About To Charge reviews Ragamuffin

July 19th 2007 at 11:28 am

Another review of Ragamuffin to point to via About To Charge:

I have a hard time believing it, but as far as I’ve seen I’m the only reviewer so far to note the strong diasporic bent in Tobias S. Buckell’s new novel Ragamuffin (the first third of which can be read for free right here). In the book, humans are scattered about, either as essentially slaves, incredibly oppressed lower classes, or refugees–those refugees, the titular Ragamuffins, being a perfect example of Caribbean factor that draws people to Buckell’s work. That many of these people pine for the long lost, cut-off-from-other-worlds planets on which humanity has thrived (Earth, Chimson, and New Anegada) just strengthens the book’s connection to diaspora myths (the promised land, and all that). Of course, the Caribbean (where Buckell himself grew up) is home to many displaced and oppressed people, and the birth of the Rastafarian religion married all that very closely to similar Jewish traditions (many call police “Babylon” for God’s sake). Maybe the link to this oppressed diaspora tradition stands out so strongly to me because of my own Jewish upbringing, but I think it’s good to point out that the Caribbean influence runs a good deal deeper than characters with dreadlocks who say “seen”. (Although, thankfully, those are present in great abundance as well.)

This is another very thoughtful and meaty review of Ragamuffin. And despite all that heavy stuff:

Whereas Crystal Rain gave us a vivid world, Ragamuffin expands that to the greater universe–complete with a map in the front (which I always love in a book). We get a sprawling system of planets and wormholes that all stands in as a very nice statement on oppression (along the lines of what I covered in the first paragraph) but more importantly provides plenty of fodder for excitement. I think the term “non-stop” fits the book very nicely.

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