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A number of alien civilizations have been watching Earth and waiting until just the right time to make contact. In the meantime, several influential people on Earth are preparing its inhabitants for that contact.
Owen is a mega pop star. Charyssa is a onetime beauty queen who became a beloved actress and is now an icon. Peter Hendrix is the genius who invented the highly advanced VR technology everyone across the globe is accustomed to using. Charyssa and others are training a council of young adults to be the leaders who can bring Earth together and be ready to work with aliens.
All of these people and their associates are determined to do their best for Earth. But as they work on their projects, some of them have hidden their true backgrounds. Owen, for one, has special gifts and access to others with abilities that aren’t the norm on Earth. And it will take all he has to ensure this newest addition to galaxywide cooperation and communication is treated as it should be.
I did not realize before reading it that The Blue, Beautiful World is set in an existing “universe” created by Karen Lord. There’s nothing to warn readers of that. I’m not sure if it makes a difference if one has read The Best of All Possible Worlds, but I do know that I felt through this entire novel that I was missing something. Many authors take their time giving clues for readers to slowly build up their understanding of the worlds they create, with the rules (for magic or science, etc.) doled out piecemeal.
Usually, those become clear (outside of any “mystery” of a story) by at least the third or half mark, I’ve found. Here, I felt it never became clear. I kept waiting and waiting and realized at about four-fifths of the way that I was waiting for a structure to emerge that never would.
It’s an interesting book and I enjoyed parts of it, but I can’t get past being too confused about the narrative arc.
Rated: Moderate. Profanity includes 5 uses of strong language, around 10 instances of moderate profanity, about 5 uses of mild language, and a couple of instances of the name of Deity in vain. Violence includes references to attacks and battles.
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*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
