Carnival

The apocalypse that destroyed Earth was man-made and intentional. The surviving humans, all from southern continental areas of old Earth (and explicitly non-white), have spread to many new planets bringing divergent permutations of Earth culture with them while being governed by a controlling Coalition. Michelangelo and Vincent are ambassadors and spies. They have travelled to New Amazonia to negotiate a treaty with the militaristic matriarchal society there. They also have a long personal history with each other that they must face again after being separated for 17 years. All the characters have hidden agendas and there is additionally an underlying mystery of the world itself.

Elizabeth Bear develops a complex world with multiple human cultures that have their own distinct aspects, both good and bad. I enjoyed viewing the story from the differing perspectives of the characters each with their own cultural biases. The story is rather slow-paced through much of the book, perhaps because there is a lot of political intrigue that is developed, but it is rich with detail and the pace picks up towards the end as events come to a head and various threads are tied together. I found the end a bit anti-climactic after all that had been built up, but in retrospect it has it's own logic and I do still find myself thinking about this book and the differing human societies in it.

Elizabeth Bear was my random WOGF author and I chose this title because it was available at my local used bookshop. I would definitely pick up more by this author to see how she develops worlds and characters.