Things... do not go to plan.
Saraswati’s story is one of the two backbones of Interstellar Megachef by Lavanya Lakshminarayan.
The author hooks you in, with a book that looks and starts and has the outward appearance of a frothy and funny book. When I first heard about this book, saw the cover and started reading it, the book looked like it was going for Great British Bakeoff in space... or, to use genre comps, Catherynne Valente’s Space Opera meets Cat Rambo’s You Sexy Thing. Cooking... in spaaace, with a lot of fun and frivolity. A light read that I was going to devour with the relish of eating a dessert.
The book has that, from the get go and throughout, don’t get me wrong. Saraswati’s arrival on the planet Primus and her efforts to get to the show are played up in high comedy. She has a cute digital intelligence companion. There’s a meet cute with a high powered executive (our second point of view character, Serenity Ko). Saraswati seems to be doing things all so well. She gets to the show, and starts cooking.
And then the narrative, and even the book changes. It happens early so I am going to spoil it: she loses badly, and is the first chef eliminated, and it's not even close. Her practices (like cooking with fire, and with whole vegetables) are considered by the Primians to be barbaric, backward, dangerous and basically “primitive Earth human being Earth human”. Saraswati is devastated, but determined to not let it get her down. In the meantime, Serenity Ko’s latest venture in her space of virtual reality simulations has not gone very well either, and she has been given the equivalent of a two week sabbatical from work. She’s determined to get back in the game, too. We start with two main characters knocked down, but not out, in the first round.
And so while the rest of the novel shows how these two come back from their disasters and defeats (and wind up becoming reluctant and unexpected allies and partners), the novel keeps up the frivolity and fun, but starts seriously layering and bolstering the narrative and the worldbuilding with some serious thoughts about the nature of food. About cultural imperialism, dominance and where culture is from and what it is good for. About the roles and expectations of families, of society, of the power of found families. The author, while keeping the frivolity and tone often light and as easy to consume as a frothy glass of spiced eggnog, at the same time engages with some serious and important questions. She doesn’t even ask this only of the audience but the characters themselves, particularly our POV characters Saraswati and Serenity, face a lot of questions, confrontations and thoughts. It gives the whole book a whole deeper level that you would not expect if you just looked at the cover. (This is definitely a case of the cover being utterly deceptive). Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun and reading pleasure diving into this story. But it was the thought provoking questions, both asked and unasked, and some of them not answered at all, that really brought the book home for me and to me.
Lakshminarayan does this in a couple of ways. We learn things about Saraswati’s background that change and alter the narrative that we saw at the beginning. The author does it subtly at first, and then comes in with the “wham” of a spicy reveal or a turn in the plot and narrative that caused me to reassess what I’d learned about her so far. Saraswati’s history and background are far more complicated than we are led to expect at the beginning. So too, in a slightly lesser key, is Serenity Ko, whom we find has a background and a family tree that, when the reveal happens, is like the bloom of a flavor on one’s tongue that you didn’t notice before, and changes the entire meal in one bite. The gear shifts in going from subtle to unmistakable and back again are an excellent showcase of the author’s writing talents.
Next, the author raises these questions in the context of the narrative itself. Primus is the center of food and other human culture across the galaxy (Earth is a backwater in this day and age). Primians consider their culture, especially their approach to food, premiere and without reproach and supreme. And we get to learn, from both Serenity (as an insider who knows nothing about food but all about the history) and Saraswati (who knows food but not the cuisine of the planet) just what Primian food is all about, and why it is important to the culture of the planet. But it goes beyond just food, although food is the center. We get a whole view of Primian culture in general, human but different, evolved, changed. But it is in the reactions to that culture, and people’s considerations of their past, and their present, and the future of Primian cuisine... and culture that the author is asking some very pointed questions about our own society in the same vein. The lines are awfully easy to draw and we get a lot of food for thought, as it were, as the narrative unfolds. And there aren’t easy and pat answers, either, a real signifier as to the complexity of the narrative, and the situation on Primus... and our own modern day world as well.
Finally, the author brings this together with the culminating project that merges Saraswati and Serenity’s storylines. I don’t want to go into too much detail on this one, its an audacious idea that merges their talents. But it is an idea that brings up ethics and cultural questions, raised by other characters and also will be in the mind of the reader. It is a far cry from the light and frothy beginning at the start of the book, and the culmination of the project and ambition is left deliberately not clear and definitely ambiguous. The book is first in a series, and we left at sort of a stopping point but definitely in media res for the full narrative. I was left, though, with a lot of questions and thoughts about how I approach food, especially food from traditions not my own. In the delivering of a tasty and appealing work, Interstellar Megachef has unexpected, and very welcome, depth to it.
But let me say again, throughout and with all of this complexity, depth and richness of the SF narrative, the book is a pleasure and fun to read, not just in the beginning. There are moments of real tenderness, of high drama, and definitely of comedy. The novel is entertaining and a fantastic whirlwind of taste sensations throughout, and the sensory detail will make you hungry, even if little of this food is actually real. I tore through this book with the verve of me digging into a rich hot dish after a long day’s trek with photos, filling, sustaining and delicious. Interstellar Megachef is a fantastic work of speculative fiction and has, as I have thought about it after reading, firmly seated itself as one of my favorites of the year without question.
Highlights:
- Fun and frothy tone and start develops into wonderful complexity of narrative and theme
- Rich and decadent worldbuilding that ties into characters, location, family and cultures
- Excellent and immersive writing that brings the flavor of the narrative to your palate.
- Does not finish off in a neat and single serving.
Reference: Lakshminarayan, Lavanya, Interstellar Megachef, [Rebellion Publishing, 2024]
POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I'm just this guy, you know? @princejvstin
