Miss New Monte Chivalry over there knew her lines. I almost hated to step on her scene, but she could vamp the debs any day of the week, and a girl only gets one first impression. [loc. 104]
Sapphic romance featuring a con artist and a disaffected socialite, set on a space habitat beyond Pluto, with a Jazz Age ambience, a Black heroine, and a subplot involving kosher duck. I hadn't connected the author's name with her excellent, Hugo-nominated short story 'This Is New Gehesran Calling' (published in Consolation Songs) so I was trepidatious about this novel, but I'm happy to report that it is just as much fun as you'd expect from my description.
Professional gambler and con artist Ruthi Johnson sets out to charm Esteban Mendez-Yuki, the man who dumped her sister Jules: he's heir to a vast insurance corporation, though would rather talk about soil types. Ruthi poses as a naive young debutante and infiltrates the high society of New Monte: her similarity to her sister attracts the eye of Esteban the Cad, but also snags the attention of his glamorous sister Solada, who has an eye for the girls and a swashbuckling sense of style. Ruthi finds herself tangled up in an old acquaintance's plot against Sol, who may be too sharp not to spot that Ruthi has a scheme of her own.
The futuristic setting had plenty of fun details (like a hair salon where the gravity continually alters 'so you could check out how your new hairstyle looked in any sort of an atmosphere'; like cockail boxes, and jewel-studded atmospheric breathers), and though the focus was largely on the trading aristocracy, there were glimpses of less privileged lives as well -- not least Ruthi's own past. Plenty of diversity, too: Ruthi is dark-skinned (and aware that there are some places still too 'light' for her to fit in); Sol's chain of sapphic flings is nothing remarkable, though some young women might not want a long-term contract in case they end up living somewhere where the rules about 'spousal contracts' are more old-fashioned; Ruthi and Jules speak Yiddish together as a secret language, and the kosher duck is actually relevant to the plot. The attraction between Ruthi and Sol, with the increasingly awkward overlay of Ruthi's alter ego Lady Evelyn, felt sparky and exciting, and the various threads of the story wove together very satisfactorily. I liked this a lot, and shall now search out the author's other works.
Fulfils the ‘Palindrome on the cover’ rubric of the 52 books in 2024 challenge. ('Eve'.)
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK Publication Date is 04 JUN 2024.
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