Debris

I was a little worried that this book might be too shallow, but I actually rather enjoyed it! The only thing I really didn't like was the creepy lover, who seemed bad news to me at once, and towards whom the protagonist seems to feel mostly guilt. Sounds like a good reason to break it of to me... The whole relationship seemed unreal to me in any case. The protagonist didn't seem to be the kind of woman who would get into a relationship that quickly.
But other than that, I was impressed by the main character. Her whole world gets turned around, but she manages fairly well and doesn't give in to despair. That doesn't mean that her decisions are always the greatest: clearly she should have given up on her apartment long before she actually show more did. But hey, she has been through a lot, she is allowed some leeway when it comes to making rational decisions. So sure, she needs some assistance a few times, but she also develops a new skill, questions the workings of the world and makes new friends. Big pluses for me: she is in her thirties, she is highly educated, and whenever she needs help, it's because she goes from the high end of society to the low, not because she is a woman (and no-one ever implies that that might be the reason). I believe there is one mention somewhere of some profession being more likely held by men than by women, but that's it. I hope Mrs. Anderton keeps this up in the sequel! show less

I was a little worried that this book might be too shallow, but I actually rather enjoyed it! The only thing I really didn't like was the creepy lover, who seemed bad news to me at once, and towards whom the protagonist seems to feel mostly guilt. Sounds like a good reason to break it of to me... The whole relationship seemed unreal to me in any case. The protagonist didn't seem to be the kind of woman who would get into a relationship that quickly.
But other than that, I was impressed by the main character. Her whole world gets turned around, but she manages fairly well and doesn't give in to despair. That doesn't mean that her decisions are always the greatest: clearly she should have given up on her apartment long before she actually show more did. But hey, she has been through a lot, she is allowed some leeway when it comes to making rational decisions. So sure, she needs some assistance a few times, but she also develops a new skill, questions the workings of the world and makes new friends. Big pluses for me: she is in her thirties, she is highly educated, and whenever she needs help, it's because she goes from the high end of society to the low, not because she is a woman (and no-one ever implies that that might be the reason). I believe there is one mention somewhere of some profession being more likely held by men than by women, but that's it. I hope Mrs. Anderton keeps this up in the sequel! show less

I enjoyed Debris by Jo Anderton.

I read a lot of fantasy, especially by Australian writers (no surprise that they’re dominating my reading so far this year). I’ve found that Australian fantasy is less likely to stick to clichéd convention and in that respect, Debris definitely does not disappoint.

The magical system Anderton has developed is focused around pions — bearing no resemblance to the mesons beloved by particle physicists, if you were wondering — tiny, glowing particles that permeate reality and which can be manipulated by people sufficiently skilled and trained. Some people can bind pions to their will, some can’t even see them. The debris of the title is magical matter left over from pion binding; useless refuse that show more disrupts crucial pions if not cleared away. Overall, the world has a little bit of a steampunk feel to it, mostly because that was the level of technology the society reached before the pion revolution something like 200 years before the start of the story.

The main character, Tanyana, is a highly skilled pion binder architect before she falls — both literally and metaphorically — in the first chapter. Or was she pushed? Forced to live the life of a lowly debris collector when her former lifestyle is lost to her, Tanyana struggles to find some explanation for what happened to her. Because she is convinced something else was there, when she fell, something that pushed her but that no one else could see.

I enjoyed Tanyana as a character. She is arrogant, but I didn’t see that as a bad thing. It made her interesting. She is both realistic and self-deluded about different things (for example, she’s not trying to get her life back, rather to find answers, but on the other hand, she tries to cling to the trappings of her old life a little too long). Most of all, when everything is taken from her, she is a survivor. She finds something else to be a part of. Of course, she doesn’t enjoy it at first, but she accepts it fairly quickly.

The other characters weren’t painted nearly as brightly as Tanyana. Mostly, this is due to the first person nature of the narrative. We know exactly what’s going on in Tanyana’s head all the time, but she doesn’t spend overly much time dwelling on other people (barring special exceptions). It was very much a one-woman show, with everyone else playing second fiddle, which isn’t a bad thing, given the external events also revolve about Tanyana. The only thing, characterisation-wise, that put me off a bit was her love interest. In the scene where they first hook up, I couldn’t really understand at the time why she interested in him, beyond the fact that he provoked her. It does make sense in retrospect, and the subsequent interactions between them worked well, but at the time that first scene left me ambivalent.

