100 pages. I just had to stop in the middle to squeeze in some book club short fiction, which unfortunately only highlighted the lack of investment in these characters: it's easy to forget or not care who's who if you put it down for too long. RTC.

Other recommendations:
- For a different sample of Cornell's style, try Witches of Lychford, a novella about witches defending a small English town against subtle attacks.
- If you like the surreal writing style and the critique of an oppressive system from people trapped on an isolated spaceship, try The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century. It's a fascinating little novella that does a better job with strange events across many POVs, in my opinion.
- If you enjoyed the structure of the ending, you might like the space opera Some Desperate Glory, which also does some unusual things with time and memories.

[Allie Rotkin · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 ⭐️… wtf did I just read

[Shannon Miz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosebud is such a bizarre little story! I won't lie to you, I am still not sure I completely get it? But I enjoyed the characters, and the commentary, so overall it was a win. I don't usually like not knowing what the heck is happening in a book, but I think this one was more or less supposed to make the reader feel that way, so I was able to live with it. In other words, it didn't necessarily make me feel stupid just because I didn't wholly get it, and I am a fan of that.

The five consciousnesses that compose the crew of the ship are not there of their own free will, but they are forced to work for the powerful Company for hundreds of years. And we find that they have been conscripted into this existence because of their identities. Those identities seemingly didn't jibe with whatever the Company deemed acceptable, hence this punishment. It is obviously upsetting and wildly unfair, but the author does a tremendous job of making you feel how unjust this is, which is the commentary I am here for.

I don't want to say too much, because at its core, the story is certainly a mystery. The reader is uncovering facets of the world and the crew just as the crew is. They have forgotten so much of their pasts, and as they seek answers about the unknown sphere, they also seek answers about their own lives and their own world. They do so with a lot of humor and heart.

Bottom Line: A delightfully kooky ride with a lot of serious commentary to boot.

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosebud was super creative and bizarre and unlike anything I’ve read before. This contained a lot of mind-bending science fiction that required a lot of stretching of my brain, and a lot of out-of-the-box and non-concrete thinking.

The only two authors I can think to compare this to are Douglas Adams, with his random hilarity, and Martha Well’s Murderbot Diaries series, as the characters in this book are somewhat of a cross between AI and humanity. Overall an entertaining and quick read, coming in at 107 pages!

Thank you to Tordotcom for this gifted copy!!


⚠️Trigger Warnings: Violence against transgender people.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. :)

Novella? AI crew encountering mystery object in space? Peter Watts blurb?

I didn't really need any convincing when I purchased this recently. I don't think I was even aware of the LGBTQ+ angle, which is prominent, to say the least.

The book opens with a trigger warning:

"Please note, this book includes a depiction of in-universe institutionalized transphobia that may be triggering for some readers."

The setup is we have a crew of AIs aboard what's basically a sort of mining ship, cruising through Saturn's rings and nudging valuable stuff toward its eventual collection by "the Company". The ship itself is not a character and not meant to be sentient as far as I can tell.

The setting is a dystopia. A very hellish dystopia for LGBTQIA people in particular, with more in common with V for Vendetta than Watts' Blindsight. Worse before the company replaced governments than after perhaps, but still very bad.

Various governments before the Company existed didn’t like such as those in the picture being thought capable of romance. And the Company rather put all such laws aside and ceased to fetishize them, while . . . leaving them in place.

I'm not sure how much to say about it, because the gradual reveal of the characters' identities and backstories are really the delight here. It's very much a story of identity and free will and conditioning. The "contact" portion is interesting and provides some important plot mechanics, but is not the star of the show.

The viewpoint character is named Haunt:

Haunt loves the Company. He can’t help but do so. His heart is copyrighted to them. But he’s also such a rebel, an exciting loner who lives for adventure. So he hates the contorted feelings flooding him now, feelings of drama rather than adventure. The media he consumes contain both sensations, or at least they did for a certain time in human media history, when years still had so many numbers attached to them. But he doesn’t like it when it starts to feel like those emotions have anything to do with him.

See that "He can't help but do so." That's literal. These "AI" people are enslaved and don't even have complete control of their own thoughts.

Haunt is perhaps the least traumatized of the crew. The formerly biological ones did not become AIs of their own free will.

A brief who's who of some of the crew in spoiler tags, not all, and honestly I'd recommend going in without even knowing this much:


Haunt: sentient character from an old video game.

Bob: sentient Russian troll bot.

Quin: a swarm of bees. no, I mean literally, not just in appearance.

I'm not going to say anything about Huge or Diana.


