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Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by [Kelly Robson]

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Kelly Robson

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach Kindle Edition

by Kelly Robson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 869 ratings

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Finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards
"Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach is a tour-de-force, with nuanced characters in a masterfully conceived world of stunning, mind-bending eco-tech." --Annalee Newitz
Experience this far-reaching, mind-bending science fiction adventure that uses time travel to merge climate fiction with historical fantasy. From Nebula Award winning author Kelly Robson
Discover a shifting history of adventure as humanity clashes over whether to repair their ruined planet or luxuriate in a less tainted past.
In 2267, Earth has just begun to recover from worldwide ecological disasters. Minh is part of the generation that first moved back up to the surface of the Earth from the underground hells, to reclaim humanity's ancestral habitat. She's spent her entire life restoring river ecosystems, but lately the kind of long-term restoration projects Minh works on have been stalled due to the invention of time travel. When she gets the opportunity take a team to 2000 BC to survey the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, she jumps at the chance to uncover the secrets of the shadowy think tank that controls time travel technology.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Print length

236 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Tordotcom
Publication date

March 13, 2018
File size

1445 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Thrums with a delicious tension carefully developed among the wonderful characters." NEW YORK TIMES

"Packs an enormous wallop of imagination and world building." - BARNES & NOBLE

"This richly imagined adventure marks Robson as an author to watch." - PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY

"Robson, who has garnered major award nominations in a career of only a few years, builds both her future and ancient worlds with convincing detail for such a short novel, populating them with characters who are believable and engrossing, even when they have tentacles. It's likely to be one of the most impressive debut novels of the year." - Gary K. Wolfe, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"Sci-fi fans and non-sci-fi fans alike should pick up a copy of Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach. There's enough wicked cool tech to satisfy hard SF geeks, character development to please SF dilettantes, and fantastic storytelling to enamor everyone else." - Alex Brown, TOR.COM

"The story is a marvel." Adrienne Martini, LOCUS

"Challenges and delights." POPULAR MECHANICS Best SF Books of 2018

"The sheer richness of invention in Robson's story... is close to astonishing, and her conclusion is both surprising and dramatically appropriate. If there had been any doubt that Robson is one of the most accomplished and versatile new writers, Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach should dispel it." - Gary K. Wolfe, LOCUS
"Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach is a splendid read, one that had me wanting far more by the time I turned the last page." THE VERGE

"Rich, nuanced characters, deeply compelling story, and a powerfully conceived world make Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach one of the best novellas of recent times, one of the highlight books of 2018, and something to look for on awards ballots come 2019." - Jonathan Strahan

"Robson creates a nuanced take on how time travel can be used in science fiction beyond the typical 'prevent event from happening' trope. Time travel is treated thoughtfully here, with rules and consequences that enrich the novel to the last page. - RT BOOK REVIEWS

"A full-blown success." THE IMAGINARIES

"Escapism isn't a dirty word in my lexicon, but hopefully we keep getting books like Lucky Peach, that balance out fantasy with the long, uncertain, but rewarding work to fix our world." FICTION UNBOUND

About the Author

Kelly Robson is an award-winning Canadian short fiction writer. Her time travel adventure Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach won the 2019 Aurora Award and was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, and Locus awards; while her novelette “A Human Stain” won the 2018 Nebula Award. She is also a winner of the Prix Aurora and has been a finalist for the World Fantasy, Astounding, and Sunburst Awards.

Kelly grew up in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, and as a teenager was crowned princess of the Hinton Big Horn Rodeo. From 2008 to 2012, she wrote the wine and spirits column for Chatelaine, Canada’s largest women’s magazine. Kelly consults as a creative futurist for organizations such as UNICEF and the Suncor Energy Foundation. She and her wife, writer A.M. Dellamonica, live in downtown Toronto.

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0756JDSZM
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tordotcom (March 13, 2018)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 13, 2018
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1445 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 236 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #409,647 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #72 in Kindle Singles: Science Fiction & Fantasy
- #1,129 in Time Travel Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #1,586 in Time Travel Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.1 869 ratings

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Kelly Robson

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Like you, I'm a passionate reader. I spent most of my teenage years either hanging out at the drugstore waiting for new issues of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, or when I was in the city, lurking in the SF and Fantasy section of the bookstore. This was pre-Internet and since there were no bookstores in my town and the library was pretty bare, good books -- the kind that made my heart sing -- were precious treasures. To this day, nothing is more important to me than reading, nothing is more delicious than a great novel, and few people are as important as my favorite writers.

My writing life has been pretty diverse. I've edited science books, and from 2008 to 2012 I had the great good luck to write a monthly wine column for Chatelaine, the largest women's magazine in Canada. I've published short fiction at Tor.com, Asimov's Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, and a number of anthologies. Several of my stories have been chosen for "year's best" anthologies, and in the past two years I've been a finalist for several high-profile awards.

