I love tea and this book is a great read for tea lovers who like a little political intrigue and space opera in their brew.

The Splinter in the Sky is an interesting concept that was in desperate need of more time before publication. There are the beginnings of an intricate story of political intrigue, but the finished product reads like a first draft. There were too many coincidences and random events, character motivations were impossible to follow, and the world building was limited to the bare minimum.

Likening this book to NK Jemisin does a disservice to both the book and its readers. It creates expectations of depth and complexity that The Splinter in the Sky was not prepared to meet. The writing style is simplistic and to the point. Though this makes the book a fast and easy read, it also makes it a bit dull.

This book rushes through an incredibly complex political intrigue story and fills the gaps with coincidences that require the reader to suspend their disbelief a bit too often. The beginning of the book is a series of random events to get the main character, Enitan, where she needs to be for the story to take place. These awkward moments in the plot highlight that Enitan is the last person who should be in this position. It could have been charming if the book had ever seriously recognized that she was out of her depth. However, instead of showing Enitan struggle and grow, she is miraculously able to navigate complex situations flawlessly and all of the information she needs falls into her lap. The reveal and defeat of the main villain happen way too easily, once again making it feel like the plot just miraculously happened around Enitan.

The Splinter in the Sky is first and foremost an anti-imperial SciFi story. It was interesting to explore political intrigue from Enitan’s perspective as an outsider and a “savage.” I wish the Vaalbaran Empire had been fleshed out beyond the evil imperial empire that she hates so much. There was a lot of room to expand the world building and make the book feel more complete.

I enjoyed the overall story and see potential for both the author and the book. This could serve as a fantastic introduction for readers new to the space opera genre. However, the reliance on convenient reveals and the lack of world building makes the story feel frustratingly incomplete.

In this absorbing science fiction and fantasy blend, Enjinen Ijebu makes her living as a scribe for the monks on her home moon, Koriko, Enjinen has developed rare fluency in the dominant language of the Holy Vaalbaran Empire, who conquered and colonized the Koriko moon twenty some years prior.

Few on Koriki can speak or write in the Vaalbaran languge of Orin, as the Vaalarann’s continue to treat Enjinen’s people as savages who they need to repress rather than put on a path to citizenship in the Empire. Koriko is filled with fully masked Imperial Forces Yet whereas the Koriko culture overflows with art, inventions, and creativity, the Vaalbaran’s lack any culture of their own – dressing all in black, living in bleak and black Obsidian rooms, and worship each of their consecutive Emperors as Gods.

In her free time, Enjinen specializes in the art of growing the best tea in the universe- years-long intensive work and creativity with coming up with blends. She lives in a cozy home pod with her nonbinary older sibling Xiang, until one day Xiang has been kidnapped and is disappeared. Enjinen volunteers to be a hostage to the Vaalbaran Emperor in order to search for her sibling and gets sent to the Vaalabaran capital known as the Splinter.

There she gets recruited in two completely opposing roles: serving as an informal advisor for the new Emperor Menkhet during the traditional tea ceremonies she starts hosting for the Vaalabaran nobles, as well as by the ruler of Vaalbaran’s most powerful enemy, the Ominirish Republic.

Enjinen gets swept up into the winds of war and develops an unexpectedly close relationship to the new Emperor, as she races against time to find her beloved sibling and somehow stop the Vaalbaran oppression and abduction of her Koriko people.

Powerfully set amidst the action is deep condemnation of the cultural appropriation by the conquering Vaalbarans, including looting of sacred objects, mangling of spiritual customs for their entertainment value, slavery, racism and the assurance by the conquerors of their own vast moral superiority. There’s also AI prejudice against a non-human species, the Synth (aka the synthetics) who fight for their own personhood.

Given the author’s an undergrad at Harvard- it’s stunning that she’s delivered an absolutely brilliant sci-fi novel with in-depth characterizations, complex relationships and plot twists that continually drive the story forward.

