Review: Character Driven Sci Fi
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 4, 2013
This is a GOOD book.  It is so well written that the author lets you be inside the mind of the protagonist while hoping she doesn't succeed.  The premise is that a dynamic, take-charge woman has just become planetary governor of a pastoral, Arcadian planet named Tresjolie.  Her mission is to drag the entire planet, kicking and screaming into the (unspecified) century.  She is going to industrialize, modernize, and urbanize and let no one stand in her way.The story is written from governor Wanda Waverly's POV, and the reader is privy to her thoughts and emotions as she butts heads with the residents.  Her problem is that the carefully written planetary charter takes legal precedence over imperial law, and the planetary charter requires environmental compliance for all commerce, industry and construction.  Wanda is not able to force her will on the inhabitants.While Wanda finds ways to implement her plans, the Tresjolian residents find ways to stymie her.  However, neither environmentalism nor industrialization are the theme of the book, but Wanda's growth and learning.  The reader is inside Wanda's head as she learns that bucolic does not mean ignorant.  While Wanda grows into an appreciation for the Tresjolie lifestyle, the Tresjolie residents grow into an appreciation for some of the benefits that imperial industrialization could bring them and both parties move closer to each other as the plot thickens.The plot is really very entertaining, but it's actually secondary to Wanda's inner journey.  Perhaps Wanda changes the residents of Tresjolie as much as they change her, but the path in which this concord is finally achieved is fun to read about.