Tobias S. Buckell knows what he’s doing. His first novel, CRYSTAL RAIN, was one of the best science fiction books of 2006, and its follow-up, RAGAMUFFIN, is now on the short list for 2007.
The descendants of Caribbean islanders are the heroes of Buckell’s novels, and yes, Buckell grew up in the Caribbean, but that isn’t what makes RAGAMUFFIN good. What does is his razor-sharp focus on the story he wants to tell, and his dogged determination to tell that story despite the glimmerings of a million cool possibilities on the horizon.
Yes, bad writing coaches will say, “write what you know,” and a ton of writers with exotic backgrounds use that as a crutch of authenticity. “This isn’t bad writing,” they say. “It’s authentic.”
Buckell doesn’t need to play this card. His life and experiences give him cultural and motivational understandings that a person from, say, Green Bay Wis. might not have, but Buckell’s skill comes from how he grew up, not where. He’s got a keen eye for characters, and in RAGAMUFFIN, the plot truly is driven by the characters’ actions and decisions, not some omniscient Hand of the Writer nudging scenes along to the next set piece.
All of these nuts and bolts would mean jack if the story didn’t deliver. CRYSTAL RAIN was a thrilling and spooky adventure that unveiled a world that was just a tiny corner of a much, much bigger situation. RAGAMUFFIN zooms back from that planet and goes after a bigger picture: the fate of humanity. The universe, you see, is controlled by an alien empire that places strict controls on humanity’s development, using brainwashed humans as their quisling enforcers and barely tolerating the tightly controlled human colonies scattered among the universe’s network of wormholes. But things are getting strange in the empire: Colonies are being destroyed, and something’s afoot.
The book begins by following a lone warrior with a deadly secret and a mission of vengeance, and as circumstances force her together with likely and unlikely allies, she meets up with our heroes from CRYSTAL RAIN, and the problems really begin.
Buckell doesn’t fear change in his characters, and while that might be bad for his chances of ever making his universe into a mass-market franchise, it does wonders for RAGAMUFFIN. The protagonists struggle against amazing odds, and they don’t always succeed.
Buckell has succeeded, though, and he demonstrates again that adventure and well-written, high-concept speculation are not as mutually exclusive as they seem to be these days. With CRYSTAL RAIN or as a standalone story, RAGAMUFFIN is first-class science fiction. –Ryun Patterson
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
CRYSTAL RAIN by Tobias S. Buckell
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