Redsight by Meredith Mooring
Feb. 18th, 2024 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Korinna has simple priorities: stay on the Navitas, stay out of trouble, and stay alive. She may be a Redseer, a blind priestess with the power to manipulate space-time, but she is the weakest in her order. Useless and outcast. Or so she has been raised to believe.
As she takes her place as a navigator on an Imperium shop, Korinna’s full destiny is revealed to her: blood brimming with magic, she is meant to become a weapon of the Imperium, and pawn for the Order that raised her. But when the shop is attacked by the notorious pirate Aster Haran, Korinna’s world is ripped apart.
Aster has a vendetta against the Imperium, and an all-consuming, dark power that drives her to destroy everything in her path. She understands the world in a way Korinna has never imagined, and Korinna is drawn to her against her better judgment.
With the Imperium and the justice-seeking warrior Sahar hot on her heels, Korinna must choose her side, seize her power and fulfil her destiny - or risk imperilling the future of the galaxy, and destroying the fabric of space-time itself.
Once upon a time, there were 3 sister goddesses: the red goddess Vermicula who was eternally feeling, the black serpent goddess Furia who was eternally hungry, and the white light goddess Radiosa whose radiance was enough to take from all. Together they created the universe and each established an order of followers built in their own image.
Each of the goddesses created an Order in their own image. Vermicula’s followers are called Redseers. Borne blind, those who have enough power can control Redsight (essentially manipulate an element called tactus) to move through time and space, although it takes a terrible toll on their bodies - making them weep blood from their eyes and their bodies to break down. The Imperium that governs the galaxy places a high value on the Redseers, using them to navigate its warships as they engage in conquest and colonisation.
Radiosa’s followers preferred to stay on planets and work for the Imperium as judges, researchers and engineers. Those who work for the Order have the ability to manipulate tactus to see when people are lying and discern the truth. Furia and her followers drew power (tactus) from exhausted stars, depleting the universe as they consumed more and more. This led them into war with the Imperium and the followers of Vermicula and Radiosa, who joined together to seal Furia into a tomb, trapping her for centuries as her followers were forcibly disbanded and slowly died out over the following centuries. But having joined together Radiosa and Vermicula were unprepared when their orders turned against them in turn, conspiring with the Imperium to trap them in their own tombs.
Thousands of years later, 20-year-old Korinna is a cleric in the Order of Vermicula who lives on the Order’s headquarters, a ship called the Navitas. Korinna is the weakest member of her cohort, forced into remedial lessons with the former High Priestess, Mistress Vega. While the rest of her year dream of passing their exams and taking roles as navigators on the Imperium’s warships, Korinna only dreams of surviving and maybe taking a job on the Navitas in some horticultural role because those who are deemed unfit to serve Vermicula are recycled, their blood added to the ship’s stores.
So Korinna is surprised when Mistress Vega reveals that she has been deliberately holding Korinna back and has hopes of Korinna using her powers to become High Priestess of the Order. To do so, she ensures that Korinna gets a role as navigator on Governor Wu’s warship. A rising star in the Imperium, Governor Wu is set to travel to the Umbra to capture a pirate called Aster Haran who has been laying waste to some of the Imperium’s most powerful warships but Korinna finds herself drawn more to Governor Wu’s adviser, Litia Sarai who grew up in the Umbra and has been advising Governor Wu on what he will find there. But it isn’t long into their mission when things go dreadfully wrong and Korinna finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew and forced to take charge of her future once and for all.
Meredith Mooring’s debut SF space opera romance has some interesting ideas, e.g. the use of a visually impaired protagonist, the idea of atomic manipulation and space ships built from asteroids, but the plotting is all over the place with some developments sign posted too early and a credibility defying plot twist in the final quarter, the central romance being under developed and ultimately a sense that nothing that happens to Korinna is earned.
I picked this up because I was intrigued by the idea of the protagonist being visually impaired as it is not something I have read a lot of and I saw that Mooring herself is visually impaired so I knew it would be authentic. I am also keen to read more sapphic romance so was keen to see how Mooring handled it.
Some of the best elements of this book relate to the fact that Korinna is technically blind - I liked the way she uses a tactile script to communicate and how her control of tactus gives her a separate way of looking at things - in fact, I would have liked to have had this developed further because there was a lot of scope there (although equally I understand that she doesn’t just want this to be an issues novel). Equally interesting is the physical toll that use of tactus takes on Redseer’s body. This is quite gruesome at times, from the bleeding from the eyes to finger nails and skin falling off and I wanted to know if this was just a Redseer issue or whether it also affected Radiosa’s followers and how they dealt with it. Also fascinating is a revelation late in the book that some spaceships are built from converted asteroids but it happens so late in the book and is almost an off-hand point that it doesn’t really get explored.
