Previously in Everybody Go Buy This: Nella Larsen’s Passing.
Hello! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go out and acquire for yourself a copy of Alaya Dawn Johnson’s The Summer Prince (Amazon | Indiebound). It’s okay if you can’t help but hear Martin Prince singing “Summer Wind” in your head every time you think about the name of this book; that’s normal.
You might find yourself unready to commit to another YA novel set in a dystopian, semi-totalitarian future that runs on human sacrifice, but I can assure you that if you are only going to read one dystopian YA novel about human sacrifice this year, you ought to make it this one. (I haven’t read Divergent; can someone tell me if it’s worth adding to the list? Is it better than The Summer Prince, or should I leave it alone? Bear in mind I am but an occasionally reader of YA before telling me what to do.)
In the 17th century, fugitive slaves founded a free community in the mountains of northeastern Brazil. They called it Palmares. Contemporary accounts describe the courtyards and the fountains, the churches and council meetings of that sprawling settlement, which survived for decades before a concerted military effort by Portuguese colonists wiped it out in 1695.
Fast-forward several centuries, past a nuclear apocalypse that has scrambled climates and countries, and we come to the founding of Palmares Tres, the great pyramid-shaped city on a Brazilian bay, where author Alaya Dawn Johnson sets her new young-adult novel, The Summer Prince. Founded and ruled by women, the city ascends in tiers — from the algae-farm slums at its base to the queen’s quarters at its tip — and it runs on a rich, strange mix of nanotechnology and archaic ritual.
The first queens of Palmares Tres devised a unique system of transferring power: Each woman can rule for up to two five-year terms. Every five years, the city elects a Summer King, who rules for one year with all the charisma of a rock star — and then dies in bloody sacrifice, choosing the next queen in his death throes; a dying man’s choice is thought to be incorruptible.
It’s got a floating pyramid city, blood voting, violent dance-offs, dark-eyed queens who murder dudes every five years, and a gorgeously nuanced queer love triangle. Buy it! Borrow it from a friend, or from a library, or steal it from someone who appears weaker than you, and then come back in two weeks and a bit and we’ll talk about it for AGES.
Note the first: It is not relevant, and it is also deeply sexist probably, to comment about an author’s physical appearance, so I will confine myself to the following: Alaya Dawn Johnson is as beautiful as the moon and I would go on seven voyages across seven seas to bring her back an opal pendant, if she asked me to.
Note the second: If you have any residual feelings about Passing or Americanah (or if you missed the discussions the first time around), deposit them here.
[Image via Goodreads]
Tags: alaya dawn johnson, novels, the summer prince, women novelists, ya
oooh, this just came in for me at the library, maybe I will keep putting off Allegiant and read this instead.
I was kind of disappointed by Divergent. I liked the Hunger Games books and a lot of people said “if you liked the Hunger Games, read this next,” but I just thought the premise was uninteresting. Oh, you don’t fit neatly into one of four generic personality types? Please tell me more. :-/
Future Brazilian man-sacrificing, on the other hand, sounds great!
Yeah, I was also kind of disappointed in Divergent; the concept of the factions didn’t work for me, so none of it worked for me. I haven’t gotten around to reading the other two yet.
I had a great time reading Divergent, and liked Insurgent a lot too at the time, but I just started Allegiant and am realizing that I don’t remember ANYTHING that happened in Insurgent and also I don’t really care anymore? Ugh, trilogies. Some good ideas are just better as one story.
I enjoyed it quite a bit, because I enjoy teen romance and dystopian societies that are shameless about having a schtick that makes no sense. However, it does get on my nerves that it’s written so that the trait that makes the heroine a special snowflake (having a multifaceted personality) is something with which Everyone can identify.
I also found the Divergent trilogy disappointing — it felt thin, so very thin. Has anyone read Matched and sequels? I felt that one much more.
Matriarchal society? Queer love triangle? Ritual sacrifice of men who rule like “rock stars”?
oh hey look at that it’s on my kindle now
That’s one of my favorite things about the book (I should really save this for the real discussion, but oh well), is how many queer characters there are in the book, and it’s JUST NORMAL.
I love that. I’m always happy to read stories with queer characters where being queer isn’t their defining characteristic. And/or their queerness doesn’t serve as a plot device, or a Teachable Moment for the main character(s), etc. etc. I get so annoyed with people who insist that there has to be some “reason” for a character to be queer in a given story. There really really doesn’t, because straight is not the default state of being. All of which is to say, I’m really excited to read this book and discuss it here!
It’s what I loved about JK Rowling – she wrote Dumbledore as Dumbledore, not Dumbledore as Gay Headmaster.
MMMMMMM, I dunno, I’m fine with not having Dumbledore be the Gay Headmaster, but it would have been nice to have “…and also gay” added to the list of things we were told about him in the books themselves, or at least one flashback to his youthful makeouts with Wizard Hitler.
Yes, I am sad that there were no flashbacks about Dumbledore, really. His dynamic with Snape could have gone a WHOLE lot deeper.
sorrynotsorry for that image
Naaaaaaargh I have a huge to-read stack and I blew my budget at Boston Book Fest but everyone I know has loved this book aaaargh
There are a bunch of complaints that this is nothing like Brazil, though, and pretty culturally appropriative. But I read the book before I knew that, so I did actually really like.
But it’s set in a Brazil that doesn’t exist, in the future? Like…of course it’s nothing like Brazil; it’s a floating pyramid city hundreds of years from now after most of the world has been destroyed in a nuclear war/male-specific worldwide plague.
