Debris [Mass Market Paperback]

Tanyana is a talented and celebrated architect. She's one of the elite, someone who can control "pions," allowing her to manipulate matter with a thought. She's high up in the air, working on a towering statue, shaping the raw matter around her into art, when suddenly she finds herself under attack by strange, uncontrollable pions. When she regains consciousness after a horrible fall, it becomes clear that she has suffered more than just physical injuries: she's lost the ability to see pions and can now only see "debris," a sludgy byproduct of pion manipulation.

In an instant, Tanyana's charmed life comes to a grinding halt. While unconscious and recovering from her injuries, a tribunal has already found her guilty of negligence. Against her will, she is fitted with a strange powersuit and assigned to a team of debris collectors. Before long, the once-proud architect finds herself reduced to poverty, trudging through the poorest parts of the city with her team to gather the filthy debris in a constant race to make quota. Gradually, she learns more about the true nature of her suit, the history of pions and debris, and the true cause of her fall.

Debris, by Jo Anderton, took me by surprise for a number of reasons, but mainly because its setting is so captivating and unique. The novel is set in Movoc-under-Keeper, the capital of Varsnia. There's a vaguely Slavic tone to many of the names and terms, and the ruling "veche" seem to be a parallel of the Russian Soviet in their heyday: a powerful, secretive elite with an impenetrable bureaucracy that's in almost complete control of society, helped by mechanical puppet men. Two hundred years ago, the "pion revolution" turned this pre-electricity society that mainly seemed to run on steam and gas into a new world where matter can be manipulated with a thought. Whether this process is magic or an extremely advanced technology is never fully explained, so I'm still not sure whether to call Debris fantasy or science fiction. Maybe something like "post-steampunk" wouldn't be a bad term because of the way pions transformed the technological side of this culture and the way the book handles themes of social and economic inequality. The setup reminded me a bit of Ian MacLeod's wonderful The Light Ages and The House of Storms, although Debris has a much more far-future SF feel to it.

Jo Anderton populates her debut with a set of interesting characters. The book is told from the first person perspective of Tanyana, and the fact that she's not exactly a likable person could be one of the main reasons why some people will have trouble with this novel: she has fallen from a great height and never really lets the reader forget that she's pissed off about this. She's simply not happy to be so exposed to the way the poor in her city live their lives, and occasionally comes across as both whiny and arrogant at the same time. However, she also shows enough pluck to make the best of her drastically changed situation and figure out what caused her "accident," which adds a pleasant mystery aspect to the novel. Debris also features several surprisingly rounded side-characters. Jo Anderton is one of those authors who has the ability to shape a character with a few deft lines, even when introducing a group of them at once, such as the people in Tanyana's debris-collecting team. Debris shows a large variety of characters, rich and poor, powerful and down-trodden, and most of them take on enough substance to feel like more than just bit players.

Debris, as the first book in the Veiled World series, also goes a long way towards establishing a fascinating fictional universe.The city of Movoc-under-Keeper itself has a solid, realistic atmosphere. Like China Miéville's New Crobuzon, it's one of those fictional cities that ends up feeling like you've actually lived there for a while by the time you turn the book's final page, because Anderton occasionally throws in great slice-of-life scenes like Tanyana's challenging first commute to her new job. Debris also refers to at least one other country and hints at the possibility of war in the future. There are several tantalizing references to the world's past, from the pion revolution to an underground movement that's trying to protect scraps of its fading identity and knowledge. Add to that the fact that I'm still not entirely sure whether this is SF, fantasy, both, or neither, and you have a pretty interesting and unique setting that could expand in different directions and host some great stories in the future.

As with most debuts, some aspects of Debris are a bit rough around the edges. There's a love story here that, at least for much of the novel, feels like it was grafted onto the overall plot in a way that didn't completely make sense. Also, Jo Anderton sometimes skips over things you really want to read more about, and then focuses on others that seem less interesting, but of course all of this could end up making perfect sense by the time Suited, the next book in the Veiled Worlds series, is out. And finally, the ending surprised me, and not entirely in a good way.

