this is my first olga ravn book, and i’m loving it.

basically, this book is a collection of witness statements from humanoids and humans on board the six-thousand ship. in the advent of their encounter with ‘alien’ objects from orbiting new discovery, this small community of people are suddenly made aware that emotions exist. yes, even the humanoids.

while the humans start to feel nostalgia for earth, the humanoids begin to have ‘software updates’. and the corporation being a corporation, there is a need to maintain efficiency and productivity. with the crew being in such a fragile state, they have no other choice but to delete the program.

is that the only choice, though? what does it mean to be human when you’re surrounded by machines?

this is a genre i rarely dip my eyes into, but somehow martine has written this novel so well in its plot and characters that i just could not help but wow at them.

this book is basically about an outstation ambassador called into the empire to replace her predecessor. what she doesn’t know is that he’s already dead, and there are many eyes looking at her every movement. who can she trust, being from the outside, while her only source of reassurance is lying cold on the table? this book does well in its exploration of political nuances and silent battles, its true underlying meaning always being ‘encrypted’ or phrased poetically.

finishing this made me appreciate well-written political sci-fi (with a bit of sapphic influence).

also, this novel is closer to 4.8✨!

i’d say that generally it’s more of a 3.9✨ collection.

while not as cohesive as previous poetry collections published by graywolf (the kingdom of surfaces or don’t call us dead), the rupture tense provides a more fractured and fragmented approach to poetics. there is a deliberate attempt to frame poetry as being parts and pieces of a whole narrative—and it does work.

however, this fragmentation can be jarring and has occasionally pushed me out of the narrative. again, was this a deliberate attempt? no one knows except the poet. still a good collection.