The Summer Prince IS on my to-read list but holy crap would anyone like to talk about The Winter Prince with me???
me! me! except that I can’t because I had to return it to the library before I finished it, BUT ALSO I totally was reading it before Code Name Verity because someone compared it to Megan Whalen Turner and ahhhhh thank you for reminding me to go buy this immediately.
Also THE SUMMER PRINCE is amazing and so is Alaya Dawn Johnson.
aaahh it was so. SO. I read the sequel too and I really need to request the third one through ILL (my library system doesn’t have any of them). They are kinda Megan Whalen Turner-y! I was so surprised (pleasantly) by both books and I can’t wait to see what happens in The Sunbird. 😀
I just bought WINTER PRINCE for my Nook (SO HAPPY THEY’RE EBOOKS NOW well the first two, sheesh, get on that Open Road), so once I finish reading it I will return to this thread and flail appropriately!
I adore ALL THOSE BOOKS. I was a big fan of E. Wein long before CODE NAME VERITY came out, because the Telemakos series (or the Medraut series I guess if you haven’t got to Telemakos yet) is fan-fab-tastic. Goewin is my heroine and WAIT just WAIT until you get to SUNBIRD / LION HUNTERS / EMPTY KINGDOM because *flail*.
There is also a final novel in the series that hasn’t been published yet but is coming out as an e-book soon I think / hope?
OMG yes that whole series is perfect. I read them all this year in a fit of wanting more Megan Whalen Turner, and they fulfilled that seemingly impossible to fill gap in my soul more than admirably! I mean, Medraut and Lleu: how messed up and wonderful is there relationship? How many hugs to I want to give Medraut? (answer: all of them). But then, I read Coalition of Lions and it is even better because Goewin. So f-ing awesome.
GOOOOEEEEWIIIIIIN. Is how I felt about Coalition of Lions. What an ending! Get it, girl. *zooms off to order The Sunbird*
It was pretty admirable how Wein worked…certain plotlines in The Winter Prince, to be effective and compelling but not gross.
certain plotlines in The Winter Prince, to be effective and compelling but not gross.
YES. I had read The Winter Prince when I was in middle school, and I definitely did not remember any of …those plotlines at all (possible they went over my head at the time? I was kind of sheltered and oblivious when I was in middle school). I was surprised at just how bleak parts of it were.
But also what I love about this series is the way that Wein does Late Antiquity: On the one hand, there is almost something post-apocalyptic about Artos’s Britain, with these bits of Roman art and Roman technology that they are lovingly tending against oblivion in a world that is a lot harsher. But at the same time, there is still a bigger “international” world; obviously, it’s a little bit of a stretch, historically speaking, to have Britain exchanging ambassadors with Ethiopia in the 500s — but it’s so much better/true to what we know about the extent of trade and interaction in that period than the usual “the dark ages: everyone goes back to living in caves and waits for the Renaissance” version of the post-Roman world.
ok have you read The King’s Peace duology because I think you need to. (although there is a sexual assault trigger warning for the first book) BUT YES, I have been holding up the Wein books as an example of not-as-whitewashed historical fantasy. What a glorious thing.
I never did (although I have a super super vivid memory of the shiny cover King’s Peace on the bottom shelf of the teen section at the bookstore). I have had conflicted luck with Jo Walton: I love Among Others, but I was lukewarm about Ha’penny such that I didn’t bother with the sequels (although I keep thinking I should revisit them), and I liked Tooth and Claw until I read some actual Anthony Trollope, and liked it better…
BUT. Based on your recommendation I have just put it on hold at the library (along with Summer Prince — dissertation? what dissertation?)
I will look forward to your thawts! I brought it up because of your comments about post-Roman Britain, trade, the dwindling effects/trappings of “civilization,” etc. Those are definitely a thread through the two books.
(full disclosure: I should put “Professional Walton Enthusiast” on my business cards though :B)
Goewin / Priamos is, like one of my all-time OTPs. Love. Them.
And yes, she is fantastic with the subtle creepy implications. She doesn’t need to actually come out and say it, because you just KNOW. Ditto with Verity’s torture in CODE NAME VERITY – it’s all between the lines.
I was reading this and I had to stop because I got concerned it was going to be too heartbreaking, the way Code Name Verity was. I also have her latest, Rose Under Fire, and I’m afraid to start it because I have nobody I can sob on about it.
You have us. And trust me, there’s going to be sobbing.
YES YES READ THIS BOOK IT IS AMAZING.
Karen Healey on the Toast! All my dreams are manifesting.
OK fine, I’ve been hearing great things about it all summer, and I’m sure I’ll need that matriarchy gif once I’m done, so SOLD.
OK fine, I've been hearing great things about it all summer, and I'm sure I'll need that matriarchy gif once I'm done, so SOLD.
I have been telling people since before it came out and since before I had the ARC that the Summer Prince was amazing. It turned out that I was correct, and I am so pleased every time I see someone gushing about it. Favorite book of the year! Everyone should go nominate it for the Printz.
I interned at the publishing company that put out ADJ’s “Racing the Dark” and read it on my commute (along with most of their titles) (this is my one big exciting “job” in the industry). If I were to submit it to the Name That Book thread I’d say, “A girl goes on a journey — she lives on an island and dives for jewels? — before moving to a city. There are boats? The world was dark and adventurous and maybe built in circles. She gets her period.”