lizbee | Arkhangelsk by Elizabeth H. Bonesteel

I read 14 books in February, of which Arkhangelsk was by far the stand out. A friend recommended it last year, and it was only AU$4 in the Kindle store, so it has been sitting on my iPad for months, waiting for a day when I had no library books to read.

And it was worth the wait -- and worth far more than AU$4.

Here's the premise:

The city of Novayarkha, situated beneath the surface of a barely habitable planet, is home to the last remnants of humanity -- aside from the Exiles, who split from the main group shortly after the colony was established, and who exist primarily as boogeymen and occasional raiders for the (literally) sheltered people of the city. Anya, the chief of police, is conducting an investigation into a missing woman -- the latest in a series of disappearances, primarily of young women of childbearing age. She's dealing with politics, an over-eager deputy, her grief over her own lost child. But her life is orderly. Predictable. As safe as a life on a hostile world can be.

And then. A ship turns up in orbit. A generation ship from Earth, which was alive and well as of 40 years ago, and its crew had no idea they were going to stumble across the descendants of a long-lost generation ship ... that was stolen and launched by a group that might have been dissidents or escaped criminals or a cult.

My elevator pitch for Arkhangelsk is, imagine if Lois McMaster Bujold wrote Wool, and it was a low-key borderline asexual f/f romance. The Vorkosigan vibes were POWERFUL:

both Anya and Maddy, the captain of the generation ship, are women over 40
so is Anya's boss, the governor of the colony
a lost colony populated by the descendants of Russians
with a bit of a radiation problem
everyone is very concerned with procreation, which is managed via both natural and external gestation

But there's also the Wool/Silo vibes of a subterranean society with SECRETS, lost history and old artefacts, hostile terrain outside and some pretty horrifying acts committed in the name of its justice system.

I read this in two days, not because it was a slim book, but because I couldn't put it down. And I suspect it will reward rereading, because once you know the full truth of the founding of Novayarkha, some of the early stuff will hit very differently.

There's an ambiguity about Anya and Maddy's relationship by the end that I really enjoyed: there is an intimacy and love between them, but whether that is sexual -- or even overtly romantic -- is not explored. (Each considers herself too tired to have a sex life, which is a whole mood.) I think readers seeking an overt romance will be disappointed and annoyed, but I really enjoyed the journey we got.

Bonesteel has another series, a conventional-looking military space opera with a female lead, and you can bet I'm going to give those books a red hot go.