Thanks to Gallery Books, Saga Press and Netgalley for an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

Enitan and her brother live on a recently colonized moon. After her brother is kidnapped by their colonizers, Enitan offers to be the Empire’s hostage so that she can find her brother.

As she explores the ins and outs of the Empire, Enitan encounters entitled nobles, thieving anthropologists and ideologically blinded monks. At every turn, she is treated as lesser, seen as beneath those who were born to privilege.

In the most unlikely of places, she finds hope, both of finding her brother and of helping to create a more human future for the empire.

With a story that kept me guessing and a diverse cast of characters, I very much enjoyed this book. The world building and writing kept me engaged.

In the end, I could only wish that undoing the evils of centuries of colonialism and empire were as easy as it is for Enitan and her friends.

Sky Week at Tar Vol On marches on with The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa. Ashing-Giwa came onto my radar a little over a year ago with the outstanding short story “Paper Suns.” After that, I was bound to be intrigued by her debut novel, and it didn’t take much for The Splinter in the Sky to catch my eye.

The Splinter in the Sky stars Enitan, a scribe and tea aficionado from a small outpost recently conquered by the Holy Vaalbaran Empire. But when her sibling disappears and her conquerors seek a political hostage, she sees the opportunity to travel to the heart of the Empire and find the answers that may save her sibling. But what she finds is even more complicated, with a rival power distrustful of an uneasy peace and complicated machinations within the Empire making it hard to tell who is really pulling the strings.

It’s not an entirely unfamiliar setup, but a likable main character and immediate personal stakes make it easy to invest in the story, and a fluid writing style makes it a quick and easy read. But The Splinter in the Sky is clearly not satisfied being merely an easy-to-read political thriller about a likable main character; from the very beginning, it sets out the task of interrogating empire, and it refuses to overlook participation in war and conquest, even if the participant is friendly and expresses private misgivings about the affair.

But it’s a short novel, and it’s difficult to develop an espionage thriller and interrogate the inner workings of empire without running up the page count, leaving a lot to the reader’s interpretation, or taking a lot of narrative shortcuts. The Splinter in the Sky chose the third option. It’s not that the shortcuts felt especially shoddy; on the contrary, they often felt like classic genre tropes. It’s just that they pushed the reading experience toward “enjoy it, but don’t think too hard about it,” which undercut the thoughtful thematic exploration.

The setup is built on a few “right place, right time” (or perhaps “wrong place, wrong time”) moments, which are easy enough to overlook. Yes, they’re unlikely, but unlikely things happen all the time, and the unlikely things are what made the heroine the heroine, as opposed to a bystander in someone else’s story. It’s genre-standard, and it’s fine. But as the novel progresses and the convenient moments keep piling up, they become harder and harder to ignore. The lead develops an intimate relationship with a staggeringly powerful figure at lightning speed, just because the person was lonely and found the candor of an outsider refreshing. And, despite no training in either diplomacy or espionage, she easily navigates an unfamiliar political landscape and discovers hidden plots by overhearing drunken complaints at a party. Her movement is restricted when the narrative is trying to establish that she’s truly a hostage (despite being officially a guest), and yet whenever she needs to explore an unfamiliar area, the barriers disappear as though they’d never existed.

All of that is common in genre stories that touch on royalty and espionage—after all, it’s important to keep the story moving, and they are reasonably plausible ways to advance the plot—so it’s hard to list out the shortcuts and call them flaws. But if they’re not flaws, they’re at least missed opportunities. Time and time again, the book has the chance to establish real narrative weight, and time and time again, it chooses the light, easy option. And so the relationship with an imperial aristocrat doesn’t convey the deep tension of the colonized trying to balance her feelings between a friend’s personality and that friend’s actions, because the relationship arose nearly instantaneously and didn’t spend adequate time grappling with those difficulties. The revelation of the shadowy figures trying to exert their power in government had no weight behind it, because there was relatively little exposition building up the investigation and the key players involved. Neither were particularly bad subplots, it’s just that they belonged in breezy popcorn thrillers—they weren’t built up to have the kind of power necessary to support a more substantive story.

