Radiance by Catherynne M Valente

Goodreads

Publication Date: October 20th, 2015

Pages: 432

Genre: Space Opera/Scifi/Fantasy

This is an alternative history tale about Silent movies and the ability to live on all the planets in the solar system. Thomas Edison has hoarded patents, which is the reason there is only silent movies. Severin Unck's father was a famous gothic film director, and he made daring talking films in 1986. Severin went through the solar system to make various documentaries, of the darker parts of the universe as an act of rebellion. On her last documentary trip, she goes missing. It talks about love, meta-fiction, family, loss, relationships with step moms, films and quantum physics.

This is a weird book, and it's weird in all the best ways. The story is told in a regular narrative style, movie scripts, gossip rag speculations, basically a postmodern, experimental way to tell the tales. It is certainly not going to be for everyone, but I loved it. Valente's way with words is very good and the way the story is told is very intriguing. I fully expect to be going back this book in the future and finding more in the novel.

4/5

I recommend this book to anyone who is a space opera fan or just likes weird books. This is a pretty niche novel though.

Cheers.

Jen