There's a happy ending. :)

[Alex Sarll]

Paul Cornell clearly liked the short-novel-which-lots-of-people-insist-on-calling-novella length he used for the Lychford series, because he deploys it again for his new SF outing – and thank heavens publishing economics now allow that, because I can easily picture the saggy slog Rosebud would have become if stretched to twice or thrice this natural length, or how much impact would have been lost were it a short story. Advanced blurbs included praise from the likes of Tamsyn Muir, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Daniel Abraham, but for the front cover he's gone with the more niche, less buzzy Peter Watts. Still, you can see why: "A scream disguised as a giggle" is the perfect summary. Think Watts' Freeze-Frame Revolution, but replayed as a sitcom performed at gunpoint. “The crew of the Rosebud are, currently, and by force of law, a balloon, a goth with a swagger stick, some sort of science aristocrat possibly, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects." And if you think that's ridiculous, just wait until they need bodies for a mission off the ship. Like so many SF crews before them, they're exploring space on behalf of the Company when they find something deeply puzzling out in the black. However, in defiance of science fiction convention but compliance with dull old science, both the ship itself and the mysterious object it's investigating are microscopic. Which is not to say the discoveries of big dumb object stories are unavailable here; between how much of the story takes place in digital spaces and the exotic technologies in play, there's plenty of exploring to be done. At times the story feels like the Metaverse if it weren't just a place for Zuckerberg to look even creepier – but was still a dystopian vision of corporate control lightly sheathed in a veneer of user choice. The crew are all coded to love the Company, even if some of them have set the obligatory thoughts to fast-forward, this being about the closest to actual rebellion permitted even to the designated rebel – at least until something goes awry. One thing which surprised me was that the book has a trigger warning for incidents of in-world transphobia, which are present and horrible (and to my mind not even that necessary: we already get that the corporate regime is nightmarish, but if anything I'd find it even more plausible as the sort of behemoth happy to profit off Pride branding while the world goes to shit). But there's no equivalent warning regarding coercion or gaslighting, both much more prevalent, with none of the characters' thoughts entirely their own and even their memories not to be trusted.

Now, unless one is dealing with the most recalcitrant litfic bores or genre traitors, it should obviously come as no surprise to say that science fiction can use non-human characters to say important things about the human condition. But – and again, this is where the Watts parallel is strong – what Cornell is mostly doing here is using our descendants to show us quite how wretched that condition is, a Larkinesque cycle of abuse passed down from prehistory to posthumanity, with the species' addiction to hierarchy a big part of it. Even our attempts to get around that proving predictably prone to grotesque failure; at one point a character looks upward "in the same way humans have always addressed assumed higher powers, which says a lot about where humans have always assumed they are on the food chain, when actually they're on top." This is not the first time I've seen the problem with the whole punching up/down discourse, namely that everyone on some level thinks they're the underdog, but this was one of the times I've really felt it as a cold hand in my chest. One way or another, the characters all turn out to have origins tied to the stupid, nasty things that humans do when they feel threatened, which is always. This is a future where we've got a little further out, though not beyond the solar system, because we're stupid chimps who lack the attention span, though maybe that's for the best, because we're still fucking up everything we touch: "there is global warming on Mars now. And there are whole moons which have vanished into the furnaces of Earth. And there is only so much water in comets." Set against that, the faint hope of the crew that they might actually have made that elusive, definite, first contact, although "over the centuries Haunt has watched the human condition, the condition of actual humans, as it went from hoping and dreading alien contact in equal measure to feeling...he thinks as a mass they no longer feel they deserve it. That aliens would be disappointed in them." Hopefully it isn't a spoiler to note that certain themes from Cornell's Saucer Country recur in what follows, but either way, all of it is told from the point of view of the Earth-descended. "And so here he is, partly written and partly accidental. Here they all are. Ridiculous. Suspended. Falling toward a thing from somewhere else with only an enormous pile of inherited trivia to protect them, trivia they do not own but have adopted and wear wrapped around them as if it could possibly keep them warm." Relatable content, in other words. In an interview about the book, Cornell said "I always have felt the future is better than the past, on a personal basis, and that dystopias are just hurdles on the way to better things", and by the end the story does work around to that, but I confess that's not what will stay with me from Rosebud, not least because the elements required for the resolution seem so much further beyond our reach than the ones already leading us towards the preceding horrorshow.

Anyway, that was a massive downer, wasn't it? So instead, let's finish up on the bit where Cornell spells bagsy 'bagsee' instead. Post-human argot, or regional variation? Either way, it ain't right (I say in jest, having just finished a novel which reminds us how we're such a nasty pack of beasts that that sort of sentiment can so easily lead to centuries of bloodshed – would 'bagsee' really be much dafter than 'filioque'?).

[Runalong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this on the surface bright and weird tale that has a darker side as to the horrible world that all our characters live in. Well worth a look

Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...

[Chessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a strange, absurd, and fun little novella! I kind of kept wishing for a cast of characters list in the beginning (possibly illustrated??) because even though there are only 5 characters, they all start out as digital AI representations and are…*quite* diverse in their representations (ball of hands named Huge If True, Huge for short, looking at you) 😅 . It didn’t help that I kept putting this one down and picking it up later and going, “Wait, which one is the swarm of insects and which one is the balloon?”

If you like the big ideas of science fiction, meta-verse/time travel and choices vs fate, I think this one fits the bill. It sounds heavy, but the execution is just kind of wonder-filled and cheeky-funny.

Thanks to Tordotcom and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review. All views mine alone.

[Celia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read some strange books in my time but this one takes the cake. Don't get me wrong, I love weird things and I enjoyed this one a lot. Paul Cornell's writing had me smiling (that's good because it's been a hard two weeks) This book is light on the plot and focuses more on the characters. I'd say it's hard to pack emotional moments into a 100-page book, but Paul manages to do it. This creative book will make your brain stretch, in a good way!

[Whitney (SecretSauceofStorycraft)]

Honestly— wtf. I found this story too obscure and absurdist. Tried too hard. Poor payoff, poor plot. Not for me.

[Rachel (Kalanadi) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Tad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A balloon, a goth, a science aristocrat, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects walk onto a spaceship. Stop me if you've heard this one before. Well, that's unlikely since this premise sprang from the fertile mind of Paul Cornell in Rosebud.
Five digital beings are on a small spaceship in the outer part of the solar system, surveying rocks and sending useful items back towards the earth when they encounter a mysterious black sphere. Ordinarily, they would receive specific instructions on how to proceed, but communication with the Company has been cut off and they are on their own.

The crew decides to survey the sphere, which proves to be a little more complicated than anticipated. The sphere changes what they believe about themselves, and perhaps holds secrets about all of humanity.

Rosebud is a short novella with big ideas. The crew is interesting not only in their physical appearance but in their personalities and personal histories. The object they encounter forces them to look deep inside themselves as well as examine all of humanity. The mood shifts from light to dark and back again throughout. The novella is short, but it is not a quick read. The ideas are densely packed and this is a story you won't soon forget.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.

[Hobart · Rating 3 out of 5]

★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up) This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader in a quick takes catch-up post, emphasizing pithiness, not thoroghness.
---
I...I just don't know what to say about this. It's a clever premise, and Cornell (as one expects) writes well—there are some nice sentences throughout. Basically...I should be singing the praises of this one.

And yet...

I can't. I don't know why, but I could not convince myself that I was enjoying this. I just didn't respond to any of it. I've been a fan of Cornell's for years, this is just a blip, I'm sure, and I'll be gung-ho about his next work. But this just wasn't for me.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this courtesy of NetGalley. It's out in April 2022.

Well that was... a ride.

Cornell's novella follows in a trend from the last few years of exploring issues of humanity through the lens of AIs. I mean, I know that authors have pretty much always been exploring what it means to be human through the medium of the robot, right back to Metropolis; but I feel like it's somehow become more pointed, or nuanced, or something, in the last 5 or so years. Maybe I'm just being shortsighted; maybe I can blame Murderbot for this perception.

Anyway, Rosebud is a spacecraft orbiting Saturn - a spacecraft about 1mm in diameter, crewed by five AIs of varying (and really very varying) provenance. They encounter an anomaly, and they investigate. In doing so, they are confronted both by their own identities, as memories are brought to the fore, and by the consequences of the anomaly - what it's doing to them and what it might mean for the humans back on Earth. To investigate, the AIs are forced to be embodied - and as is generally the case, bodies have consequences.

I can't quite describe the style this is written in. It's present tense; it's third person, but the POV favours one character, Haunt, in particular. It also feels more spoken, I think, than written; perhaps formalised internal monologue? For instance: "That's how this is supposed to do. Doing it on their own is above their pay grades. Not that they're paid. This is big people stuff" (p14). It's certainly very readable - I powered through it in a sitting, despite some of their narrative weirdness that occurs thanks to the anomaly. There's some amusing banter between the five characters - they are very different, with wildly different expectations and desires and perspectives, and they're not always interested in cooperating with each other.

If you're a fan of Paul Cornell, this will probably work very well for you. It's not my favourite Cornell (that would be the Lychford series), but I'm certainly glad I got a chance to read it.

[Drea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I THINK this is a 3.75 star book but I’m not sure. It’s good, I love the nonlinear storytelling, and the anti capitalist message was presented well. I love weird, I love scifi, I love a good message, and I love creativity. But there’s something about this story that does not reach the highs it could.