My favorite writers are Connie Willis, Walter Jon Williams, Michael Bishop, Jack Womack, Hilary Mantel, Alan Bennett, Patrick O'Brian, A.M. Dellamonica, Saladin Ahmed, Gemma Files, Maureen McHugh, Cat Rambo, Peter Watts, and Caitlin Sweet. I have a huge soft spot for classic literature, including Jane Austen, Anne Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Thomas Hardy, Ford Maddox Ford, John Galsworthy, George Eliot, and Mrs. Gaskell. I also love reading non-fiction -- history, historical geography, and science.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

869 global ratings

5 star		37%
4 star		40%
3 star		18%
2 star		4%
1 star		2%

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Tomasthanes

"Why be human when you can be more?"

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 29, 2021

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There's a lot to like about the world and the technology in this book.

To start with, each chapter starts with a small chunk of text about events, gods, and people in Mesopotamia, around 2000 B.C. At first you just read and accept it hoping but not knowing whether it will be part of the actual story.

The world is after some apocalyptic event ("plagues" and "fires, storms, and floods") that drove everyone underground. And then there were underground fires which drove people back to the surface.

The first people to head up were the "plague babies". They formed "habs" (habitats?) with an embedded banking system to help encourage people to return and to fund environmental remediation efforts.

Then the "fat babies" came to the surface and, after leaving their crèches, formed their "hives".

Oh, and then there are the "hells". I'm guessing that these were underground areas where the fires were burning. An apt name. The only hells mentioned by name were Sudbury and Bangladesh.

Technology is more advanced than our current day. Like [author:Martha Wells|87305]'s Murderbot series, there are streams of information. This author was a bit more visual in projecting the streams in virtual screens (I assume this was painted on their retina because it appeared to be in the air in front of them) and gestures to send a stream to another person in the party or in a meeting.

Every person had a "fake", an avatar that could represent them in meeting and handle all incoming interruptions (email, chat, everything). The "fake" was able to do about 20% (my number) of what the actual person could do. They could respond to simple questions, schedule meetings, etc.

There was bio-mechanical body modification. The main character (if you could call her that), Minh, had six mechanical ("octopus") legs. "Why be human when you can be more?" Evaluating that statement would take more room than I have here.

Each person could control their "biom" (the endocrine/chemical balance inside of their body). Sometimes this was detrimental.

The story centers around one of the bank's requests for research to prepare to re-develop (restore) the Mesopotamian Basin where the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers are. For some reason, they wanted to restore it to its 2000 B.C. state. No explanation was given for this.

This was the driving reason for time travel to the past to survey the biological and geological state of the area at that time. LEO satellites were used to do the land surveys. Lots of equipment was brought to capture samples of critters, plants, water, and soil.

Unfortunately, none of this made it back to the present (of the book). Like the TV show "Lost", I really didn't understand the ending. There was singing but no dancing. There was a shovel and a hoe but no vegetables ("Potatoes. Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew. What we need is a few good taters.").

This author has written other books and, despite the ending, I would be interested in reading them.

Helpful

Reviews & Robots

A complicated future awaits

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 2, 2019

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In Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, a complicated future awaits, complete with invasive technology, time travel tourism, and a world stripped of natural resources. In this masterfully written novel, the author has given us a fascinating set of characters determined to help the world regain the life it once knew by visiting a past filled with life. By raising questions on ethics, generational differences and a world run by banks, Robson has given us a glimpse of a possible future our current reality could become.

Narrative Form
There are two narratives running side-by-side. An ancient narrative of a king preparing to fight a monster. A new future with a decimated landscape just starting to accept people again. Both gradually work toward each other until the final chapter, revealing a surprising ending that pairs the past and the future together. I loved the foreshadowing and what it added to the story. It brought the knowing-the-future aspect of time travel front and center, giving the reader a leg up over the characters.

A Complicated Future
There’s a lot going on in this future, with mention of plagues and living underground for decades (maybe centuries). The world is dead when they emerge and people like the main character are constantly working to bring it back to life. The older people clash heads with the younger, their goals vastly different for the world around them. After decades back in the world, they’ve already devolved into cities completely reliant on the whims of bankers and financial analysts. This version of the future is as timely as it gets. Much like today, the older generations want to continue with the status quo while the younger generations want to branch out for themselves. This conflict between vastly different generations with opposite worldviews is a telling critique of the world we’ve gotten ourselves into.

Time Travel
Time travel isn’t met with awe or derision from this population, but with curiosity and a desire to become a tourist in ancient Egypt or any number of past civilizations. It has of course been monetized, keeping in line with the world run by bankers, and these characters are given a chance to use the technology for good in order to help the world rebuild using surveys of a past filled with plant, animal and human life. They take their actions for granted due to the creation of time loops that don’t affect the future. It makes for an important ethical question on how we should act toward people who are thrust into this future reality without choice. Does life, and their world, matter if they don’t affect the future? There are varying opinions among the crew.

The Tech
Crazy prosthetics. Internal monitoring systems that play with the body’s chemistry. Fast traveling pods that resort round-the-world travel to a matter of hours. Drones and robots and 3D printers that create anything the scientists might need. It’s brilliant and seamlessly integrated into the story. Everything is necessary, nothing is added just for the cool or wow effect. I’m very impressed with how hard the author worked to create this fully developed world and the necessities the population relies on. Well done.

