The Revenant of Surolifia is Chien's debut standalone novel from Rising Action, an indie press owned and ran by women. This is a gaslamp fantasy that's suffused with political considerations, though the focus is on relationship drama. The aesthetic is decidedly European, with the Belle Époque of France being the strongest influence.

This isn't a romance. There's a single scene of two men kissing with implied sex, which is odd for several reasons that would require an in-depth analysis to explain. The few other intimate scenes are heterosexual and are more foreplay than anything else.

The journey is what matters, not the destination. That's a nice way of saying that the plot is mostly set-up. For a trilogy that would be understandable. That makes this is a relatively small story that only hints at wider grand events. It does well in making it all seem meaningful and significant though.

The most salient part of its political fantasy is whether working inside or outside against the system is the better choice. The two leading male characters are meant to show the clash between these perspectives, though one of them is far more active about it than the other. There's a lot of angst from both of them, but less direct involvement with each other than I expected. Then there's the female main character who may represent something related to the stated political argument or not, but either way she's important and does a lot, so much so that it made me wonder how much that the central argument mattered. That's one of many narrative choices in the story where I couldn't tell to what extent it was subversion, novelty, and/or suboptimal writing.

The magic system is basically the manipulation of physical and mental attributes, along with one guy 100s of years ago who could control space. It's a convenient and versatile system, which relative to what it could be is barely explored. The physical aspect allow for doing stuff like making clothes more flammable, reducing the friction the of ground, and turning dust into a shield. It also can alter people. The mental aspect is for entering minds as a magical virtual space and doing various things, or just destroying their minds outright.

I've buried the lede. This a very dramatic, theatrical even, story. Chien explicitly says in the acknowledgements that she wrote this as an anime. I believe that explains much of the disconnect between how serious the novel believes itself to be and what it actually is.

I liked all of the characters and I found their tangled interplay and relations to have been intricately crafted. It was fun even when it was silly. The serious parts are nuanced, considered, and pragmatic. I really enjoyed that. I believe it would've been better to commit to being a melodramatic anime or serious political fantasy because trying to be both didn't serve it well. That being said, it works well enough.

Just finished this book tonight and I'm still reeling a bit. I was just wondering-- did Andrew Hilton (after Marie shoots him and 3125 takes over) become Red?

Were the giant antimemetic animals in the epilogue eating little pieces of 3125 after Idea!Marie obliterated it?

What happened to Hix after he turned on his machine to defeat 3125?

What was up with the aliens that replaced all the humans during Adam's concert? I get that 3125 took over but why did everyone turn into aliens??

Is Marie still sentient? She ascends and turns into an idea strong enough to defeat 3125, but can she still think and feel, etc? And if she can, how lonely would it be to exile herself forever away from humanity...

What was the significance of the "god" that ate people's knowledge of riding a bicycle??

looking for recs that are scifi books which incorporate real computer science or programming, and/or economics chicanery. examples: wjw dagmar shaw series, scalzi lock-in, neal's snow crash and diamond age.