Novella FIles: Local Star by Aimee Ogden

Subject: Local Star by Aimee Ogden [Interstellar Flight Press, 2021]

Accolades: N/A

Genre: Space Opera

Executive Summary: Triz is a guttergirl, an engineer who has risen from living in the uninhabitable sewers of her space station to having a stable job at the wrenchworks and a steady romantic relationship with Casne, a decorated war hero, and Casne's wife Nantha. Unfortunately, while out for drinks (and trying to avoid Kalo, Casne's fellow soldier and Triz's ex) Casne is arrested for a war crime she almost certainly didn't commit, and Triz is sure that this must be the work of the Cyberbionautic Alliance, a transhumanist terrorist force. Triz needs to prove Casne's innocence, a challenge which will push her well past her usual limits... and, of course, it'll involve teaming up with that pesky Kalo and confronting a few difficult truths about Triz's world and her place in it.

Assessment: On the surface, Local Star is a fast-paced, action packed adventure, full of conspiracies and twists and satisfyingly tropey scenes: Bonding with a gruff but ultimately (maybe) OK mechanic mentor! Horrible futuristic bureaucracies! Jailbreaks! Journeys through space station trash chutes! Zero Gravity Shenanigans! Near-death fakeouts! Within that adventure are a lot of satisfying trials and challenges that add depth to Triz and her world. The space station setting is comfortably familiar for the genre, but with enough flourishes of its own worldbuilding to make it feel distinctive, and Triz's marginalised upbringing and precarious current position gives us a unique perspective on its society, even as we see her move through the same spaces as Casne and her friends with little difficulty. The Cyberbionautic Alliance, or CeeBees, are a plausible, slightly two dimensional adversary force, but what makes them engaging is Triz's own prejudices against almost any form of cyborg body modification as a result of their existence. That's a challenging prejudice to hold when one of your girlfriends is trans and most of your friends are in the military and prone to serious injuries that require advanced prosthetics, and over the course of the novella we see her worldview evolve to something less absolute.

The novella's blurb and marketing puts polyamory at the centre of its description, and the different character relationships - particularly Triz, Casne and Nantha and Casne's parents, who are in a quad marriage - do a lot of work in relatively little space to show us how this works in practice, and what romance and family look like in a world where polyamory is the norm. As an orphan "guttergirl" who owes her current position to Casne's family (her position at the wrenchworks involves working with Casne's meanest and least emotionally open parent), Triz is constantly aware of the power inequalities between herself and Casne and Nantha, who had more privileged upbringings and went to the same flight school before they knew her, entering their shared romantic relationship with a bunch of history and shared experience that Triz is left out of. Instead of glossing over this dynamic, we are made aware that the characters ideally want to form a quad like Casne's parents, with a fourth person who would shift the balance of the relationship. That all of the characters approach this with openness and acceptance makes Local Star's romance elements really pleasant to read, and while Triz and Kalo's dynamic starts off painfully awkward, their bickering soon smooths into a fun adversarial dynamic - complete with a lot of learning about the others' background that apparently didn't happen during their first fling. I struggled to get a sense of what Triz and Kalo's first relationship would have been like just from their dynamic here, but their adventures together make the eventual end pairing a satisfying conclusion.

Local Star is a romp of a novella, and as such it offers few outright surprises, but its conspiratorial, mystery elements very much work as intended and it deploys its tropes very well. More than that, it's a great example of balancing effective worldbuilding, character beats and an action packed plot at a tasty novella length. Definitely one for sci fi romance fans to look out for! 

Score: 7/10

Microreview [Book]: Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters by Aimee Ogden

 A story that travels through land, sea, and space, evoking awe wherever it goes.

Space is often venerated in science fiction as an expanse full of many possibilities. Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters affirms that idea, but also proposes in some cases, the best possibility lies in being grounded where you are. There are still some boundaries that need to be crossed to attain happiness, but those boundaries lie in your identity and immediate proximity. You can cross from sea to land, change your genetic makeup to align with something else on your planet, or switch romantic partners, without being disoriented in dark, interstellar infinity. This is a novella that reaches for the stars, showing its impressive luminosity, while having its legs comfortably on the ground.

Atuale used to be a sea-dwelling person, and the daughter of a Sea-Clan lord. But she chose to change her genetic make-up and migrate to land, marrying a land dweller named Sareeval. Now a plague has wracked her husband and clan. She must go on a quest for a cure, along with her ex-lover Yanja, for help. Together, Atuale and Yanja explore the planets and the stars, with a lot of emotional baggage between the two of them.

The story doesn’t waste your time. It moves at a skillful pace, quickly laying its foundation, and then moves steadily as it satisfyingly plants information about its world while never feeling like it loses direction or rushes through things. However, I would’ve loved further information on Atuale and Sareeval’s partnership. Since the story starts off with Sareeval being incapacitated, we don’t get juicy interactions from the two of them, and are instead told - rather than shown - by Atuale of how strong their bond is, making Sareeval feel more like an object of affection than an entity of affection.

On the other hand, the relationship between Atuale and Yanja is rewardingly plotted out. Every interaction is threaded with a rich history of which Aimee Ogden gives just enough away to make it satisfying. It’s a relationship interlaced with wistfulness, heartbreak, and moments of camaraderie that add spice and an additional layer to the action. Despite the thrillingly frenetic pace of some later scenes in space, it’s grounded in the longstanding planetary bonds, whether it be relationships of the people therein or the planet itself.

Apart from the aforementioned pacing, and passage after passage of beautiful writing, the worldbuilding is especially commendable. Ogden manages to set up not just a believable planet, but a believable universe in one story. Different planets are mentioned, and through minor descriptions are richly drawn. The same goes for the different species. The novella has a wide foundation, while simultaneously begging for further exploration in other stories. Not because it feels empty like a dried up well, but because it’s overflowing with the most appetizing flood of plot.

Sun Daughters, Sea Daughters does take some story cues from The Little Mermaid, but it not only deviates from typical fairy tale retellings, but sometimes transcends them.  And that’s fitting because like a good retelling it both crosses boundaries and reconstructs the ones we’re confined in. We can look up at the stars for an escape, or we can gaze at the horizon, looking forward to how we’re going to better our lives here. There is no wrong method. The novella put me through the ringer, as I held my breath as if I was underwater. When it was over, I felt like I was on land, blessedly regaining my breath, while looking down, slightly missing the floatiness of the water. I hope Ogden has more stories in this world, because I can’t wait to dive back in.

The Math

Baseline Score: 7/10

Bonuses: +1 For some of the most impressively economical worldbuilding I've read in a while.

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10

POSTED BY: Sean Dowie - Screenwriter, stand-up comedian, lover of all books that make him nod his head and say, "Neat!"

Ogden, Aimee. Sea-Daughters, Sun-Daughters [Tordotcom, 2021].