Meru

Name: Meru
Brand: Brilliance Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: S.B. Divya
ISBN: 9781799799085

Author: S.B. Divya

Series: The Alloy Era #1

Narrator: Deepa Samuel

Unabridged: 17 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Published: 02/01/2023

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction

Synopsis

One woman and her pilot are about to change the future of the species in an epic space opera about aspiration, compassion, and redemption by Hugo and Nebula Award finalist S. B. Divya.For five centuries, human life has been restricted to Earth, while posthuman descendants called alloys freely explore the galaxy. But when the Earthlike planet of Meru is discovered, two unlikely companions venture forth to test the habitability of this unoccupied new world and the future of human-alloy relations.For Jayanthi, the adopted human child of alloy parents, it’s an opportunity to rectify the ancient reputation of her species as avaricious and destructive, and to give humanity a new place in the universe. For Vaha, Jayanthi’s alloy pilot, it’s a daunting yet irresistible adventure to find success as an individual.As the journey challenges their resolve in unexpected ways, the two form a bond that only deepens with their time alone on Meru. But how can Jayanthi succeed at freeing humanity from its past when she and Vaha have been set up to fail?Against all odds, hope is human, too.

About S.B. Divya

S.B. Divya is a lover of science, math, fiction, and the Oxford comma. She enjoys subverting expectations and breaking stereotypes whenever she can. Divya is the Hugo and Nebula Award–nominated author of Runtime and coeditor of Escape Pod, with Mur Lafferty. Her short stories have been published at various magazines including Analog, Uncanny, and Tor. She is the author of the short collection, Contingency Plans for the Apocalypse and Other Situations, and debut novel, Machinehood. Divya holds degrees in computational neuroscience and signal processing, and she worked for twenty years as an electrical engineer before becoming an author. Find out more about her at SBDivya.com or on Twitter as @DivyasTweets.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Rachel (TheShadesofOrange)

3.0 Stars I love unique science fiction stories, so I was hopeful this would be a new favourite. I liked aspects of this one, but I did not completely love the execution. This story is a highly character driven narrative between these two individuals. The challenge of this setup is that I never forme......more

Goodreads review by Josh

Well, this was a disappointing and rather baffling book. I liked Machinehood pretty well and was interested to see what the author would do with a new universe. The first 150 pages or so of this was promising. The world building is incredibly strange, but I love a good strange science fiction, so I......more

Goodreads review by Beth

Wow, what a fantastic book. Science fiction that delves deep into far-future politics, intrigues, and love. I thought I knew where the book was going, but nope, it twisted and turned every which way, leaving me pleasantly surprised all the way through the end.......more

Goodreads review by Chris

A richly layered, evocative, and compelling world… I received an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) from WorldCon. Meru begins by laying out some explicit first principles called “The Axioms of Life” and “The Principles of Conscious Beings,” which serve to extend the ethical circle that encompasses what is con......more

Goodreads review by William

I chose “Meru” because it’s been a while since I’ve read a good science fiction tale. Unfortunately, this story is just too “out there” for me. Author S.B Divya’s prose and dialogue are competent and professional. But I found her “world-building”—her attempts to describe what earth and the universe......more

Quotes

“With the printed novel having been nominated for both Hugo and Nebula Awards, Deepa Samuel has a high bar to reach as narrator of this audiobook, and she fills it. Samuel's youthful timbre and clear pronunciation help to bring this complex space opera to life.… Samuel's character voices clearly delineate the different species and characters, allowing the listener to become immersed in the story's world-building.” —AudioFile Magazine “Deepa Samuel narrates, giving a robotic, unemotional narration of alloys, which captures their inability to comprehend human emotions; alternately, she gives inflection and emotion to Jayanthi, enhancing her tenderness and grit. This book will appeal to science fiction readers who appreciate meticulous worldbuilding and learning about societies that are governed by a set of axioms. This impressive audio is a must-add for any science fiction collection.” —Library Journal“Empathy convincingly overcomes anxiety in this thoughtful, inventive, and impressively understated space opera from Divya, [who] filters the immensity of outer space through the lens of close personal relationships, crafting compassionate and responsible characters (whatever their physical forms may be) that will surely win over readers.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)