A Rift Between Characters
These characters are fully realized, complete with flaws and vastly different ideologies that mirror their experiences in the world. The older main character is jaded toward the younger generation due to the hard work she’s had to commit to in order to create a world for them. The younger generation wants to believe in the world again, to move beyond hard work to understand life, as is portrayed by a younger member of the team. The corporation man plays an expected role, holding money and the company agenda over the goals and ideals of the crew. A final crew member simply wants to see a horse. It’s an evolving atmosphere with this small group and it makes for a very engaging and thought-provoking narrative.

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Top reviews from other countries

Leo

An original to look out for!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 15, 2018

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Fascinating, imaginatively dense and highly compelling sci-fi novella about time-travelling ecological preservation projects? For sure!

Since Robson is evidently a devourer of sci-fi, this reads like a story for sci-fi devourers. The details come thick and fast at the beginning in simple enough language--habitats are "habs", "bioms" monitor health, "whispering" is like telepathy (right?), there are "bots" helping out around the peach orchard, the protagonist has six legs--to name a few! Yet the writing style is such that it presents these ideas to readers who are already very familiar with sci-fi concepts. If a detail of the world or its history doesn't explicitly relate to the story being told, it's still left in but not explained as in-depth--risking confusion for the sake of denser worldbuilding without sacrificing pace. A daring strategy--worked for me. I guess that's why they say sci-fi is the literature of ideas, and there are a multitude within.

Also, the story naturally leaves scope in and around its timeline for future works, which I've gleaned is the author's plan. Like other readers, I'm holding off speaking more about the plot because I'm not sure I understood it completely (though I re-read the opening chapter again and understood it much better.) Anyway, that's fine: the best books are worth re-reading. And the best authors pursue their concepts with such strong authorial voices that it's like, "Okay, you're gonna have to slow down and learn how to read me, because this hasn't been done before." And Robson is an original to look out for!

3 people found this helpful

Susan Stepney

an uneven, but interesting, reading experience

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 1, 2021

Verified Purchase

Minh, an old woman with six mechanical tentacles in place of her legs, restores river systems on a ecologically devastated Earth. When she is given the opportunity to travel back over 4000 years in time to study the Euphrates river in its pristine glory, she is at first dubious – recently-developed time travel has nearly destroyed her livelihood – then more enthusiastic. She pulls together her equally dysfunctional team, and off they go. But they discover that the Euphrates is quite heavily populated, and the natives are not at all primitive. Minh and her team might be lucky to survive.

Some great world building, some laugh-out-loud proposal bidding practices, the obligatory post-apocalyptic time travel technology, a seemingly missing page, job-obsessed characters, and a peculiarly abrupt ending, make this an uneven, but interesting, reading experience.

M. Hepworth

A clever and imaginative debut

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 20, 2018

Verified Purchase

This novella (approximately 40,000 words) is set in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity have mostly retreated below ground to avoid climatic disaster, with a few people working above ground on new ways to live. In this we meet Minh, an old scientist who has lived through the darkest plague years and ended up with 6 tentacular legs. She’s worked her whole life on allowing humanity to try to live aboveground in domes, and to some extent can’t see beyond continuing to do this. Her assistant Kiki is much younger, from a generation dubbed “the fat babies” and wants to break out of the status quo but isn’t really sure how.
The first half of the story lays a lot of this groundwork and background, but then launches into a slightly odder second half – Time Travel! Unfortunately this type of time travel is pretty much useless for fixing the world – you create alternate realities that don’t impact on your present. However it’s still of some use – someone wants to go back and study the unblemished ecology of Mesopotamia in order to work out how to fix it, and they hire Minh and Kiki for the job. The most interesting strand here is a set of quick switches to the perspective of the local king, who has to deal with weird strangers appearing and a priest using the situation as a power play. This whole thing is highly imaginative and has some great characters running through it. If I was to criticise I'd say that I’m not sure the leisurely first half left enough time and space to deal with such a big idea in the second, and so the ending feels a little rushed. This is a clever and imaginative debut.

2 people found this helpful

Chris Shaw

Holding my breath!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 3, 2018

Verified Purchase

I was intrigued by the story line when I first came across this book, and was not disappointed when I started reading it. Unlike others, I didn't find the start to be slow, and liked the way the characters were introduced and built upon. I grew to be engrossed in those characters and to care about them and what happened to them. The biotechnology in the story was fascinating to read about, and made me think about the possibilities of such things in our future (way in our future). At the end I was slightly disappointed by how suddenly everything was finished and left hanging. So i really hope that Kelly Robson writes a follow on to this book, and I can learn what becomes of these characters I have come to care about?

One person found this helpful

GrumpyGranny

Left me wanting more

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 6, 2020

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed this story, the worldbuilding was good and the characters were engaging. I was really disappointed to discover that it was a standalone story, without a sequel - I wanted to know what happened to everyone!

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