Palace

Katharine Kerr and Mark Kreighbaum 1996 Buy from Amazon.com

Palace is set in an area of the universe that has been cut off from the rest of civilisation for several thousand years. On one planet is Palace, a city on a jungle world of fungus and uninhabited except for that one city. The city is divided into sects where the various people and other species live, including Pleasure, the district where the unauthorised children are sent to live forever, genetic culls who are often trained into service as sex workers.

The story is based around one woman named Vida, although other perspectives are used often to fill out the progression of the story. She is a girl almost old enough to be marked and start work in Pleasure when the infamous assassin Vi-Kata tries to kill her.

It is revealed that she is in fact the unauthorised child of the L’Var family, all of whom were executed years earlier for treason. As the last of the line, she has her ticket out of Pleasure to become the chief patron of the L’Var family, but her new life is not how she imagined from her holonovels.

This is a fast paced novel that flows beautifully. The main characters were introduced early, allowing me to become familiar with them and knowing their personal quirks. Yet it was not in any way rushed, and although they appear quickly it did not feel forced, but integrated well with the events that begin the story.

Those who are familiar with Katharine Kerr’s Deverry series will recognise her ability to sculpt endearing characters succintly by demonstrating their personalities within the action of the story. They are reflective enough to show their motivations and fit well within their own environment.

Two of the most prominent characters are Rico, a young apprentice of the cyber guild, and his uncle Hi, the guildmaster. They operate on the Map, a kind of network the controls many of the municiple functions of Palace and houses the broken AIs brought when the settlers first arrived. The Map is used for education, commerce, and general communication.

There are a number of alien species, which are described just enough to give an idea of their general appearance without belabouring the point. There are the Lep, a reptilian species that exist in an uneasy truce with the humans on Palace. The L’Var family was executed after a war between the Lep and the humans, in which the main Lep planet in the system attempted to invade Palace. Since then the resident Lep have had their rights eroded, including their ability to access the Map and take various kinds of jobs. Some feel that it is time to fight back against the oppressive measures introduced by the First Citizen.

Another type of alien are the Saccules, known as stinkers because they release scents as part of their communication, neuter Saccules are kept as slaves in Palace. Most assume that are only clever animals but the Papal delegate Sister Romero thinks they are sapient and wants to investigate.

This is a rich and complex environment which has a past and its own culture, which affect what happens to the people in the present. The cyber scenes are particularly well done, using imagery to show the Map and what people use it for, and never becoming to technical or theoretical. Each character has their own agenda and the political situation can be as dangerous as the assassin that is loose on Palace.

Although there are many characters the plot keeps them all involved, none are superfluous and they are easy to keep track of, each occupying their unique place.

I very much enjoyed this novel, and look forward to reading its sequel by Mark Kreighbaum.

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