Rakesfall
A long-form SF novel in which two lives cross across eras and worlds, and accumulated wrongs keep rising again in different forms.
Work Information
Even as eras change, the traces of the two lives never disappear.
An English-language SF novel that moves between individual choices and the weight of history across a huge time scale.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Tordotcom
- Published
- 2024-06-18
- Pages
- 304 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 14.61 x 2.54 x 21.72 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781250847683
- ISBN-10
- 1250847680
- Price
- 5289 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Family Saga
Rakesfall is a groundbreaking, standalone science fiction epic about two souls bound together from here until the ends of time, from the author of The Saint of Bright Doors. Some stories take more than one lifetime to tell. There are wrongs that echo through the ages, friendships that outpace the claws of death, loves that leave their mark on civilization, and promises that nothing can break. This is one such story. Annelid and Leveret met as children in the middle of the Sri Lankan civil war. They found each other in a torn-up nation, peering through propaganda to grasp a deeper truth. And in a demon-haunted wood, another act of violence linked them and propelled their souls on a journey throughout the ages. No world can hold them, no life can bind them, and they'll never leave each other behind. Tracing two souls through endless lifetimes, Rakesfall is a virtuosic exploration of what stories can be. As Annelid and Leveret reincarnate ever deeper into the future, they will chase the edge of human possibility in a dark science fiction epic unlike anything you've read before.
Vajra Chandrasekera is from Colombo, Sri Lanka and is online at vajra.me. His debut novel The Saint of Bright Doors won Nebula, Ignyte, Crawford, and Locus awards, was nominated for the Le Guin, Lammy, Hugo awards, among others. His second novel Rakesfall is a New York Times Notable Book of 2024.
Reviews
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Great
I listened to this and loved it. I rarely purchase books but I wanted this for my shelf.
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It was way too long before it was over.
Oddly I kept thinking that there was something wrong with me that I did not like this book and not that the author did not actually care if I like it or not. Unfortunately my complaining about it might have caused my daughter to duplicate my error just to see what it was I did not like. I want to be excited by a lyrical writing style, not baffled by it. So maybe it was written for a small audience, and I was not in that audience. I read it because it was on a best new sci-fi fiction and also listen in Bhuddist fiction. I've read lot of experimental but maybe read the first few pages before buying it.
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So many questions
Chandrasekhar has written a novel that might be pretentious, or may be one of the most visionary tales ever told. I find myself woefully ignorant of the mythologies and philosophies he references and hoping (in vain, it turns out) that the author will offer a “Cliff’s Notes” explanation of his work. He didn’t, and I’m left wondering at the poetry and mystery of his story, it’s depth and meaning. “Rakesfall” is unlike anything I’ve read; I do recommend reading it and flatter myself that you also will be enthralled and at least a little confused by its breadth and scope of context — a universe without boundaries and the connections woven throughout.
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A Challenging Second Novel
Vajra Chandrasekera's second novel is not an easy read but intriguing. I want to go back and read it again to better understand the characters as they move through time. If you loved The Saint of Bright Doors, you may be confused by the experimental writing style of his second novel. I still loved it.
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Stupendous achievement.
Wonderful prose, superb storytelling. Highly intelligent book that demands some effort by the reader but rewards that effort immensely. A sophisticated story of love, eternity, oppression, and liberation. Should win every award it is nominated for.
Related Literary Awards
- Otherwise Award Edition 32 (2024) ・award