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Kelly Robson
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Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach Kindle Edition

by Kelly Robson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 880 ratings
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Finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards
"Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach is a tour-de-force, with nuanced characters in a masterfully conceived world of stunning, mind-bending eco-tech." --Annalee Newitz
Experience this far-reaching, mind-bending science fiction adventure that uses time travel to merge climate fiction with historical fantasy. From Nebula Award winning author Kelly Robson
Discover a shifting history of adventure as humanity clashes over whether to repair their ruined planet or luxuriate in a less tainted past.
In 2267, Earth has just begun to recover from worldwide ecological disasters. Minh is part of the generation that first moved back up to the surface of the Earth from the underground hells, to reclaim humanity's ancestral habitat. She's spent her entire life restoring river ecosystems, but lately the kind of long-term restoration projects Minh works on have been stalled due to the invention of time travel. When she gets the opportunity take a team to 2000 BC to survey the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, she jumps at the chance to uncover the secrets of the shadowy think tank that controls time travel technology.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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  1. Print length
    236 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Tordotcom
  5. Publication date
    March 13, 2018
  6. File size
    1445 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
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  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Thrums with a delicious tension carefully developed among the wonderful characters." NEW YORK TIMES

"Packs an enormous wallop of imagination and world building." - BARNES & NOBLE

"This richly imagined adventure marks Robson as an author to watch." - PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY

"Robson, who has garnered major award nominations in a career of only a few years, builds both her future and ancient worlds with convincing detail for such a short novel, populating them with characters who are believable and engrossing, even when they have tentacles. It's likely to be one of the most impressive debut novels of the year." - Gary K. Wolfe, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"Sci-fi fans and non-sci-fi fans alike should pick up a copy of Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach. There's enough wicked cool tech to satisfy hard SF geeks, character development to please SF dilettantes, and fantastic storytelling to enamor everyone else." - Alex Brown, TOR.COM

"The story is a marvel." Adrienne Martini, LOCUS

"Challenges and delights." POPULAR MECHANICS Best SF Books of 2018

"The sheer richness of invention in Robson's story... is close to astonishing, and her conclusion is both surprising and dramatically appropriate. If there had been any doubt that Robson is one of the most accomplished and versatile new writers, Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach should dispel it." - Gary K. Wolfe, LOCUS
"Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach is a splendid read, one that had me wanting far more by the time I turned the last page." THE VERGE

"Rich, nuanced characters, deeply compelling story, and a powerfully conceived world make Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach one of the best novellas of recent times, one of the highlight books of 2018, and something to look for on awards ballots come 2019." - Jonathan Strahan

"Robson creates a nuanced take on how time travel can be used in science fiction beyond the typical 'prevent event from happening' trope. Time travel is treated thoughtfully here, with rules and consequences that enrich the novel to the last page. - RT BOOK REVIEWS

"A full-blown success." THE IMAGINARIES

"Escapism isn't a dirty word in my lexicon, but hopefully we keep getting books like Lucky Peach, that balance out fantasy with the long, uncertain, but rewarding work to fix our world." FICTION UNBOUND

About the Author

Kelly Robson is an award-winning Canadian short fiction writer. Her time travel adventure Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach won the 2019 Aurora Award and was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, and Locus awards; while her novelette “A Human Stain” won the 2018 Nebula Award. She is also a winner of the Prix Aurora and has been a finalist for the World Fantasy, Astounding, and Sunburst Awards.

Kelly grew up in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, and as a teenager was crowned princess of the Hinton Big Horn Rodeo. From 2008 to 2012, she wrote the wine and spirits column for Chatelaine, Canada’s largest women’s magazine. Kelly consults as a creative futurist for organizations such as UNICEF and the Suncor Energy Foundation. She and her wife, writer A.M. Dellamonica, live in downtown Toronto.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0756JDSZM
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tordotcom (March 13, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 13, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1445 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 236 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 880 ratings

About the author

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Kelly Robson

Kelly Robson

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Like you, I'm a passionate reader. I spent most of my teenage years either hanging out at the drugstore waiting for new issues of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, or when I was in the city, lurking in the SF and Fantasy section of the bookstore. This was pre-Internet and since there were no bookstores in my town and the library was pretty bare, good books -- the kind that made my heart sing -- were precious treasures. To this day, nothing is more important to me than reading, nothing is more delicious than a great novel, and few people are as important as my favorite writers.

