Butterfly and Hellflower by Eluki bes Shahar [real name: Rosemary Edghill , 2018]

I admit that I haven't even finished the first chapter, and that's why I haven't rated the book. But I don't want that to be an indication that I didn't like the story. At my current situation and emotional state I am not attracted to "ultra-hip" new age techno-thrillers. And, even saying all that, I feel compelled to say that what I did read was much more positive and playful than normal for the genre…I was pretty much able to follow the pseudo-babble and techno-speak created for an actively violent future in interstellar space.

If you like Gibson, et.al., and you occasionally enjoy the good graphics novel… you'll enjoy what looks to be a non-graphics romp through a complex graphics story line. This particular book combines the three Hellflower stories, Hellflower, Darktraders & Archangel Blues, and suggests itself to be less dystopian than most in the genre. You have the smart talking characters and flashy super-powers (in the form of cybernetic enhancements) and weird characters enough to entertain and a writing style that promises to be able to hold it all together. So the fact that I can't bring myself to finish the stories right now shouldn't stop you from reading them.

If I ever do manage to read this book all the way through I promise to rewrite my review and give a more detailed impression of the TOTAL effect on me—rather than a cursory impression. (Don't we all go through phases of wanting to read only particular types of stories?)

#1 Hellflower [2023]

I read it all the way through, this time, without remembering that I tried to read it a few years earlier. This time I was only moderately irritated by the slightly distracting “ultra-hip” new age techno-babble and found that it was not all that difficult to decipher—it helps if you know a little French and are also willing to partake of the various verbal games the author places before us: e.g. the planet named Tehelangone…”to hell and gone”…get it? (sound the syllables out and play with the accent.) If you pay close attention you may recognize a few anachronistic references in a language spoken several thousand years in the future.

Anyway, the verbal games are prolific, but not too distractingly intrusive. And the plot is complex/devious enough to take up 200+ pages of action that are “fairly” easy to follow. And the “english" spoken has also easy-to-grok grammatical distortions. Even more, the author actually explains the corruption of what was once a galactic-wide language into variations based upon occupations, more than geography. And this adds a strange sanity to the story.

The action involves various major characters, with a major diversity of background, breeding and braininess, interspersed with the journal/log kept by the major non-living character—the one extent “librarian”—who, due to unknown circumstances, doesn’t remember what role he/it played in the destruction of the original galactic civilization (which is why ANY/ALL librarians discovered are immediately destroyed). This librarian manages to serve as a convenient “Greek chorus” to help us deal with some of the complexity involving the interactions of the various ‘wet’ characters (‘wet’ meaning ‘blood’).

The action itself deals with who hires who to steal from/betray/hijack what from whom; and is more complicated than I can go into in a ‘short’ review.

Basically, the story meets the bottom-line criteria of being action-packed and entertaining; and I give it a solid 4-stars this time around. ( )

TBR

Butterfly and Hellflower, originally published as a trilogy in three consecutive books - "Hellflower", "Darktraders" and "Archangel Blues", is the omnibus edition of all three together, inscribed on the dedication page,

"To Chris Jeffords, with honor."

The relevance of this book which was published over fourteen years ago is two-fold: language and honor.

If, like me, you enjoy Science Fiction and are hungry for honor, even if (only) in a novel, you might enjoy reading "Butterfly and Hellflower". Eluki bes Sharhar has scattered soliloquies on the meaning of honor throughout the story.

On page 326, the Hellflower muses, "Is there higher honor than honor? When honor itself twists like a serpent, what shall we prove ourselves against to know we are still human? ... If humans who betray are human no longer, what is honor that is only a tool of kingmakers?"

This excerpt is from the fly-cover:
"I was making my way around wondertown; free, female, and a damn sight over the age of reason, when I saw this greenie right in front of me in the street, about to mix it up with K'jarn and six of his werewolves. And hell, it was seven-on-one and I never liked K'jarn anyway.
That was my first mistake, rescuing a Hellflower. ...And now he said he owed me his life, said it like he hated it, like he'd rather be dead than owe me.
And me, Butterfly St. Cyr, darktrader, interdicted barbarian, and the partner of Paladin, a death-to-possess Old Federation Artificial Intelligence, all I wanted was to get Valijon out of my own life and get back to business.
...there was nothin for it but to blast out of there, taking my new pet Hellflower with me. After all, where was the harm? He'd see a little of the galaxy he'd never seen before--just as long as he didn't ever tumble to Paladin bein' on board--and after I delivered my cargo, I'd drop him into the lovin arms of his all-too-powerful da.
That was the plan anyway, but the rest of the galaxy seemed to have other ideas, ideas that included seeing that Valijon never made it home alive..."

I have to read "Butterfly and Hellflower" at least once a year, just to stay sane. ( )