Emmi It\u00c3\u00a4ranta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Memory of Water<\/em> is set in a far future that, after centuries of global warming, feels almost pre-modern in many respects. In the Scandinavian village where 17-year-old Noria Kaitio lives, drinking water is rationed out in waterskins, but people still have personal electronic devices they can use to read and to communicate with each other. Adding to the time-out-of-time feel of the novel is Noria\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s status as the daughter of the local tea master; as his only child, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been learning the rituals of the tea ceremony, even though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s far from traditional for women to take on the position. The ceremonies are like an anchor to the past, something we can grab on to as recognizable (even if only in principle) in a strange new world. (Although the novel doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t explain how the Japanese tea ceremony came to be handed down through generations of a Finnish family, It\u00c3\u00a4ranta did think this through, and has discussed it in interviews.)<\/p>\n As Noria\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s father prepares her to inherit his role as tea master, he reveals the existence of a natural spring, hidden in the caves near their home. This water source needs to be kept secret from the New Qianese army that has conquered the Scandinavian Union, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the only emotional burden that it places on Noria. It\u00c3\u00a4ranta pays just as much attention to her young protagonist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more intimate crises, dovetailing them into the political dilemma in a way that fans of, say, The Handmaid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Tale<\/em> can well appreciate. <\/p>\n One thing that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m learning to appreciate as I read around what we might call \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dystopia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is that, although it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s set in worlds that have undergone big (literally cataclysmic) changes, the most successful stories work on a much smaller scale. Yes, the backstory of the disasters that shaped Noria\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world, or the world of Edan Lepucki\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s California<\/em>, is intriguing enough that we expect some details. Too much information, though, and a story risks veering into disaster porn, the bookish equivalent of special-effects explosions covering up a weak narrative.<\/p>\n That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the case here. It\u00c3\u00a4ranta zooms in tightly on Noria and her immediate environment: her family, her family\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s legacy, her best friend, her village. Beyond that, we know just enough to set the scene at first, then a little bit more to make the external threats to Noria credible. There is a mystery about the past that Noria uncovers, and you read because you want to learn what that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about, but you read primarily because you want to see how Noria copes with the responsibilities that are thrust upon her. Back in April, I picked Ann Leckie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s debut, Ancillary Justice<\/em>, as my frontrunner for the Nebula Award for best novel, presented annually by the Science Fiction Writers of America. It did, in fact, take that prize—and, recently, also won the best novel award for this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hugos, which are voted on by a consortium of science fiction and fantasy fans. It also won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for the best science fiction published in the United Kingdom. All of which is to say, you might want to read it now, so you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re up to speed when the sequel, Ancillary Sword<\/em>, comes out this October.<\/p>\n (NOTE: This post originally appeared on Beacon<\/b>.)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Emmi It\u00c3\u00a4ranta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Memory of Water is set in a far future that, after centuries of global warming, feels almost pre-modern in many respects. In the Scandinavian village where 17-year-old Noria Kaitio lives, drinking water is rationed out in waterskins, but people still have personal electronic devices they can use to read and to communicate with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[965],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4007,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004\/revisions\/4007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nIn that respect, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth noting that Memory of Water<\/em> is presented to readers by its publisher as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153adult\u00e2\u20ac\u009d science fiction, although I can easily envision a scenario where it could have been published as young adult fiction, recognizable as a coming-of-age story in a futuristic setting. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be interesting to see if teenage readers find their way to Noria\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story anyway; it also goes to show just how arbitrary the boundaries between YA and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153grown-up\u00e2\u20ac\u009d reading can be. That said, no matter how ridiculous the anxiety that some literary observers display about people over 21 reading books branded as YA may be, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good, I think, that such a label can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be held against this compelling debut. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a story that deserves to find a wide readership, and I look forward to seeing what It\u00c3\u00a4ranta does next.<\/p>\n