Carnival, by Elizabeth Bear

I enjoyed this a lot, but man it took me for. ev. ver. to read. It's really long for a start, but it's also throws a lot of stuff at you from all directions. And it's all cool stuff, but I had to go up a gear in my brain to keep track of it all.

We have two ambassador-spies, (fact: I bought this book based solely on the promise of ambassador spies), Vincent and Angelo. (His full name is Michelangelo Osiris Leary Kusunagi-Jones, and there's an explanation for this ridiculousness in the book, a good one even, but still. What a name). They were once lovers, but have been apart for seventeen years after their affair was discovered. Homosexuality, under the rule of the Governors who represent Old Earth and control much of this universe, is super illegal. They were lucky not to be straight up killed for it.

But now they're needed for this mission to a planet called New Amazonia. As the name suggests, it's all super matriarchal and shit. There are men, but they are very much second class citizens, divided into two roles: stud, and gentle. Gentle males, or "safe" males as the New Amazonian society views them, are gay. This is why Vincent and Angelo have been reunited; the woman who rule New Amazonia would only accept "gentle" ambassadors. (So much of the New Amazonian and Old Earth societies is interesting subversions on ours. Not just the gender stuff, but also the approach to energy use and resources and stuff. It was really cool).

And the Governors, on behalf of Old Earth, really need this diplomatic mission to go well. Energy use is a huge issue for the rest of the universe, but New Amazonia has a seemiglny unlimited supply. Vincent and Angelo are to get them to share their secrets, peacefully or.... otherwise.

But both men have their own agendas, and this is where a good chunk of this book struggled for me. Figuring out Angelo and Vincent's differing agendas and keeping them straight was a real mission. Oh and also Lesa, our New Amazonian POV, who also has an angenda other than the one everyone is pretending to have on the surface.

I think because both of them had complicated backstories and complicated true purposes for being on New Amazonia, and it tied into the complicated history of the universe Bear had created, and was influenced by the complicated politics of social strata of New Amazonia. So all these complicated little balls were bouncing off each other in all directions and I was expected to juggle them.

After the fifty percent point I started to feel like I understood the history and politics that were informing what everyone did. The reality of the Governors and everyone's motivations and all of it clicked into place, which made the second half way more enjoyable for me than the first. I still enjoyed the first half, I was just confused a lot. I really loved watching Vincent and Angelo circle around and figure out what their relationship looked like now. The way they would describe each other and the way they interacted was like soothing aloe vera on the confusing burn of everything else.

I thought more than once while I read this that it would be enjoyed by folks who loved the recent and fantastic This Is How You Lose The Time War. It doesn't reach the same poetic heights, but that 'spies who love each other' vibe is all over this. You and Me vs. all our bosses.

So yeah. I have no idea why this book has so few ratings, because Elizabeth Bear is fantastic and this is a fantastic book by her. Imagine being so prolific that a book like this could become almost forgotten amid your incredible back catalogue?