The Blue, Beautiful World

Hardcover, 256 pages

English language

Published Aug. 29, 2023 by Del Rey.

ISBN:: 978-0-593-59843-6

The world is changing, and humanity must change with it. Rising seas and soaring temperatures have radically transformed the face of the Earth. Meanwhile, Earth is being observed from afar by other civilizations ... and now they are ready to make contact.

Vying to prepare humanity for first contact are a group of dreamers and changemakers, including Peter Hendrix, the genius inventor behind the most advanced VR tech; Charyssa, a beloved celebrity icon with a passion for humanitarian work; and Kanoa, a member of a council of young people from around the globe drafted to reimagine the relationship between humankind and alien societies.

And they may have an unexpected secret weapon: Owen, a pop megastar whose ability to connect with his adoring fans is more than charisma. He has a hidden talent that may be the key to uniting Earth as it looks towards the stars.

But …

The world is changing, and humanity must change with it. Rising seas and soaring temperatures have radically transformed the face of the Earth. Meanwhile, Earth is being observed from afar by other civilizations ... and now they are ready to make contact.

Vying to prepare humanity for first contact are a group of dreamers and changemakers, including Peter Hendrix, the genius inventor behind the most advanced VR tech; Charyssa, a beloved celebrity icon with a passion for humanitarian work; and Kanoa, a member of a council of young people from around the globe drafted to reimagine the relationship between humankind and alien societies.

And they may have an unexpected secret weapon: Owen, a pop megastar whose ability to connect with his adoring fans is more than charisma. He has a hidden talent that may be the key to uniting Earth as it looks towards the stars.

But Owen's abilities are so unique that no-one can control him, and so seductive that he cannot help but use them. Can he transcend his human limitations and find the freedom he has always dreamed of? Or is he doomed to become the dictator of his nightmares?

2 editions

enne📚 reviewed The Blue, Beautiful World by Karen Lord (Cygnus Beta)

2 stars

This book just... didn't work for me.

A good part of the book is sort of a Agent to the Stars meets Ender's Game setup where a group of student diplomats doing a first contact training exercise turn out to be working on a real scenario. It's also about the pop star Owen, who is secretly an empath(?) alien trying to bring the world together, for reasons.

My grumps here are mostly that the characters were flat and universally good-natured, and most of the action proceeded by telling via dialogue instead of showing, and the combination of this left most of the book feeling quite dry. What little tension and politics existed seemed to happen off page and in a not particularly threatening manner.

One minor example of all of this is that Owen is admonished quite a bit to be "glue not god" with his powers, …

This book just... didn't work for me.

A good part of the book is sort of a Agent to the Stars meets Ender's Game setup where a group of student diplomats doing a first contact training exercise turn out to be working on a real scenario. It's also about the pop star Owen, who is secretly an empath(?) alien trying to bring the world together, for reasons.

My grumps here are mostly that the characters were flat and universally good-natured, and most of the action proceeded by telling via dialogue instead of showing, and the combination of this left most of the book feeling quite dry. What little tension and politics existed seemed to happen off page and in a not particularly threatening manner.

One minor example of all of this is that Owen is admonished quite a bit to be "glue not god" with his powers, and there's a mention of his father abusing power, but there's never any threat or even temptation for him to be anything but kind. I think I had expected a little bit more from this angle of the book.

Karen Lord's previous The Best of All Possible Worlds had a similar vibe in some ways, but worked much better for me (at least in my memory).