DEZUN

In Hou’s SF novel, residents of a colonized planet struggle to survive in a fight over valuable resources.

At some point in Earth’s future, humanity escapes the dying planet and scatters throughout the universe. A civilization called Stolis uses an artificial star to sustain life; a material called Sol, necessary to feed Stolis’ star, must be mined from planets that Stolis colonizes. The human residents of one such planet, Dezun, attempt to fight back but fail. Twenty-six years later, a revolutionary group again tries to remove the Stolisians from Dezun. The story is told in scattered scenes from assorted third-person perspectives, including those of Stolisian colonizers, Dezuni rebels, and other inhabitants of Dezun who aren’t fully invested with either side. One of the main characters is Lyas, a 17-year-old half-Dezuni, half-Stolisian human hunter raised by his single mother, Inaal. Unbeknownst to Lyas, Inaal was one of the rebel leaders in the initial uprising 26 years earlier. Hou’s short novel manages to work in a lot of worldbuilding. Some characters, such as Lyas, explore Dezun’s physical landscape, which gives Hou a natural way to describe its flora and fauna. Other characters’ stories, such as those of rebel Nakell and colonizer Cerin, allow for discussions of geopolitics. Lyas’ introductory scene has him hunting tollut, which appears to be a deerlike creature; not only does this scene describe the environment, but it also hints at the workings of the world’s economy and provides a sense of Lyas’ character; when he eventually finds a tollut, he not only spares it when he discovers it’s blind and injured, but he also bandages its wounds. During Cerin’s first encounter with Dezun’s environment, Hou’s prose stands out: “The forest before her was thickly enrobed in snow, with not a single spot or branch left untouched by the cold blankets.”

A vividly described tale of interplanetary anti-imperialism.