As a thriller, The Splinter in the Sky is reasonably entertaining. The twists may not be shocking, but it’s an easy read with likable characters. And while the thematic work may not have the emotional weight to make it a truly powerful piece, it doesn’t let people off the hook for being likable, and the lead seeing her culture turned into entertainment for the powerful lands with some force. Overall, it’s a solid read. But unlike the story that introduced me to Ashing-Giwa’s work in the first place, it’s not a great one.

Recommended if you like: fast-paced, anti-imperial sci-fi espionage.

Overall rating: 12 of Tar Vol’s 20. Three stars on Goodreads.

The Splinter in the Sky is Kemi Ashing-Giwais’ debut novel, and what a start we have here!
Sci-fi fans who love high stakes and to see ruthless empires fall at the hands of those they see as the least and don’t mind a light spattering of romance tune in to this one!
I was actually initially skeptical as to whether a standalone could deliver a story at the scale the description was promising but by the end of this story I have to say I was quite satisfied!
This story prompts several fascinating questions about colonization, revolution and what makes a society utopian all while making 400 pages pass like a dream. (This would make a great book club pick! 👀)
I’ll definitely be on the look out for more works by this author!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy!

So this was probably my bad when requesting this book.
I had never read this author before, and per the description I was under the assumption this was going to be more of a Urban Fantasy (more like normal life with added fantasy), I was not however expecting a high fantasy with a lot of context. I was not a fan of this, but only because it was definitely not what I was expecting.

This book was a surprise and an absolute delight. I love sci-fi, but I had no idea what to expect from this book. What I found was creative and immersive world building, engaging characters, and an interesting plot of political intrigue. I've read a lot of science fiction about empires, but this still managed to be novel and thought-provoking. I especially appreciated the way that woven throughout was a strong indictment of of empire and imperialism, whether it is carried out through military might or the commodification of cultural relics. It also clearly laid out the ways that imperialism impacts everyone, from the individual to whole societies, and forces people to make choices that they never should have to consider. Highly recommended, especially for fans of political science fiction.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Gallery Books for an advanced copy of this science fiction adventure about power, corruption, empires at war and tea.

Being Irish my family has that genetic memory having a nice cup of tea, usually for myself iced, when things are getting bad. It calms the mind, slows things down, and gives a person a chance to think before saying or doing anything that might come back and make the situation worse. My Nan could see the future in tea leaves. One can understand why a person would want to give up a safe job say as a scribe in an Empire almost constantly at war, and open up a tea place. The different brews, the smells, the comfort that would come from it. Especially when plotting against that same empire to free one's family is the other option. The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa is a debut science fiction, space opera story about collapsing empires, colonialism, being true to those one consider family, and of course a bit about tea.

A thousand years of war ends suddenly with the death of the God-Emperor of the Holy Vaalbaran Empire's daughter cut in half on the field of battle. The sight of the body makes the God-Emperor's lust for war, dissipate, and suddenly there is a peace. A peace that some want ended, and soon strange things are afoot around the Empire. All this means nothing to Enitan Ijabu, who is a scribe with dreams of opening a tea shoppe for those visiting the colony of Koriko, where Enitan lives. Enitan cares only for her brother, taking tests to place for university, when not wasting time with what could be called burn outs. Enitan also cares for her Ajana, who has powerful family in the colony. One night Xiang disappears from their housepod, only a pool of blood left behind. Enitan presses Ajana to help find Xiang, and that is when Enitan learns that many people are disappearing, and no one knows why. Soon Enitan efforts to find her brother bring bad things, and Enitan finds herself in trouble with no one to turn to, and becoming a spy her only option.

This is a story with a lot of ideas that really moves fast. In some ways I like this as so many books have become trilogies or a series that never goes anywhere. To have a story told in one book is pretty rare. At the same time there is a lot that I would liked tot have seen more of. The world is very interesting. The science seems possible, and well described. The author is going for a PhD in Earth & Planetary Science so that makes sense. The story does take a bit to get into, but once it does the book really hits. The characters are ok, some are not as well developed as others, however Enitan is a strong, well defined character and carries quite a bit of the story. There are a lot of coincidences that move the story along, some a little more than necessary. However the story is good, moves along well and makes me interested in what else the author is planning.

