Flipping Through Pages #6 - The Child Garden (A Book Review)

“Oh, they said love and music would save our lives

If only I had known how to pay the terrible price”

I have always looked at fiction through the lens of two dimensions – in one where you world build and in the other where you character build. Given science fiction normally is only a step away from our current world, world building doesn’t become so much essential as it becomes a proper background for actors to move about.

But go too far in fiction and you do need world building. Otherwise introductions become jarring when the background is the question in the mind of the audience, and not the actors themselves.

As my first science fiction read of the year, the Child Garden challenged me considerably while I pondered my musings on it. It is a wonderful character read and contains one of the singular most remarkable creations in Milana Shibush. While I do have a reluctance of entering the ‘chosen one’ trope again, Milana is unique in the sense that her trials and triumphs are reflections of a changing society that thought death was the only enemy to destroy – and in turn, it mutated and lost the spark of wonder that should always accompany a human journey.

Milana is a defect. In a world where information is given through viruses, she remains the only one who cannot evolve with them. Of the eclectic cast presented alongside her, Rolfa the genetically engineered polar bearish human desiring a life of music, a life beyond what she was born to be, stands out the most, dominating the first half of the book.

It is Rolfa who makes Milana believe in change – through love of her and her music. Instead of the girl who was on the outside looking in, she takes in Rolfa and becomes inspired to bring about a change. And in the process, society itself finds a saviour – half triumphant half tragic. Even if not physically present throughout the journey, Rolfa keeps Milana driving forward in search of her own spark to be lit.

It’s a wonderful journey that Ms Shibush takes with an amazing and eclectic cast of curious figures as she gives her own interpretation of the Divine Comedy on a global stage. It is neither an easy journey for our characters nor for this poor reader, through perseverance ensures we do arrive at a breakthrough.

But remember, as the book says, this is not the end. There is no end.

As an aside, I loved how George treated elements like homosexuality, religion and societal norms – though they were some head scratching over reaches. Also, introducing some wonderful classical music pieces, creating his own lyrics and a nice nod in tying Milana’s journey to the literary mentions around her helped without being too on-the-nose. It did drag a bit entering the 2^nd half of the story, but the ending is magical in closure.

So, I give it a 7.5 out of 10.

+Rich characters with wonderful traits

+A captivating central protagonist

+The central theme of the pleasures and pains of an artist is amazingly rendered

-World building could have been better

-The story flow is jarring