Regardless, while it's not perfect, Debris is a strong, exciting debut that took me by surprise with its unique setting, interesting main character, and powerful "fight your way back to the top" narrative. If you enjoy genre-bending fiction with a dark edge, definitely give Debris a try.

(This review was originally published on tordotcom)

Debris, by Jo Anderton, takes place in an unusual world that could be ours in the far future, or it could be another world entirely. This is a science fiction world with hints of steampunk and fantasy.

Tanyana lives the good life as a well-respected Architect. Using pions - particles of life that she can manipulate, and almost talk to - she build amazing creations. Pions are used throughout the world to build just about everything, from doorbells to the devices allowing carriages to float off the ground unaided. Tanyana's latest is a beautiful statue that comes crashing down around her and her team. Injured in the accident, her ability to control the pions is gone, and all she's left with is the ability to see and manipulate Debris. She's forced to become a collector - the poor, downtrodden, undercity-dwellers that have to meet quota in their collection of Debris. But as she learns about her new powers, the debris begins to act unusual, and Tanyana and her friends are caught up in the fight.

Tanyana is someone you have to get to know. Once she's fallen from her place in society, she struggles to continue to fit in within that world and resents her new profession, her new team, and her new life. As she learns about her new powers, she also slowly begins to suspect that her fall was not an accident and that there is much more to this world that anyone knows.

It's that little hint of conspiracy that really made this story work. People are punished for just talking to Tanyana. An ancient book seems to speak to her own predicament and that of her team. People back in her former life act like she's a pet project. Hints of higher technology are scattered throughout the story. And the Debris seems to have plans of it's own. That little hint of something more going on behind the curtains, of a secret we're not supposed to know, of a different world that is purposely kept hidden from the citizens of Tanyana's world.

It's a dark, grimy book. The lower levels where Tanyana's team works is ramshackle, riddle with puddles, and sewers, and creepy puppet-men following Tanyana.

Debris is an unusual, engaging story.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

An e-galley of Debris, by Jo Anderton, was provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley for review.

This review appeared on SporadicReviews.com

Tanyana Vladha is an exceptionally skilled pion-binder. Pions are friendly, sparkly, playful subatomic particles -- except for the red ones, which are angry and nasty. Pions can be manipulated for all sorts of constructive purpose, and their manipulation is the task of a pion-binder. Tanyana is using pions to build a massive statute when she's attacked by red pions. The attack destroys her ability to manipulate (or even to see) pions, but gives her the ability to see the debris that pions leave in their wake -- an ability that the governing authority (veche) uses to define her new (and low status) role in life: debris collector. She must win the trust of her collection team and adjust to her new life -- and new powers -- while trying to find the person responsible for her downfall.

The plot is an intriguing mix of mystery and action; I was never certain quite where the story would take me. It's also strange. To an extent, the strangeness is compelling, yet by the end the story's oddity borders on fantasy. The world Anderton describes is so unfamiliar that I found it difficult to relate to (or care about) the threat that Tanyana battles. I was more interested in the relationships between the characters, the evolving loyalties and inevitable betrayals. The characters are interesting, particularly a debris collector named Lad, who seems to be a bit simple-minded but turns out to be gifted in ways that most people can't recognize.

Debris is, in a sense, a novel about class conflict. The veche and their moneyed friends oppress those who don't have the gift of pion-binding. Some descriptions of disparity between the decrepit poor and the snobbish rich echo Dickens.

There are times when the pace drags, as if Anderton felt the need to prolong the suspense (and given that this is the first novel of a trilogy, perhaps she did). For the most part, however, the story zips along to a satisfying conclusion -- although not a conclusion that resolves all the unanswered questions. I'm not sure I'll seek the answers to those questions in the next installment of the trilogy, but I have no regrets about reading this one. I would give it 3 1/2 stars if that option were available.