Open Your Eyes

A short space opera novel about a woman who's been impregnated by a star, and whose living spaceship has become infested with a “linguistic virus eats through the minds of a group of scavengers”. I'm not entirely sure how I felt about this one.

On the one hand, it's brilliant. There are some passages here that sing with how sublime and fantastic they are (especially the first page, which had me hooked into reading the whole thing once I was done it). At the same time, it's complex and demanding. And in some ways that's a commendable quality to it - it trusts the reader enough to assume that they'll be able to follow along, and doesn't pander to them. I appreciate that. At times, though it was difficult to fully become engaged with the story, because of those same “commendable qualities”. This might just be the result of my reading habits - I read on the bus a lot, and that doesn't always allow for the deepest of interaction with a book, especially one that's working on a level like this. Regardless of how engaged I was, however, I'm really glad I read it.The opening paragraph in particular: Her lover was a supernova. She smiled when he came, his bright burning light rocking her body, impregnating her with the essence of stars. Through the metal bones of her ship she felt the gasses enter her, felt the compound light exploding inside her. Her hands clawed at the cracked vinyl of the chair, her legs spread to either side with toes stretched out, her mouth in piercing screams of ecstasy.