My writing life has been pretty diverse. I've edited science books, and from 2008 to 2012 I had the great good luck to write a monthly wine column for Chatelaine, the largest women's magazine in Canada. I've published short fiction at Tor.com, Asimov's Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, and a number of anthologies. Several of my stories have been chosen for "year's best" anthologies, and in the past two years I've been a finalist for several high-profile awards.

My favorite writers are Connie Willis, Walter Jon Williams, Michael Bishop, Jack Womack, Hilary Mantel, Alan Bennett, Patrick O'Brian, A.M. Dellamonica, Saladin Ahmed, Gemma Files, Maureen McHugh, Cat Rambo, Peter Watts, and Caitlin Sweet. I have a huge soft spot for classic literature, including Jane Austen, Anne Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Thomas Hardy, Ford Maddox Ford, John Galsworthy, George Eliot, and Mrs. Gaskell. I also love reading non-fiction -- history, historical geography, and science.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
880 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Michael Church
4.0 out of 5 stars Smart Science Fiction That Doesn't Show Off
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2018
Verified Purchase
"God, Monsters and the Lucky Peach" is a solid, fast-moving time travel adventure story. The characters are well-drawn especially the complex interior life of the protagonist, Minh, and her relationship with an up-and-comer named Kiki. (Incidentally, Minh is 80 years old and has six legs. In context, that's not even remarkable.) The ancient Mesopotamian king is not bad, either.

What sets this book apart is a rare combination of two things: (1) complex world-building, and (2) a light touch with exposition. Kelly Robson seems to have imagined a future with a rich history, of which she only shows us glimpses, and a present which is less familiar than it seems at first glance. Often, writers who have put a lot of work into their backstory can't resist the urge to share as much of it as possible with us -- whence the useful but tedious custom of the "infodump," not to mention the bloated paperback with 600 pages when 200 were needed. Robson spares us almost all of this; if anything, she gives us a touch too little, but most readers of science fiction will be able to fill in as much detail as they need from the hints she drops.

Robson's light narrative touch means that the end of the novel, when it comes, is abrupt. Other writers might have filled in the blanks with an epilogue or two -- and some readers may feel the loss. I confess that I did, for a moment. But the truth is that she has told the story she set out to tell, and ended it where it ends. That's good writing. Now, if she does decide to write a sequel, I'll be very interested. But if not, I can simply use my own imagination -- which is exactly what this book encourages its readers to do.
20 people found this helpful
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Reviews & Robots
5.0 out of 5 stars A complicated future awaits
Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2019
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In Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, a complicated future awaits, complete with invasive technology, time travel tourism, and a world stripped of natural resources. In this masterfully written novel, the author has given us a fascinating set of characters determined to help the world regain the life it once knew by visiting a past filled with life. By raising questions on ethics, generational differences and a world run by banks, Robson has given us a glimpse of a possible future our current reality could become.

Narrative Form
There are two narratives running side-by-side. An ancient narrative of a king preparing to fight a monster. A new future with a decimated landscape just starting to accept people again. Both gradually work toward each other until the final chapter, revealing a surprising ending that pairs the past and the future together. I loved the foreshadowing and what it added to the story. It brought the knowing-the-future aspect of time travel front and center, giving the reader a leg up over the characters.

A Complicated Future
There’s a lot going on in this future, with mention of plagues and living underground for decades (maybe centuries). The world is dead when they emerge and people like the main character are constantly working to bring it back to life. The older people clash heads with the younger, their goals vastly different for the world around them. After decades back in the world, they’ve already devolved into cities completely reliant on the whims of bankers and financial analysts. This version of the future is as timely as it gets. Much like today, the older generations want to continue with the status quo while the younger generations want to branch out for themselves. This conflict between vastly different generations with opposite worldviews is a telling critique of the world we’ve gotten ourselves into.