Unfortunately, in general I found the book to be a bit of a mess. The plotting is quite unbalanced with too long spent establishing Korinna’s role and background in the Order. Whereas Korinna’s adjustment to life on Governor Wu’s ship and trying to navigate life outside the Order while also trying to build an alliance with him to fulfil Vega’s desire for her to be High Priestess is severely under-developed to the extent that the time spent building friendships among some of the crew all feels wasted because once Aster Haran attacks, Korinna shows no interest in finding out what happened to them. Then the final third is devoted to the romance between Korinna and Aster and their attempt to strike back at the Imperium, which is all incredibly rushed and dependent on some truly incredible plot twists (one of which really annoyed me because there is literally no attempt at explaining how it might have been possible).
For me, the biggest issue with the book is Korinna. She suffers from All Powerful Destiny Syndrome but there is nothing really there to back it up. Mooring wants you to believe that she is smart but also unworldly and I don’t think she gets the balance right between them - certainly not to the point that you see her as Aster sees her because Korinna is so credulous and never really plans anything. For example one development in the final quarter involves her placing her trust in a character who has literally been locked up in a cell and shown nothing but hatred for her and Aster and yet Korinna is surprised when she tries to take revenge for it.
Aster is better developed, although a plot twist involving her is literally revealed by Mooring in the first third of the book, which takes away the surprise of the big reveal. I would have liked to have had more scenes between her and Furia because it goes to the central theology of the book and I would have also liked to have understood more what attracts her to Korinna beyond her power because the romance really suffers from that insta-love hand wavey thing and doesn’t really develop beyond that.
I should mention that there is a third point-of-view character in the book in the shape of a White Priestess called Sahar who works as a judge on one of the outer planets. For me, she could have been cut out of this book and it would not have lost anything because she is so under-developed to the point that she is nothing more than a plot point there to make certain things happen later on.
Ultimately this is a book that had potential - there’s a definite feminist vibe to the themes with the Imperium characters tending to be male and the Orders more female - but the writing just didn’t work for me. It’s one of those stories where I wonder if it would have worked better as a duology rather than a standalone novel because it would have had more room to breathe and for world building and characters to develop.
The Verdict:
Meredith Mooring’s debut SF space opera romance has some interesting ideas, e.g. the use of a visually impaired protagonist, the idea of atomic manipulation and space ships built from asteroids, but the plotting is all over the place with some developments sign posted too early and a credibility defying plot twist in the final quarter, the central romance being under developed and ultimately a sense that nothing that happens to Korinna is earned.
REDSIGHT will be released in the United States on 27th February 2024 and in the United Kingdom on 29th February 2024. Thanks to Rebellion Publishing for the review copy of this book.
Korinna has simple priorities: stay on the Navitas, stay out of trouble, and stay alive. She may be a Redseer, a blind priestess with the power to manipulate space-time, but she is the weakest in her order. Useless and outcast. Or so she has been raised to believe.
As she takes her place as a navigator on an Imperium shop, Korinna’s full destiny is revealed to her: blood brimming with magic, she is meant to become a weapon of the Imperium, and pawn for the Order that raised her. But when the shop is attacked by the notorious pirate Aster Haran, Korinna’s world is ripped apart.
Aster has a vendetta against the Imperium, and an all-consuming, dark power that drives her to destroy everything in her path. She understands the world in a way Korinna has never imagined, and Korinna is drawn to her against her better judgment.
With the Imperium and the justice-seeking warrior Sahar hot on her heels, Korinna must choose her side, seize her power and fulfil her destiny - or risk imperilling the future of the galaxy, and destroying the fabric of space-time itself.
Once upon a time, there were 3 sister goddesses: the red goddess Vermicula who was eternally feeling, the black serpent goddess Furia who was eternally hungry, and the white light goddess Radiosa whose radiance was enough to take from all. Together they created the universe and each established an order of followers built in their own image.
Each of the goddesses created an Order in their own image. Vermicula’s followers are called Redseers. Borne blind, those who have enough power can control Redsight (essentially manipulate an element called tactus) to move through time and space, although it takes a terrible toll on their bodies - making them weep blood from their eyes and their bodies to break down. The Imperium that governs the galaxy places a high value on the Redseers, using them to navigate its warships as they engage in conquest and colonisation.
Radiosa’s followers preferred to stay on planets and work for the Imperium as judges, researchers and engineers. Those who work for the Order have the ability to manipulate tactus to see when people are lying and discern the truth. Furia and her followers drew power (tactus) from exhausted stars, depleting the universe as they consumed more and more. This led them into war with the Imperium and the followers of Vermicula and Radiosa, who joined together to seal Furia into a tomb, trapping her for centuries as her followers were forcibly disbanded and slowly died out over the following centuries. But having joined together Radiosa and Vermicula were unprepared when their orders turned against them in turn, conspiring with the Imperium to trap them in their own tombs.