It’s the characters I’m having a bit of problem with, in that this form of storytelling does not allow for in-depth exploration.
- I was also not a big fan of the balloon being a right wing troll? I'm confused by the message the author is trying to present with that one in particular.

I am also unsure if it was necessary to explicitly show us the murder of a trans woman . I understand the impact it is meant to have, but it leaves a bad taste in your mouth when it is the ONLY instance of graphic violence on page.

Also, it was missing the humor that is so key to stories like Hitchhikers Guide. It has the weird, but it could’ve gone further with the funny.

TW: Transphobia (death of trans character), murder, death, torture, incarceration, homophobia, slavery, violence, gaslighting.

[S.E. Martens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, despite the short length, this story has a lot going on and it took me a few days to read, but in the end I really appreciate it. I'm familiar with Cornell's work from his writing on Doctor Who, and there are definitely elements here that reminded me of that. But it is also wildly original and stands completely on its own!

Set on a tiny spaceship that is crewed by five disparate AIs - some of which began their existence as living human beings, others started off as videogame characters, or social media bots who gained sentience. Now, trapped in a digital existence, they have been pressed into indentured servitude by the "Company."

"The crew of the Rosebud are, currently - and by force of law - a balloon, a goth, some sort of science aristocrat possibly, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects."

At a certain point, the characters take on physical bodies to better navigate their situation. So, we have Haunt, who starts off as a sort of goth rebel cowboy figure and becomes Dracula (specifically as played by Christopher Lee.) Bob is a foul-mouthed purple balloon who takes the form of a tiger-man. Algonquin Systems Pristine Sound Megasphere Pantomime Hardy the Third (Quin) is a swarm of insects that takes the form of a single giant wasp. Huge If True (Huge) is a ball of hands who takes the body of the painter Bob Ross for their mission.

Their mission? They've come across a strange sphere in space - is it pirates? Spies? Aliens? The sphere appears to operate a probability wave, meaning "it can shift the probabilities and either move away unseen, or, if it's safe, it can collapse the probability and reveal it was 'there all along.'" This is the sort of wibbly-wobbely stuff that definitely made me think of Doctor Who.

The AIs also begin to remember their origins and it leads to some pretty devastating and horrifying revelations as we learn just how dystopian this future is and the characters must grapple with what they will do. It was really interesting and I would love to read a sequel, or something else set in the same universe.

[LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Five sentient digital beings form the crew of a small survey ship that has been sent out by the Company to explore and report its findings back to the Company. They encounter a mysterious black sphere that they know they must report. However, something seems to be happening to their perceptions of time and reality.

This got on my radar due to its sentient digital beings. It initially comes across like a very quirky read - as digital beings, the crew members can present themselves pretty much however they'd like, so one of them is a foul-mouthed balloon, another is a ball of hands, and yet another one is a swarm of wasps. As readers learn about them, their situation, and their relationship to the Company, it becomes apparent that there's some self-editing going on, revealing darker undercurrents.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending. It felt like is was aiming for "happy" but presented from the viewpoint of the character with the least to be happy about.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

[Deborah Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The crew of the Rosebud are, currently, and by force of law, a balloon, a goth with a swagger stick, some sort of science aristocrat possibly, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects.” Although they’re not human, at least not in their current form, they’re most definitely people. And they’re fanatically devoted to The Company, which for 300 years has placed them out in the back acres of space. When they come upon a mysterious black sphere, they arrive at a plan, after much squabbling: to capture the object for the Company, thereby earning lots of praise.
But the object is not what anyone might expect; it has the ability manipulate probability and time-lines, thereby controlling the crew of the Rosebud by selecting the futures with the most benign outcomes. As the crew attempts to understand what’s happening to them, their own pasts are revealed, as well as the less-than-benign nature of the Company.

I loved how the crew figures out that their memories are unreliable and what the object doing. In the end, however, I found the “universe-changing” revelations opaque. I wanted to like and understand the story, but ended up just not getting it, which is never a good feeling to leave a reader with.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

i'm not particularly interested in science fiction that just doesn't care to be that observant. what do i care about the rich interior lives of all these not very interesting characters when almost nothing is happening around them. this story is set in like 3001 or some shit and everyone speaks like they're tweeting. i'm not asking for every pulpy trashy scifi novella i read to be the next roadside picnic or something just that the author puts in more then like 5 minutes thinking about what kind of world they're building. maybe include a story too

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the random weirdness of this well thought-out book. The characters were interesting. The message about a different earth and human beings treatment of earth and diversity and, it seemed to me, focus on video games.
It's quite a short story, so therefore it's like a snapshot of "their"lives.
Very interesting and unique concept... the only snag is, I'm not a Sci-Fi fan!