Recommended for fans of Arkady Martine or Rebecca Roanhorse, especially fans of strong female characters. There is a strong anti-colonial message that fits well with the story, which adds a lot to the story and what is happening.

HIGHLIGHTS
~let’s hear it for non-traditional family structures!
~when will colonialists realise colonising is cringe (and also evil)
~tea-growing is the chillest hobby
~being a spy for/with/against the Emperor is so very not-chill
~a truly unbelievable number of coincidences

The Splinter in the Sky is an extremely readable, swift-paced sci fi standalone of political intrigue and colonialism. Ashing-Giwa’s prose has that indefinable, engaging quality that soothes the mind and lets the story sweep you away; chapters slip past with comfortable ease, and before you know it, you’ve finished the book entirely!

That being said – hold your horses, tiger. Splinter is a fun read, but comparing it to the works of N.K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor is unfair to it, and pretty misleading for readers. Someone tell the marketing department to calm down, please.

The truth is that Splinter is a little hard to talk about – or rate – because it’s full of contradictions. Not inconsistencies – I spotted no plotholes and had no ??? moments with the worldbuilding, nothing like that. But this is a book that is very straightforward…despite tackling issues like colonialism and the entire plot revolving around secretive political intrigue. The worldbuilding that has gone into the Korikese, Enitan’s people, is original and interesting…but the Empire is incredibly boring and lacking in detail. This is the hardest thing Enitan has ever had to do…but the answers she’s searching for just fall into her lap again and again.

I was disappointed that the titular Splinter – a giant rhombus-shaped flying city – was so dull: everything inside it is just black. Obsidian, onyx, and jet everywhere. There was nothing beautiful or interesting about it, nothing to describe – not even black-on-black carvings or something – which means nothing to picture. It has occurred to me that Ashing-Giwa might have meant for this blankly black monolith to be a metaphor for the dark hollowness at the heart of the empire… But even if that’s so, the effect is incredibly mind-numbing. And – though again, this might have been deliberate, give how many white people complain that we white people don’t have any culture – even aside from the flying city being The Dullest, the actual Empire itself didn’t seem to have much of a culture either, beyond ‘conquer everybody’. There was a little bit about the Emperor being a living god, but the upper classes at least don’t really believe it, and other than that…it all felt so generic. I wanted so much more worldbuilding then we got, and it felt like the plain black aesthetic was a way to make the city eerie and Other without having to imagine and create a new culture. I would love a whole novel (or series!) set among the Korikese, because their world and culture sounds so incredibly interesting, but we barely got to see them at all, and the Empire was just…blandly awful.

So that was disappointing.

What actually annoyed me was how convenient everything was. There’s a conspiracy, but the clues and reveals required to take it down barely need to be looked for before they manifest, neatly wrapped and helpfully labelled with pretty little bows on top. The secret puppet-masters of the Empire don’t come across as particularly good at their scheming when a rube from the provinces – so to speak – can uncover them so quickly and easily. By the time I was halfway through the book, I was frustrated; but some of the coincidences that came in the lead-up to the climax were just beyond belief. What’s worse is that the worst of them weren’t even plot-relevent; they could have been cut without impacting the story at all. GAH!

But none of this can outweigh the fact that Splinter in the Sky is fun. Books that you can just disappear into are worth their weight in gold; particularly books that you can disappear into even when your brain is misbehaving. When I was restless and twitchy and couldn’t focus on anything, Splinter in the Sky was a story I could vanish into with no effort at all. It’s powerfully immersive, delightfully moreish, and requires nothing from the reader but the time it takes to read it.

We don’t have enough books like that.

So yes, I can nitpick all day, but ultimately, Splinter‘s flaws are irrelevant. It’s purpose is to entertain, and it does that exceedingly well. And if you’re willing to be entertained, I think you will be.

