I was half expecting to dislike Osiris, I’m not a great post-apocalyptic fan, I’ve had more disappointments than successes with freebies (I got this as a freebie from Night Shade Books) and this was a debut novel. Not a very auspicious start and for that reason I have been putting reading this off for some time now. However I’ve now read it and… thoroughly enjoyed it.
It is a bit uneven in places, sometimes dives into some pretty severe purple prose (including the opening pages) with some very weird and unusual descriptive choices and there were a couple of passages where Swift didn’t seem to have quite made up her mind whether she was writing a thriller or a romance and even a mildly erotic one at that. But, thank goodness, she avoided this and has produced a very good post-apocalyptic, dystopian thriller which, despite my fears, never becomes a romance. I do have one other major complaint though:
[rant]
Why oh why do SF authors start inventing ridiculous new words for already established (and comfortably named) bits of technology. Certainly our words for things are going to change over time but most changes are likely to be for new technologies not existing ones and there are very few really new technologies in this book. Some examples:
Scarab – mobile phone (to be fair this and the next may have been brand names)
Neptune – computer
O’vis – something like TV
O’musaique – didn’t quite get what this one was!
O’dio – radio?
O’comm – communication (on the scarab)
Reefmail – email (please!)
Most annoying for me, though, was the time telling; the twenty four hour clock combined with ‘o’clock’, giving things like sixteen o’clock. But even this isn’t done consistently with sixteen hundred [hours] also used.
[/rant]
The basic premise of the book is not a million miles away from Waterworld, in that it is set in a post global warming (I presume) water world Earth. The reader never gets a full explanation for this which I did find a little frustrating especially as some aspects of it didn’t add up fully in my mind, but eventually it becomes clear that my doubts would be addressed, if not in this book then in its sequel (which, incidentally, I will be buying). However the water world setting is where the similarities end. Osiris is a semi submerged city set somewhere in the southern Antarctic seas. Half the residents are the original founders and their descendants living a privileged life of luxury and the other half are segregated refugees starving, freezing and brutalised. Making this a relevant comparison for any current conflict where the haves and have nots are forcibly separated by little more than a wall (one current conflict springs painfully to mind).
There are two protagonists from whose points of view the story is written and they are well drawn giving this a very character driven feel. Most of the future technology is glossed over – this is not hard SF – but it is mostly believable; in fact, considering this is set 350 years in the future, the lack of radically futuristic technology is probably a bit of a flaw; it really felt more like near future and that’s how I tended to think of it. However the technology is not what the story is about; it is about the two main protagonists who are both flawed and come, inevitably, from either side of the social divide. It is no Romeo and Juliet story, however, but is very much about that social divide. After a slightly wobbly start (understandable for a debut) Swift rapidly finds her feet and keeps the action moving along at a good page turning pace. My interest was maintained throughout and, despite the main protagonists being, as I have said, flawed, they are still sympathetic characters that I couldn't help liking. Whilst the ending was possibly a little weak I have endured much worse without too much complaint.
Overall I was very pleasantly surprised by Osiris; it was much much better than I had expected. That expectation was, of course, utterly unjustified and had no foundations other than my own prejudice against unknown authors and a sub-genre that is not my favourite, but it was there nonetheless and it was wrong. I do recommend this book; it is well worth a read.
4/5 stars
It is a bit uneven in places, sometimes dives into some pretty severe purple prose (including the opening pages) with some very weird and unusual descriptive choices and there were a couple of passages where Swift didn’t seem to have quite made up her mind whether she was writing a thriller or a romance and even a mildly erotic one at that. But, thank goodness, she avoided this and has produced a very good post-apocalyptic, dystopian thriller which, despite my fears, never becomes a romance. I do have one other major complaint though:
[rant]
Why oh why do SF authors start inventing ridiculous new words for already established (and comfortably named) bits of technology. Certainly our words for things are going to change over time but most changes are likely to be for new technologies not existing ones and there are very few really new technologies in this book. Some examples:
Scarab – mobile phone (to be fair this and the next may have been brand names)
Neptune – computer
O’vis – something like TV
O’musaique – didn’t quite get what this one was!
O’dio – radio?
O’comm – communication (on the scarab)
Reefmail – email (please!)
Most annoying for me, though, was the time telling; the twenty four hour clock combined with ‘o’clock’, giving things like sixteen o’clock. But even this isn’t done consistently with sixteen hundred [hours] also used.
[/rant]
The basic premise of the book is not a million miles away from Waterworld, in that it is set in a post global warming (I presume) water world Earth. The reader never gets a full explanation for this which I did find a little frustrating especially as some aspects of it didn’t add up fully in my mind, but eventually it becomes clear that my doubts would be addressed, if not in this book then in its sequel (which, incidentally, I will be buying). However the water world setting is where the similarities end. Osiris is a semi submerged city set somewhere in the southern Antarctic seas. Half the residents are the original founders and their descendants living a privileged life of luxury and the other half are segregated refugees starving, freezing and brutalised. Making this a relevant comparison for any current conflict where the haves and have nots are forcibly separated by little more than a wall (one current conflict springs painfully to mind).
There are two protagonists from whose points of view the story is written and they are well drawn giving this a very character driven feel. Most of the future technology is glossed over – this is not hard SF – but it is mostly believable; in fact, considering this is set 350 years in the future, the lack of radically futuristic technology is probably a bit of a flaw; it really felt more like near future and that’s how I tended to think of it. However the technology is not what the story is about; it is about the two main protagonists who are both flawed and come, inevitably, from either side of the social divide. It is no Romeo and Juliet story, however, but is very much about that social divide. After a slightly wobbly start (understandable for a debut) Swift rapidly finds her feet and keeps the action moving along at a good page turning pace. My interest was maintained throughout and, despite the main protagonists being, as I have said, flawed, they are still sympathetic characters that I couldn't help liking. Whilst the ending was possibly a little weak I have endured much worse without too much complaint.
Overall I was very pleasantly surprised by Osiris; it was much much better than I had expected. That expectation was, of course, utterly unjustified and had no foundations other than my own prejudice against unknown authors and a sub-genre that is not my favourite, but it was there nonetheless and it was wrong. I do recommend this book; it is well worth a read.
4/5 stars
