[LISTENED TO: Summer 2021] How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse
This book title appealed to me immediately. And I loved it. The story is convoluted in the best way and Nicole Poole is an excellent reader.
The one bad thing about an audio book as opposed to reading the book yourself is that you don’t get to see how certain words are spelled (although it saves all the trouble of trying to figure out how to pronounce them).
The book is set in a futuristic world where space travel is common and war is far more common.
Rory was born into the Thorne family as something of a surprise. There hadn’t been a female offspring in the Thorne family for ten generations. The name Rory was reserved for first born males. But it was determined that the name was gender-neutral enough that the girl could also have the name, no matter how unsettled it made people.
Then Eason sets about establishing this world–with great detail and thoroughness. Some of which I’ll try to capture. The story is set on the Thorne Consortium, the planet where Rory’s father is King.
Rory’s mother is the Consort. She was from Kreshti, “a small independent and allied planet on which skill with combat training was considered both a plain necessity.”
Incidentally, the narrator is telling the story as a history lesson and she is far from neutral.
They are both served by the Vizier, a man gifted in arithmancy and scholarship. “Finding quaint, forgotten, and neglected customs was his second favorite pastime in the multiverse. Explaining to others the relevance of those ancient customs was the first.”
The Vizier discovered that it was customary to invite the faeries to bestow blessings on each new born girl. The King is annoyed by this–it never happened for any of the boys (and they had invented void-flight with no magic needed).
Rather than try to describe the rest of the multiverse, here’s a passage from Rory’s naming day (this is still the first chapter, with no backstory or context given ahead of time, and I love that about this story:
Even the xenos had gotten into the spirit. The foreign attendees, some of whom had too many (or too few) limbs to manage corsets and hose and boots, came as culturally appropriate inanimate objects. The k’bal had come as a five-armed candelabrum, standing two meters tall, with blue carapace showing where the cosmetics had rubbed off. Each head wore a little flame-shaped hat, made of a fine metal mesh that fluttered with each exhale from its cranial vents. There was a teapot, too: an adapted environmental suit for the mirri President, whose daughter-buds had come as little cups.
The thirteenth fairy gives her not a hugely useful-seeming gift, but one which comes in handy throughout her life: the ability to see through flattery and platitudes. This translates into a wonderful audiobook, because half of Rory’s conversations have Poole reading in one voice what is said and then sotto voce what is meant.
That doesn’t even cover Rory’s compatriots. There’s her most trusted companion, the mech Grytt, who was a solider who lost part of her body in a war and had it replaced by mech units (I’m imagining Jane Lynch’s character in Wreck It Ralph). She also gets instruction from the Vizier (whose name is Rupet) regularly. They establish her moral compass and her resolve. She is also served by two of my favorite characters, the military team of Thorsdottir and Zhang, two women who don’t say much but express a lot.
Rory is beloved by all and will likely inherit the throne and govern the interplanetary Thorne Consortium. Then her father is assassinated, her mother gives birth to a son, and Rory is betrothed to the prince of a distant world.
The assassination is fascinating, especially since the boy she was standing with when it happened, Ivan, is afraid of everything. And, sadly enough, Rory is supposed to marry him when she turns 18.
However, after her father is killed, Rory’s mother gives birth to a son, which rearranges all of the lineage (the son is a spoiled brat, too). So when Rory is sixteen, she goes to Urse, with the intention of marrying Prince Ivan. But when she arrives, she discovers that Minister Moss is the Regent. Ivan’s parents were both killed and Ivan is off doing military service. Moss is essentially in charge of the planet and his two sons act like they are to inherit the throne.
Rory learns of the machinations of Minister Moss and is able to use his tempestuous sons to her advantage. Especially when she learns that the Minister dotes on his older son and dismisses his younger son Jaed. Jaed becomes an uncomfortable ally for Rory and gets her useful information.
This is a long story (but it never feels long) and it has lots of twists and turns and magic and mystery. There’s a ton of political intrigue as well as good old-fashioned fights (with new-fashioned weapons). There’s a ton of humor and a boatload of snark. There’s also cool magic (arithmancy) and wonderfully interesting technology (which sometimes melds with the magic in interesting ways). I loved everything about this story.
I’m sure the book presents all of this information wonderfully, but having Poole there to accentuate it made this a spectacular listen.
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