The Best of All Possible Worlds

The Best of All Possible Worlds, Karen Lord, 307 pages

The planet of Sadira has been destroyed. Only a tiny percentage of the psychically gifted Sadiri survive, and of those, the overwhelming majority are men. Culturally and genetically adrift, the refugees come to Cygnus Beta, a melting pot of cultures, where Terran anthropologist Grace Delarua and Sadiri ambassador Dllenahkh cooperate to help the Sadiri reestablish their cultural traditions – or make themselves a new place in the universe.

This is a lovely, touching novel about cultural assimilation, the need for enduring traditions in a strange new world, and the desire to belong, as well as a slow-paced and tender romance. However, there are some confusing aspects to the worldbuilding (it wasn’t made clear until near the end of the book if the Sadiri were just humans who lived on a different planet or an alien race, and the technological level of Cygnus Beta seems inconsistent from region to region, though I suppose one could say the same about Earth), and the pacing feels more like a serially published set of vignettes than one cohesive narrative (though part of that is I am sure due to my preconceptions of what a science fiction plot should feel like – this excellent review describes the book as having a semi-paratactic structure, similarly to many television shows). Also, the point of view was almost always first-person, from Delarua’s viewpoint, but occasionally switched to third-person from Dllenahkh’s viewpoint, which was a bit jarring. Parts of Delarua’s narration also stuck out on occasion – she makes an awful lot of references to 20^th century movies considering she lives in the far distant future on another planet.

Despite this, I found the story compelling, and never lost interest in the disconnected scenes. In fact, I found myself wishing that each chapter had been longer, that the book had dwelled more on the small moments when Delarua and Dllenahkh’s lives intersected with strangers, and that the author had more consistently fleshed out their characters. I think one more solid round of editing and rewriting would have made The Best of All Possible Worlds truly remarkable, instead of merely very good.