Thousands of years later, 20-year-old Korinna is a cleric in the Order of Vermicula who lives on the Order’s headquarters, a ship called the Navitas. Korinna is the weakest member of her cohort, forced into remedial lessons with the former High Priestess, Mistress Vega. While the rest of her year dream of passing their exams and taking roles as navigators on the Imperium’s warships, Korinna only dreams of surviving and maybe taking a job on the Navitas in some horticultural role because those who are deemed unfit to serve Vermicula are recycled, their blood added to the ship’s stores.
So Korinna is surprised when Mistress Vega reveals that she has been deliberately holding Korinna back and has hopes of Korinna using her powers to become High Priestess of the Order. To do so, she ensures that Korinna gets a role as navigator on Governor Wu’s warship. A rising star in the Imperium, Governor Wu is set to travel to the Umbra to capture a pirate called Aster Haran who has been laying waste to some of the Imperium’s most powerful warships but Korinna finds herself drawn more to Governor Wu’s adviser, Litia Sarai who grew up in the Umbra and has been advising Governor Wu on what he will find there. But it isn’t long into their mission when things go dreadfully wrong and Korinna finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew and forced to take charge of her future once and for all.
Meredith Mooring’s debut SF space opera romance has some interesting ideas, e.g. the use of a visually impaired protagonist, the idea of atomic manipulation and space ships built from asteroids, but the plotting is all over the place with some developments sign posted too early and a credibility defying plot twist in the final quarter, the central romance being under developed and ultimately a sense that nothing that happens to Korinna is earned.
I picked this up because I was intrigued by the idea of the protagonist being visually impaired as it is not something I have read a lot of and I saw that Mooring herself is visually impaired so I knew it would be authentic. I am also keen to read more sapphic romance so was keen to see how Mooring handled it.
Some of the best elements of this book relate to the fact that Korinna is technically blind - I liked the way she uses a tactile script to communicate and how her control of tactus gives her a separate way of looking at things - in fact, I would have liked to have had this developed further because there was a lot of scope there (although equally I understand that she doesn’t just want this to be an issues novel). Equally interesting is the physical toll that use of tactus takes on Redseer’s body. This is quite gruesome at times, from the bleeding from the eyes to finger nails and skin falling off and I wanted to know if this was just a Redseer issue or whether it also affected Radiosa’s followers and how they dealt with it. Also fascinating is a revelation late in the book that some spaceships are built from converted asteroids but it happens so late in the book and is almost an off-hand point that it doesn’t really get explored.
Unfortunately, in general I found the book to be a bit of a mess. The plotting is quite unbalanced with too long spent establishing Korinna’s role and background in the Order. Whereas Korinna’s adjustment to life on Governor Wu’s ship and trying to navigate life outside the Order while also trying to build an alliance with him to fulfil Vega’s desire for her to be High Priestess is severely under-developed to the extent that the time spent building friendships among some of the crew all feels wasted because once Aster Haran attacks, Korinna shows no interest in finding out what happened to them. Then the final third is devoted to the romance between Korinna and Aster and their attempt to strike back at the Imperium, which is all incredibly rushed and dependent on some truly incredible plot twists (one of which really annoyed me because there is literally no attempt at explaining how it might have been possible).
For me, the biggest issue with the book is Korinna. She suffers from All Powerful Destiny Syndrome but there is nothing really there to back it up. Mooring wants you to believe that she is smart but also unworldly and I don’t think she gets the balance right between them - certainly not to the point that you see her as Aster sees her because Korinna is so credulous and never really plans anything. For example one development in the final quarter involves her placing her trust in a character who has literally been locked up in a cell and shown nothing but hatred for her and Aster and yet Korinna is surprised when she tries to take revenge for it.
Aster is better developed, although a plot twist involving her is literally revealed by Mooring in the first third of the book, which takes away the surprise of the big reveal. I would have liked to have had more scenes between her and Furia because it goes to the central theology of the book and I would have also liked to have understood more what attracts her to Korinna beyond her power because the romance really suffers from that insta-love hand wavey thing and doesn’t really develop beyond that.
I should mention that there is a third point-of-view character in the book in the shape of a White Priestess called Sahar who works as a judge on one of the outer planets. For me, she could have been cut out of this book and it would not have lost anything because she is so under-developed to the point that she is nothing more than a plot point there to make certain things happen later on.
Ultimately this is a book that had potential - there’s a definite feminist vibe to the themes with the Imperium characters tending to be male and the Orders more female - but the writing just didn’t work for me. It’s one of those stories where I wonder if it would have worked better as a duology rather than a standalone novel because it would have had more room to breathe and for world building and characters to develop.
The Verdict:
Meredith Mooring’s debut SF space opera romance has some interesting ideas, e.g. the use of a visually impaired protagonist, the idea of atomic manipulation and space ships built from asteroids, but the plotting is all over the place with some developments sign posted too early and a credibility defying plot twist in the final quarter, the central romance being under developed and ultimately a sense that nothing that happens to Korinna is earned.
REDSIGHT will be released in the United States on 27th February 2024 and in the United Kingdom on 29th February 2024. Thanks to Rebellion Publishing for the review copy of this book.
