Book review: Medusa Uploaded

Medusa Uploaded (The Medusa Cycle #1), by Emily Devenport

Description: (from Macmillan)

“My name is Oichi Angelis, and I am a worm.

They see me every day. They consider me harmless. And that’s the trick, isn’t it?”

A generation starship can hide many secrets. When an Executive clan suspects Oichi of insurgency and discreetly shoves her out an airlock, one of those secrets finds and rescues her.

Officially dead, Oichi begins to rebalance power one assassination at a time and uncovers the shocking truth behind the generation starship and the Executive clans.

Medusa Uploaded is set on a generation ship housing class struggle, politics and mysteries. It follows Oishi, a young woman working to dismantle the system, she’s a killer, a spy, a chameleon… She’s also a very funny, curious, positive and nice person to follow. The way she narrates her killings and the way she navigates the ship, her life and other interactions made me like her a lot and makes for a very entertaining novel. The fact that she teams up with some kind of cool AI is another box ticked on my favourite things to find in books!

The narration of the novel can be quite complicated, going back and forth in the past present and future, the only indication being who’s dead or not yet. I read this book in a short period of time and discussing it with a friend and I think it’s the best way to go. I was still confused on several occasions and even after finishing it I’m still not sure I understood all of it. It’s the kind of book that doesn’t explain everything plainly and trusts the reader to figure things out and remember important informations. It’s something I really like, even if I think I might have missed some details once or twice.

I really liked the way musics and movies were used in the novel. It makes for a lot of classic and pop culture reference that, even when not being familiar with all of them, was very enjoyable.

The amount of people being killed (or almost killed) by being spaced out of airlocks is a bit comical when looking back but it sure sounds very useful and a cleaner way to go.

The way Oishi brings people together and around herself was one of my favourite thing, which reminded me slightly of Breq from the Imperial Radch trilogy.
The author said on goodreads that “It’s a stand-alone book set in the same universe as the upcoming sequel.” which makes me think there might not be more of Oishi, but at least the complexity of this book can make for a very interesting re-read, as well as the joy to be back with a cool-headed, compassionate, badass scheming woman.

 

Content warnings: gang rapes, suicide, mass killing