Time Travel
Time travel isn’t met with awe or derision from this population, but with curiosity and a desire to become a tourist in ancient Egypt or any number of past civilizations. It has of course been monetized, keeping in line with the world run by bankers, and these characters are given a chance to use the technology for good in order to help the world rebuild using surveys of a past filled with plant, animal and human life. They take their actions for granted due to the creation of time loops that don’t affect the future. It makes for an important ethical question on how we should act toward people who are thrust into this future reality without choice. Does life, and their world, matter if they don’t affect the future? There are varying opinions among the crew.

The Tech
Crazy prosthetics. Internal monitoring systems that play with the body’s chemistry. Fast traveling pods that resort round-the-world travel to a matter of hours. Drones and robots and 3D printers that create anything the scientists might need. It’s brilliant and seamlessly integrated into the story. Everything is necessary, nothing is added just for the cool or wow effect. I’m very impressed with how hard the author worked to create this fully developed world and the necessities the population relies on. Well done.

A Rift Between Characters
These characters are fully realized, complete with flaws and vastly different ideologies that mirror their experiences in the world. The older main character is jaded toward the younger generation due to the hard work she’s had to commit to in order to create a world for them. The younger generation wants to believe in the world again, to move beyond hard work to understand life, as is portrayed by a younger member of the team. The corporation man plays an expected role, holding money and the company agenda over the goals and ideals of the crew. A final crew member simply wants to see a horse. It’s an evolving atmosphere with this small group and it makes for a very engaging and thought-provoking narrative.
2 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars mostly boring
Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2019
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Well, I didn’t hate the book. Actually, it could have been a nice short story, third of its length.
Unfortunately, as novel it is just doesn’t work.
The plot is almost nonexistent and the world building is weak. The author obviously quite imaginative, the problem is she doesn’t explain anything. She just keeps throwing concepts and expects the reader to figure it out. Most of the time I felt stuck in the conversation between two scientists, trying to understand what’s going on from context and being unable to ask questions. There were no background, no showing things, no telling how things work. It felt like Robson was writing a script for a movie: concepts and dialogs; trusting the visual design team to fill the gaps. Here is the thing – not a movie! I am here for the story, so please TELL me a story. Also, literally half of the book was dedicated to winning a research grant. And the worst part, not a word about the actual project. I still barely understand character’s motivation or the interactions between them. Half the story characters just talk about strategies to win the investment for the project (feels more like inside joke, not a real plot for the sci-fi book); but when we get to the time travel, the story completely jumps over three weeks of training. Probably to not show mechanics behind time travel. In addition, all this time, we have small bits of things that happened/would happen after the characters traveled back in time from local king perspective. It supposed to show non-linearity of time, in fact it rather annoyed me. It kept saying, “I know it’s boring right now, but look things going to get interesting…”
Eventually when the characters arrived to the destination time, those parts turned into sort of distracting noise. The ancient Mesopotamia part was a bit better, thought it still was words, words, words for me. Felt like high school science/history report. The ancient world building was somewhat superficial. I don’t really know how realistic it was…
Robson touches few good topics in the book, but she never addresses them in full. Therefore, as a reader I finished the book without paying much thought to those topics. The story has post ecological catastrophe setting, but she doesn’t really talk what happened and what it did to the Nature. She mentions capitalism and its influence on science, but leaves it without discussion. She implies the issue of scientific morality and does not address it at all.
In addition, there were few things that made me see red. It is one thing to write an older disabled character, this is a good and commendable thing. But to add the young healthy character self-mutilating on a whim to get on a project… and other characters just accept it… Well, the characters, had no choice; but the author did had a choice not to write the thing the way she did. I just think about what conclusions a young reader might get from reading the book. And there was this diminishing way the elder characters kept calling younger healthier generation – fat babies. Hated it. And lastly, there was a strange, but very snobbish conversation about someone else’s sexuality and romantic preference. Which instead of inclusive, was quite misconception. I almost gave the book 2.5 stars, but the ending was nice so I decided that in overall it was more or less an OK book.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Client Kindle
