Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman

[renay]

A collection of thoughts about Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman:

• This is a literary science fiction novel. The science fictional part of the story is the stage and set dressing to the intimate portrait of a trans couple, their trans child, and how their trans child comes to know them through the things they leave behind.


• Our present-day oligarchs likely dream about creating a space for themselves where they have eternal power and can live forever and control the communities they’ve built for themselves into perpetuity. Notes from a Regicide takes that very science fictional concept and builds their city from which they rule their tiny fiefdom, timeless. Fellman then shows that their perfect dream is, in fact, just another pretty lie. Nothing lasts forever, even with mysterious technology to prolong life in fits and starts. All people, eventually, yearn for freedom. “Oligarchs suck!” — Notes from a Regicide, probably, if books could talk.


• The novel flings us into the future and forces us to think about the inevitable march of time. It’s not a novel about climate change, except for the lived reality of our characters in their present day and how they move through a changed environment. It invites the reader, should they want, to think about rising sea levels; what art will be remembered and what will be lost; what technology will be able to accomplish after not just a climate disaster but also a technological loss.


• This isn’t a romance except for all the ways that it is. It’s an "ever after", with the happily in the margins of a life well-lived, and the inescapable end that comes for us all. The love between these characters is complicated and fraught, revelatory and surprising. Notes from a Regicide shows us how love is the brightest burning revolution of all.


• New York City itself feels like a character with the way its past, culture, and the art made from its ancient bones pepper the narrative. Art, it could be argued, that changes countless lives. In this story, we get to meet three of them. I loved that New York City, even in the ravages of disasters and hundreds of years—thousands—retains its name and its ability to be a place of dramatic, inevitable change.


• This is a trans story, but I am not trans. I’m sure I missed things. This book, for all it’s a story of a man looking back at the lives of his parents, is one about the joy of finding how you fit, where you fit, and being able to uncover those layers among others who see who you are at the core. In our current moment, that joy—triumphantly trans—is in itself revolutionary.


• The writing is both lush and crisp. In the audiobook, it sounds like poetry. Sometimes, I would reread passages aloud for the pleasure of hearing the flow of them. It’s a book that rewards spending the time it takes to savor the phrasing and the way characters interact with each other.


• I loved it and I did put it on my Hugo ballot because I want more people to find it, even if they end up complaining it’s not SF enough. A far-future revolution to take down technologically oppressive rulers that trans artists struggling with Life accidentally wander into due to crushing love and adoration, told in excerpts from journals compiled by the son of those trans artists? That’s SF and I’ll fight anyone who says different.

Other thoughts:
Roseanna Pendlebury @ Nerds of a Feather
Amy Nagopaleen @ Strange Horizons
Narrated Podcast
Jake Casella Brookins @ Locus

Comments

[sabotabby]

I don't know how this escaped the kind of attention that, say, This Is How You Lose the Time WarTime War didn't get the huge wave of adoration until the Bigolas Dickolas Incident, I guess. I loved Fellman's first book too, and will get around to reading his second hopefully soon, but this is a newish author being revealed as a generational talent IMO.

[renay]

I suspect because the keyword that worked for Bigolas Dickolas was the "200 pages" bit. Shorter books are always going to benefit from that kind of viral movement. 😅

My next Fellman will probably be The Breath of the Sun, because my pal Roseanna has hyped it up!

[sabotabby]

I hadn't even heard of that! Okay he has two books I need to read.

[starlady]

I liked it a lot -- I was actually really reminded of 1980s Delany in some ways? This is a compliment.

I'm not sure whether I'll put it on my ballot because I have given zero thought to my ballot, but it's definitely in the mix even if I didn't wholeheartedly adore it.

[renay]

I have not read any Delany but! Perhaps I eventually should!!!

I only have two novels on my ballot so far—The Witch Roads and The Raven Scholar—so I definitely have space. I don't suspect I'm going to get to many additional 2025 novels. It's definitely not a traditional WSFS member book, and I know it would get The Ministry of Time treatment (I didn't manage to read that one), but I would love to argue (friendly) with people about it, ha ha.

[starlady]

There's so much Delany, I still haven't read everything. This one reminded me of specifically Delany's 70s fantasy phase -- Dhalgren or one of the Neveryon books. I started with Neveryona, which is a very weird place to start, but for most people I recommend starting with his 60s science fiction phase.

Witch Roads and Raven Scholar are going on mine for sure. Also probably The Starving Saints.