The conspiracy and the action in the latter half of the book had be eagerly turning the pages, however it started a more slowly and built up the world gradually. Also, while the climax was very much the most crucial scene in the book, I found the penultimate all-hell-breaks-loose disaster more exciting, in the action-packed sense.

As I said at the start, I enjoyed this book a lot. I am looking forward to reading the sequel out in July this year.

I am also about to go off and read Grandeur, a prequel short story which you can find on Jo Anderton’s website here.

Rating: 4.5 / 5 stars show less

...Debris has more than a few things going for it. If you like your Fantasy with a twist, or are looking for a book that does things just a bit differently this is probably as good a read as you'll be able to find. It's not a novel of huge complexity or unfathomable depth but it will hold your attention from the first page an not let go until the final chapter has been read. I have some issues with the novel, especially the development of the main character, but that doesn't take away from the fact that I found Debris to be a entertaining read. Not a bad way at all to conclude this year's reading challenge.

Full Random Comments review

Debris has technology at its heart, including disturbing, surreal veche men. Having it written from Tanyana’s point of view makes it come to life from the first page and gives it a lot of heart, so the technology just becomes part of the world construct. It was a quick read for me, mainly because I couldn’t put it down once I started it. Read the rest of my review at http://popcornreads.com/?p=1903

The problem with having the narrative in 1st person POV is that loads of internal dialog ranging in tone between bitter, self-righteous, whiny and (deliberately) clueless can create a truly irritating main character. Add to that muddled world-building (the whole pion binding thing still makes very little practical sense to me) and an unengaging plot stretched out over a few hundred seemingly-endless pages, and I did not enjoy this book at all.

I tried, I really did. I wanted to find something to be positive about, but every time I would start to enjoy a scene (like Tanyana's first meeting with her team of debris collectors, where the flow was smoother and, thanks to actual external dialog, quicker) it would be followed by a confusing bit show more of action (like her first trip collecting debris with them) or a reminder that I didn't like any of the characters (Tanyana's first hookup with Devich: Given that I didn't like her and he squicked me out from his first appearance, that scene was both yuck and boring.).

So, while I will give the author credit for crafting a story that incited a strong emotional reaction from me, unfortunately, that reaction was not a positive one. Largely, I think, because the mystery of what happened to Tanyana was so obvious from the first chapter that I kept waiting for someone to pick up on it so we could get on with the story already. And even when she started to figure it out (in the following quote taken from the last quarter of the story), it was too little, too late in terms of me caring anymore.

Note: this is taken from the unfinished proof copy.


"Bro!" Lad ran down the street, Sofia gasping in his wake, clutching her shoulder and dripping blood from her arm. "Angry, bro. So angry."
...
But was Lad really talking about himself? I thought of the debris dancing with destruction like a cruel cat. The whack like a fist against my chest. Lad wasn't angry, was he? But the debris was."


This review is based on a digital ARC received via NetGalley. show less

Just amazing! I couldn't stop turning the pages for the next disaster! It was refreshing break from my normal fantasy readings.

It started off with a really sad and disappointing scenario- a girl named Tanyana who was highly skilled with her work with pions had just lost all of her identity. She lost her friends, her status, and her money. Truly you can’t fall any more than that! What more she’s been given a job that is considered the cities lowest of lowest careers. Being a debris collector really shook her up. It’s like she woke up into her worst night mare. She gets suited into a silver “jewelry” also known as the suit. She ends up with life time scars, which were caused by her accident of falling from a statue palm 800 show more feet in the air. We follow her a bit more into the book and… oh my’ the book is also a mini-romance. She falls in love with Devich the technician who suited her suit; the man shows great love to her till almost the very end. Throughout the book all the characters have been telling her that all these misfortunes are all about her very bad luck. This as far as I can tell is the plain old truth. When she became a debris collector she carried the highly skilled part of her old life, she became a very highly skilled debris collector. Tanyana was determined to get a 2nd chance at a tribunal during the story. It was that sole reason alone possibly that kept her running. The book always referenced the beginning of the story as her past life and the moment she became a debris collector as her current life. The book also clearly described her current life as poverty stricken and her past life as luxurious and wealthy.

The story was some what slow paced the events were some-what spaced out. The book slowly rose to the climax but there after it took a faster pace down-hill. I enjoyed the background of story very much though. It almost seemed like the renaissance period. I recommend the book to someone of 13 years old and up.

The book left some empty holes though. Having a 2nd book in-tow would seem reasonable. The book is absolutely fabulous for an author’s first novel. You have to congratulate her for that. I would rate this book as a 7/10. I hope to see a sequel. show less