Radiance: A Novel - Rambling Readers

433 pages

Published by Tor Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-4668-2148-4

(1 review)

Severin Unck's father is a famous director of Gothic romances in an alternate 1986 in which talking movies are still a daring innovation due to the patent-hoarding Edison family. Rebelling against her father's films of passion, intrigue, and spirits from beyond, Severin starts making documentaries, traveling through space and investigating the levitator cults of Neptune and the lawless saloons of Mars. For this is not our solar system, but one drawn from classic science fiction in which all the planets are inhabited and we travel through space on beautiful rockets. Severin is a realist in a fantastic universe. But her latest film, which investigates the disappearance of a diving colony on a watery Venus populated by island-sized alien creatures, will be her last. Though her crew limps home to earth and her story is preserved by the colony's last survivor, Severin will never return.

2 editions

Leaf 🍂 reviewed Radiance: A Novel by Catherynne M. Valente

Review of 'Radiance: A Novel' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

I wish I could give this more than 5 stars. This book is so, so good. It takes the heart of the original short story and blows it up, fills it out, makes a whole universe and culture out of it. But no matter how outlandish the seals-which-are-not-really-seals or the buffalo-which-are-not-really-buffalo are, the people and their complicated loves and lives and relationships feel so real and relatable you'll want to cry. All framed in lovely 1920's-era opulence and silent motion picture style.
A+++, would watch again.