The deeper they get into their charade, however, the more they start to doubt their convictions. Yet their survival banks on mastering the holy mech they are supposedly destined for, and convincing the Emperor of the Faithful that they are the real deal. Their angel is a delusion, brought on by hereditary space exposure. Raised on a remote moon colony, they don't believe in any kind of god.

It's an old, familiar story: a young person hears the voice of an angel saying they have been chosen as a warrior to lead their people to victory in a holy war.īut Misery Nomaki (she/they) knows they are a fraud.

(Sept.)Ĭorrection: An earlier version of this review incorrectly noted that the author had won a Nebula award.An immersive, electrifying space-fantasy, Neon Yang's debut novel The Genesis of Misery is full of high-tech space battles and political machinations, starring a queer and diverse array of pilots, princesses, and prophetic heirs. Themes of faith, suffering, queerness, and duty are given plenty of room to breathe as Misery and their ragtag gang of friends struggle to navigate a universe as complex and gorgeously rendered as it is hostile to those on its margins. Yang’s prose is lush and gripping throughout, and they accomplish the tall order of seamlessly weaving worldbuilding into the dynamic motion of the story, incorporating fascinating details without ever risking expository fatigue. As the increasingly powerful voice of the angel that Misery hears in their head draws them into a galaxy-wide political conflict, they must decide whether to trust new allies, including the intense and magnetic royal renegade Lady Lee Alodia Lightning, and determine whether their purpose is truly divine-or irreversibly damned. Misery Nomaki, an apparently unremarkable resident of a down-and-out mining planet, is able to shape and manipulate holystone, a skill only available to two classes of people: saints of a holy order and those in the lethal throes of voidmadness. In this vibrant tour de force, Yang ( The Black Tides of Heaven) presents a simultaneous embrace and inversion of Chosen One narratives.

The genesis of misery by neon yang