Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 2007“Finisterra” (novelette)
by David Moles
Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 2007

(The first of a series in which I’ll review the stories slated for inclusion in Gardner Dozois’ upcoming The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, due out from St. Martin’s Griffin in July 2008.)

The Story: Bianca Nazario, an engineer from a Spanish/Muslim community where her status as both a woman and a Christian stifled her talents and prospects, accepts a job from a shady character named Valadez. That job takes her to Sky, a gas giant planet with an Earth-like nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere but no ground, where gigantic flying creatures called zaratánes have become settlements—living, floating islands kilometers long with ecologies and weather patterns, where humans eke out meager existences. Along with naturalist Erasmus Fry and some furry aliens called firijas, Bianca makes her way to the largest and oldest of the zaratánes, Finisterra. However, when a crash-landed balloon reveals some surprising facts about Sky and the zaratánes, as well as what Valadez really has in mind for Finisterra and the other zaratánes, Bianca must question whether, even if this is her only chance for independence and success, the price is too high.

Review: In hindsight, this is a really interesting story, with plenty of ideas and a captivating, character-driven plot taking center stage, and an intriguingly complex future hinted at along the edges. The central concept—a planet consisting almost entirely of a human-breathable atmosphere, and living creatures so large that their dorsal ridges are mountains and their topsoil-encrusted backs are farmable—is wow-inducing in the widescreen sense. The world-building details scattered with varying density throughout the tale—a largely Spanish and Muslim human civilization that has become vaguely reminiscent of the medieval Caliphate of Córdoba, unusual governmental oversight agencies with long reaches and questionable tactics, references to post-humanism, the mysterious possibilities behind Sky’s existence—lent believability to the story’s milieu, and left me curious to explore Moles’ future further.  And he engages the heart as well as the mind, with the story dependent on Bianca Nazarian’s well-developed character arc as an ambitious woman trying to achieve escape velocity from a society that devalues and passively oppresses ambitious women. Some genuinely shocking and moving moments grow out of that background.

However, the reason I began the review with “in hindsight” is because of “Finisterra”’s one real problem, which is the pacing. The meat of the plot doesn’t really get going until about two-thirds of the way through the story, with everything up to then being world- and character-building. It’s necessary, I’ll admit, and when all is said and done it all ties together into a satisfying whole. But in the act of reading it for the first time, those first two-thirds were something of a slog. What kept me reading was partially the gosh-golly-wow factor of Moles’ big ideas, but mostly a desire to see why this had been tagged for inclusion in a best-of anthology that generally reflects my own reading tastes.

I can see the reason for that now, but, as I said, that’s in hindsight.

Verdict: There’s a lot to satisfy the reader on several levels in this ultimately successful, big-idea-packed story. But it takes a bit of faith and discipline to get to it. Caveat lector. Three and a half stars out of five.