This was an enjoyable book, similar in scope to A Memory Called Empire, with a bit more action thrown in. The story follows Enitan, a tea expert from a recently-and violently-subjugated part of the Holy Vaalbaran Empire. Due to an incident on her home planet, Enitan finds herself sent to the heart of the empire as a political hostage, where she becomes embroiled in a political power struggle that concerns the new emperor Menket. I liked Enitan, she was an interesting main character, and her relationship with Menket was fun to read about. The plot itself is fairly standard for this type of space opera, if you've read Arkady Martine or Ann Leckie, you can likely guess where things are headed in this one. That's not to say that it doesn't have its own charm, but this book definitely adheres to some tropes that other authors have already done, and done well. I do like this sort of politically driven space operas, so I didn't mind that as much. The plot starts jumping around a bit in the second half, like the author had trouble fitting everything in and tying up loose ends, but I like how it ended and you absolutely read another book if it were to be a series.

3.5 Stars
I wish we had gotten a bit more time to understand the characters and the world-building. While I'm glad that the pace wasn't overly slow in the beginning, I do think the reader was missing some critical development in the plot and the world and the characters. Also, after the breakneck speed of the first part of the book the pacing really slows down (too much) and I found myself having to take breaks from reading to prevent myself from skimming the story. I liked that we hit the ground running headfirst into a tangle of political machinations and God-emperors, but there are only about two scenes with the MC's sibling and lover and then we are just moved right along. We never really get a chance to be invested in these characters or care what happens about them, so when stuff starts to hit the fan as is wont to do in sci-fi space operas, I just found myself not really caring about any of the characters or what was going on. I was also not a huge fan of the MC, she was very subtle and quiet but that didn't really work, especially not for the MC because I felt like we were then lacking a lot of emotion and personality. I know some people will appreciate her demeanor--if you like a quieter, more subtle main character you'll most likely enjoy this story a lot more than I did and the MC a lot more than I did!

I loved the idea of this story, but the resulting execution was a bit lackluster for me. I did like the tone of the story and the way in which the author writes, so I would be interested in more by this author in the future!

Usually my complaint with science fiction books is that they move slowly - this one actually moved too fast. We as the readers are instantly thrust into a complicated political situation of warring societies and vindictive God-emperors, The protagonist lives with her sibling on a backwater planet under the boot of a foreign empire until her sibling is captured and her lover killed. I wish more time had been spent on this initial build-up. We get one scene with the protagonist's sibling, and one more with her lover, which is not nearly enough time to grow attached. This means that when things do start going downhill, I couldn't bring myself to care significantly about what was happening. I did like the stirrings of political upheaval that are beginning to fester, and similar to the novel A Memory Called Empire the interesting way that language factors into the weapon of colonization.

3.5 stars

I'd categorize this book similarly to The Stars Undying, A Memory Called Empire, and Behind the Throne, with a touch of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. It's a slow-paced, beautifully rendered political space opera, with an emphasis on intrigue over action. Some aspects of this worked for me, and others did not.

The good:

- The author clearly knows their science. The worldbuilding is excellent. It doesn't sacrifice ~the aesthetic~ for scientific plausibility (at least as much of this as you can have in a space opera), and vice versa. A lot of space opera falls into the trap of feeling too much like fantasy, and I'm pleased to say that doesn't happen here.
- The writing, overall, was very good. Lots of gorgeous sensory detail and poetic turns of phrase.
- This book's commentary on colonialism and cultural appropriation is very well done. There are a few lines I highlighted as I went through because they were so good--one about how bigotry is a river than flows downward (or something, I don't have the book in front of me) stands out.
- I enjoyed Menkhet's character--to me, she was the highlight of the story.
- I always appreciate a far-future queer-norm world, especially with a majority POC cast.