4.0 out of 5 stars What's mess
Reviewed in France on June 24, 2020
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Vision intéressante d'une fin du monde renouvelée par un temps réfléchi
Belle écriture beaux propos
Opposition de 2 mondes qui se rejoignent finalement de 2 façons un peu attendues
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David Badke
4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, but...
Reviewed in Canada on July 30, 2018
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The "ending" makes no sense at all, if it can even be called an ending. A set up for a sequel? Who knows. It's a very poor set up for a sequel if it is one. The story is very good, it is well told, the, characters are fascinating, and then that crappy ending. Why, Ms. Robson, why? That I still think it is worth four stars, in spite of the disappointing ending, says how much I liked it, right up until the next to last page.
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Perceptive Reader
4.0 out of 5 stars Recommended.
Reviewed in India on July 24, 2019
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This novella, dealing with a post-apocalyptic Earth trying to restore life, turned out to be surprisingly readable. Despite being futuristic and rather dependent upon technology for its world-building, at its heart were human beings. Emotions reigned supreme, closely chased by various types of planning. Corporate politics, demographic tensions, paranoia, betrayal - all these converged onto history, interwoven by a non-linear thread. Descriptions were rich and lush, making the people and their surrounding come alive. Joy, pain, heartbreak, rage and hope - all of these could be felt by the readers while the characters went through them at various points of time.
But...
In its attempt to cobble together too many threads and textures, the author has eventually left us in a position similar to one immortalised by the feline in Schrodinger's problem.
Did it end there, or not?
Please find out the answer by yourself.
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M. Hepworth
4.0 out of 5 stars A clever and imaginative debut
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 20, 2018
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This novella (approximately 40,000 words) is set in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity have mostly retreated below ground to avoid climatic disaster, with a few people working above ground on new ways to live. In this we meet Minh, an old scientist who has lived through the darkest plague years and ended up with 6 tentacular legs. She’s worked her whole life on allowing humanity to try to live aboveground in domes, and to some extent can’t see beyond continuing to do this. Her assistant Kiki is much younger, from a generation dubbed “the fat babies” and wants to break out of the status quo but isn’t really sure how.
The first half of the story lays a lot of this groundwork and background, but then launches into a slightly odder second half – Time Travel! Unfortunately this type of time travel is pretty much useless for fixing the world – you create alternate realities that don’t impact on your present. However it’s still of some use – someone wants to go back and study the unblemished ecology of Mesopotamia in order to work out how to fix it, and they hire Minh and Kiki for the job. The most interesting strand here is a set of quick switches to the perspective of the local king, who has to deal with weird strangers appearing and a priest using the situation as a power play. This whole thing is highly imaginative and has some great characters running through it. If I was to criticise I'd say that I’m not sure the leisurely first half left enough time and space to deal with such a big idea in the second, and so the ending feels a little rushed. This is a clever and imaginative debut.
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Lynette Aspey
4.0 out of 5 stars I'm a Robson fan - and this story does not disappoint. It's definitely one for dedicated science fiction readers
Reviewed in Australia on March 29, 2018
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I had this book on pre-order as soon as it was available - yes, I'm a Robson fan - and this story does not disappoint. It's definitely one for dedicated science fiction readers, however, because in addition to being richly imagined, there's no quarter given if you're less than engaged: so pay attention to the science, kids! While on one hand I love the novella format, on the other, Kelly Robson's vision of the future and the intersections of future agency with the ancient world, needed more time (ha!). I wanted to travel with the team to Mesopotamia again, and again, until they got it right - that we don't see this is my one disappointment. In summary, I wanted more: more future, more past, more awesome and diverse characters. Kelly Robson had better get writing...
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