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A review by eitheror
Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard by Lawrence M. Schoen
4.0
Barsk, The Elephants' Graveyard can be described as Zootopia in space + talking with dead people. That elevator pitch is supremely wild I know, but this book somehow works!
The story follows Jorl, a historian who's part of an alien race of anthropomorphic elephants named the Fant. He's also a Speaker, which gives him the ability to summon dead people and have conversations with them. He does this through the novel's scientific phenomenon of nefshons: tangible particles that every sapient being in the galaxy is made up of, and gradually disperse throughout the universe after they die. Speakers have the ability to summon people from the dead through gathering the person's nefshons, which can be gathered through the accounts and memories had of of the deceased. Using these abilities, Jorl has to figure out why some recent dead people can't be summoned anymore.
Reading this book felt like a good lesson on showcasing that genre tropes really comes down to flavour. While one would think that the ability to commune with the dead would be more at home in an occult-themed or horror novel, Schoen manages to give convincing scientific explanations for all of the wacky stuff Speakers can do, which convincingly grounds it in the world of sci-fi.
Minor Spoilers
Pizlo's chapters were a bit boring at times, and I honestly think his situation would have been a lot more compelling if he'd been a girl. Since female Fant are extremely social and grow up with strong networks of multiple female colleagues and mentor figures in their lives, Pizlo missing out on that due to his circumstances would have at least created an interesting tension. And also I wouldn't have minded a female character who was more central to the narrative than the ones in the novel as is.
Minor Spoilers End
While a bit clunky prose-wise, and vaguely heteronormative in ways that kinda contradict the Fant's matriarchal culture, it's a fun ride! I'd definitely recommend reading this if you're looking for something way different than usual.
The story follows Jorl, a historian who's part of an alien race of anthropomorphic elephants named the Fant. He's also a Speaker, which gives him the ability to summon dead people and have conversations with them. He does this through the novel's scientific phenomenon of nefshons: tangible particles that every sapient being in the galaxy is made up of, and gradually disperse throughout the universe after they die. Speakers have the ability to summon people from the dead through gathering the person's nefshons, which can be gathered through the accounts and memories had of of the deceased. Using these abilities, Jorl has to figure out why some recent dead people can't be summoned anymore.
Reading this book felt like a good lesson on showcasing that genre tropes really comes down to flavour. While one would think that the ability to commune with the dead would be more at home in an occult-themed or horror novel, Schoen manages to give convincing scientific explanations for all of the wacky stuff Speakers can do, which convincingly grounds it in the world of sci-fi.
Minor Spoilers
Pizlo's chapters were a bit boring at times, and I honestly think his situation would have been a lot more compelling if he'd been a girl. Since female Fant are extremely social and grow up with strong networks of multiple female colleagues and mentor figures in their lives, Pizlo missing out on that due to his circumstances would have at least created an interesting tension. And also I wouldn't have minded a female character who was more central to the narrative than the ones in the novel as is.
Minor Spoilers End
While a bit clunky prose-wise, and vaguely heteronormative in ways that kinda contradict the Fant's matriarchal culture, it's a fun ride! I'd definitely recommend reading this if you're looking for something way different than usual.