The bad:

- The characters other than Menkhet are... not great. Enitan, for me, was extremely dull as a protagonist. It's at least partially a personal problem: I prefer larger-than-life, action-oriented, heavily flawed MCs, and Enitan is a reserved, responsible tea expert. She's very subtle, and not necessarily in a good way. No doubt she'll appeal to readers who prefer a quieter protagonist, but I found myself wishing for a bigger personality--something more in the vein of Gracia from The Stars Undying (also politically oriented, not an action hero, but a character/voice that leaps off the page).
- The pacing felt kind of off. The beginning in particular felt VERY rushed, and this is coming from someone who likes it when books get right to the point. I didn't find myself caring about any of Enitan's personal relationships, and her connection to Ajana struck me as especially underdeveloped. After the rushed beginning, the pacing then starts to drag, and I had to fight not to skim through the middle of the book.
- The ending felt just a little too neat. I'd have preferred more complexity and tension in the relationship between Enitan and Menkhet--this is there in the middle of the book, but sort of evaporates toward the end in a way that didn't really work, for me.

Overall: this is excellent in terms of writing and worldbuilding craft, but, for me, needed a lot of work in the plot and character departments. There's promise here, and I'll definitely be checking out whatever this author writes next, but this one fell a little short.

3.75

Full disclosure I struggled through the first 50 or so pages of this book. The marketing materials say this is perfect for fans of N.K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor and I can absolutely see that comparison in the sense that the prose and world building have a very distinct style that just won’t click with every reader. That being said, I’m glad I stuck with it because I ended up really appreciating how Ashing-Giwa was able to bring so much life into this world and I really loved the twists and turns of the plot and the conversations about colonialism and religion.

I think a good readalike title would be A Memory Called Empire, as in both books you have an ambassador from a newly incorporated colony going to the capital to solve a mystery. I would especially recommend this to those who tried A Memory Called Empire but found the writing too dense or the plot too slow because this definitely leans into the thriller-esque fast pace in the back half.

While not a perfect book, I think this was a really solid debut and would be interested to see what Kemi Ashing-Giwa writes next!

On the outpost of Koriko, scribe Enitan Ijebu lives under the oppressive regime of the Holy Vaalbaran Empire and would much rather spend her time growing her tea business. When her sibling Xiang goes missing, Enitan seeks the assistance of her occasional lover, Ajana, the governor -- who then is found killed the next day. As retribution, the Empire demands a hostage be sent from Koriko to the capital of the Empire, and Enitan uses the opportunity to enter the heart of power and find out answers for herself, even if she must turn spy to do it.

This thriller-y space opera gets worldbuilding right, all the way down to the little details, through quick but vivid brush strokes: the politics within a theocratic empire led by a living "god," how that empire treats the people they consider to be "barbarians" (including the theft of their artifacts), how the architecture and city planning differ between the Empire and Koriko, who speaks what language, and so on. It also offers an excellent examination of imperialism and colonization along with the dehumanizing effects of all the layers of racism (even from those who claim to be enlightened).

The characters possess a relatable complexity from the start. Enitan, for example, chafes against the attitudes of Vaalbaran officials but enjoys a relationship with one of them, while her sibling Xiang is a dedicated architecture student but also someone who gets high on skeyroot with their friends. Enitan's development as a character really takes off when she must navigate the high society of the Vaalbaran Empire, the threats of the sentinels, and the attention of the God-Emperor herself. The diversity of representation felt very natural and fully accepted by the characters themselves.

Overall, this gripping story kept my interest engaged from the very start (from the first cup of tea!) and led me on a memorable adventure. 5 stars,

Thank you, Saga Press/Simon and Schuster and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy of The Splintering the Sky.

I quite like this book. The setting is familiar from SF and fantasy: a subjugated people are led to freedom by the unlikely heroine. What makes the book special is strong characterization, believable interpersonal relationships - whether characterized by affection, enmity, or familial attachment - and refined prose. Kemi Ashing-Giwa is a very elegant writer and I found her writing very smooth and readable. She is also demonstrably very smart - PhD candidate at Stanford - and that intelligence shines through. She is unafraid to tackle sacrifice, her heroes and villains are multi-dimensional, and it is easy to immerse yourself in her world building. Is this SF? I don’t think so; it is fantasy disguised as SF, but quite well done.