Hi folks, welcome back to Sunday Sundries, where I talk about whatever is on my mind.
Today, the Tinkered Starsong trilogy from Gail Carriger.
I'm a big fan of Miss Gail. Cuddles got me to read the Parasol Protectorate series, and then I just consumed everything else as well, multiple times. She's a very strong writer. Her characters and her universes are drawn clearly, down to the smallest detail, it's always a relaxing treat to read her work. So a new trilogy is something to be excited about.
The Tinkered Stars series has no connection to the Parasolverse. This one is set in far future space where humans and aliens try to exist together, and Sapiens have been tinkered to the point of needing entirely different species classifications.
It's now 5 books. The earliest was Crudrat, and that works like a prequel to the new ones.
Then there's The 5th Gender, a noir mystery in a space station with tentacle aliens and much sex. That one came out under G. L. Carriger—which is the alt she uses for her books containing more explicit sex.
Onto the Tinkered Starsong, then. This trilogy was released this year so I've been patiently waiting for all three in order to read them all together, and I'm glad I did, it was definitely the best way for me to enjoy them the most.
You might guess from the title that it's about music, good job.
Tinkered is the term for all the changes once made to Sapiens, and it covers everything from implanted tech, to changes to DNA. It's how Sapiens spread across the stars: they simply made themselves into whatever was needed.
Unfortunately somewhere amidst all the tinkering, the Singularity happened. Now there's a whole section of space where nobody can go—the Quarantine zone—and everyone was forced to agree that more tinkering was a bad idea.
The Wheel is where Crudrats come from. There's a whole book about it, which follows different characters, but the main character in the trilogy was also once a Crudrat.
The Wheel is incredibly xenophobic, incredibly elitist, full of absolute assholes, and get around the agreement not to tinker by just altering the DNA of fetuses instead and calling it triggering. They do it to all of them. Everyone gets it before they're born, and the idea is to create the perfect person for whatever role they're intended to play.
Unfortunately, it doesn't always work as planned. Phex, our Starsong main character, for example, was implanted at 6yrs old with the brain chip that all Wheel citizens carry. But his immune system rejected it—all the triggering worked, but that bit worked too well.
Without a chip—whether because it was rejected like Phex, or for whatever reason the kid just wasn't perfect enough—they don't exist. All the rights and privileges belonging to citizens are based on the existence of that chip. Without one, they're not even considered people.
And there's only one place for the not-people. They become Crudrats.
The Wheel uses antimatter tech, like most, but theirs is kind of inefficient, and leftover crud constantly gathers in the tunnels where blades attempt to flush it out. The ‘rats run those tunnels, learning gymnastic tricks on the go in order to avoid the blades, gather the crud with a scoop, and feed it to the murmel they carry on their back/shoulders.
A murmel is a very loud creature who screams when unhappy (which is a lot) and lives entirely off the remains of used antimatter. They ride the ‘rats, and sometimes choose one to be their own.
As for the blades…it's every bit as bullshit dangerous as it sounds. You have to be fast, small, and able to think and adjust very quickly because those things never stop moving, and they cut deep.
The murmel is weighed before and after a run, and the amount of crud collected is how much food you get. Minus anything for any damage you might have caused.
And food is a loose term here, they get cubes of processed stuff.
Also, running the blades means your hair turns permanently blue. It's a thing.
Anyway, do read Crudrat because it's great and has lots more info.
On to Phex. He was never a great Crudrat, and has the scars to prove it. He managed to escape, and request refugee status on Attacon 7, where he begins the first book, Divinity 36, as a barista.
The Divinity is the creation of the Dyesi, a species of Sapien with hues of blue and purple for skin, and expressive crests around their ears which serve to communicate mood and thought. They have the especial skill of skinsift, wherein sound changes the colours of their skin.
The Pantheons of the Divinity are the makers of Godsong. Always 6 to a Pantheon: a High Cantor and a Low Cantor—these sing the song. A Light Grace and a Dark Grace—these use their physical skills to change the way the music reflects on the Sifters. And 2 Dyesi sifters, whose skin shows the music.
Performances take place in Domes, structures specially created by the Dyesi to reflect the colours of the Sifters.
Together, this creates a Godsong. And a good performance cause Godfix, which is basically where all the Sapiens stand and stare gormlessly at the beauty and majesty of it all.
And beauty is the entire point, for the Dyesi. Everything is about beauty for them. Everyone who makes it into a Pantheon gets to have plastic surgery to change everything from the shapes of their features, to the colours of their skin, according to Dyesi beauty standards. All physical and musical beauty must be at its pinnacle.
So Phex, of course, winds up auditioning for Godhood, then is taken to Divinity 36, which exists on a moon orbiting the Dyesi planet, and from there the tale goes on.
But no spoilers, so I’m stopping there as far as plot goes.
Back to Miss Gail. There are certain staples of her books that a regular reader can expect, for example:
People don’t die for dramatic effect.
Someone is going to fall in love where they shouldn’t.
Grumpy gits with a heart of gold dealing with overly cheerful people with deep seated insecurity.
Sure it’s a very different universe from the Parasolverse, but her writing is so strong and recognisable that it doesn’t feel wholly new.
She writes beautifully. When she’s describing things like the landscape from Phex’s point of view, you see and hear and feel everything he does, evoked with deceptively complex brushstrokes. These places don’t exist, but in reading about them it’s easy to feel like she’s been there, and in turn taken you there.
I also love the lack of infodump. It can mean confusion at first as you try to assemble the pieces, but you learn to trust her with it. She starts with the scaffolding, giving structure, then layers everything into place—and takes all 3 books to do it, too. There's never a moment (not even after finishing) where you think you have all the info you want. But you do get all the info you need, and a whole lot of what you want, all parceled out like little rewards for getting that far.
And of course it wouldn’t be Miss Gail without all of the queer rep!
The Dyesi, for the most part, use the “it” pronoun—that we find out early on, and made me very happy because that’s my pronoun too.
We have forbidden gay romance shenanigans.
We have the Dyesi being entirely uncomfortable with sex stuff.
We have a trans Sapien right at the forefront.
Not everyone is queer, but many of them are, and it’s treated—as it should be—as no issue. I love that about Miss Gail’s books. She understands queer folk exist and should see themselves, and she uses it in her work.
Finally—the character arcs are, as always, subtle but excellent. Being inside Phex’s head as he figures himself out is great, and seeing him also figure everyone else out, and adjust to their changes, is really well done.
It’s an amazing Space Opera, where Miss Gail just lets her imagination run free. If you want space shenanigans, found family, soup ladles, and very cool Sapiens, this is for you. You can grab the books now (I get nothing for the links, or for writing about the books, I just loved them):
That’s all for this week! Before I see you again, a couple of cool things:
We have a reddit! Visit https://www.reddit.com/r/TeamCuddles. I’ve been posting some of my extensive back catalogue, plus a couple of new stories that I’ve only posted there.
Such as: White Noise.
Which was also narrated by a youtuber.
And my first Two Sentence Horror.
See you next time! Please do subscribe and share!