In reviewing Obverse's first three two Faction Paradox anthology books, I continually expressed the sentiment that the spirit was there – they were good books! – but that Obverse needed some time to completely find its footing with the anthology format. And lo and behold, it seems my sentiment was right on the money – one more anthology and we got there. Which is to say, Liberating Earth is phenomenal.
Liberating Earth is an anthology penned by a suite of all-female writers (well, at least one of them identifies as non-binary these days, but I digress). Each individual story explores an alternate version of Earth's past, present, or future, as two Cousins of Faction Paradox take turns rewriting Earth's history to involve various alien invaders they think might improve humanity's state of being. In some ways the book parses as a standalone scifi anthology rather than a particularly Factiony work, with each of the stories being set in their own world, deeply divorced from each other and the lore as a whole. Still, many of the stories have a tinge of fantasy and mystery to them reminiscent of Faction Paradox – and this has always been a franchise where a rough continuity of æsthetic is more important than continuity of particular characters or concepts. Crucially, the vibes are intact as always.
It's a lovely kind of balance for this particular book to have – that's one of the things that prevents the anthology from feeling jumpy in the transitions between stories, while still being first and foremost exploratory. Each writer is given their own world to craft, and each one manages to leave a distinct impression even as the book retains the same basic feel throughout. As the book jumps from world to world there's so much to learn about every new setting, keeping you curious and on your toes the whole time. It's simultaneously exciting and cozy.
And what a set of stories, too! Liberating Earth starts off incredibly strong, with two of my favorite Faction stories, full stop. The first is E.H. Timms's "Dreamer in the Dark", the story of a blind protagonist in an alternate Ethiopia where humanity is ruled over by Medusas. The prose focuses on pretty much every sensory cue except vision, lending it a unique feel which forces the reader to pay attention and take time to find their footing in the world – and which charges the story with a whole lot of atmosphere and emotion. It's a heartfelt and tragic tale that I couldn't get enough of. (A whole book of this, please!) And the momentum continues with Xanna Chown's "Annie's Arms", a more down-to-earth story with a truly original type of alien. This one had me stay up later than anticipated just to finish it, and I don't regret a single thing – a slow, nervous buildup to a snappy, emotional ending.
After that the anthology slows down a bit – but only relatively speaking, as there are still lots of great pieces throughout. Juliet Kemp's "The Mountains Are Higher at Home" is a charming and thoughtful piece about ecology and preservation; "The Víkingr Mystique" by Dorothy Ail is a simple and cozy queer story set in the midst of a violent invasion by alien Vikings; and Tansy Rayner Roberts's "Life of Julia" is a feminist breakdown and partial reimagining of the history of the Roman empire. All of these stories are a good time, with the main footnote of each being that I'd have liked to see more. "Víkingr" worked but could have been fleshed out more, "Julia" had a lot more ground to cover in its analysis of how women were treated in Ancient Rome, and "Mountains" was probably the tightest of the bunch but easily could have had more gradual development between its timeskips. Still, my feelings on all three of these range from "like" to "love", and my wanting more is largely just a compliment to what's there. (The real weakest link in the collection for me is probably Rachel Redhead's "Judy's War", being as manic and rambling as it is, but I liked Golden Age so it's not as if I don't get the appeal. It's a matter of balance and of personal taste, that's all.)
A special mention goes to the other two main stories I've neglected to mention, "Red Rover Red Rover" by the mononymous Q, and "Project Thunderbird" by Kelly Hale. These two both tie into the interstitial story more closely, using it to inform their worldbuilding. It works very well, allowing the anthology as a whole to feel that much more cohesive – and giving both stories a solid backbone to develop their setting and characters on. "Red Rover Red Rover" in particular is fantastic, with a simple premise (individuals that involuntarily jump between two different versions of the same village) and adequate page space to properly focus on how a duo of richly-written protagonists would reasonably adapt to it. "Project Thunderbird" is a little denser and the characters are a smidge slighter, but its similarly extended length gave it time to feel deeply lived-in and captivating; it's undoubtedly my favorite work from Kelly Hale up to this point.
And then there's "Playing for Time", the aforementioned interstitial story serving as a framing device for the anthology. It's hard to do this one justice in brief description, but essentially – what starts out as a playful game of peeking at alternate timelines quickly becomes an exploratory game of grabbing at power, with a larger scope than anyone bargained for. In the length of a single short story, writer Kate Orman crafts a web of intrigue with a touch of the eldritch, lots of atmosphere, a compelling viewpoint character, and more than just a smidge of queerness. There's an interesting debate involved about nature vs. nurture that unfortunately gets a bit buried, but what we get instead works well if not better: a story about power plays that meshes neatly into the anthology's overall linking theme. Giving these anthologies a connecting narrative does a lot for them, and even moreso when it's quite this layered and memorable. (And beyond that, the weird unknowable entity stuff and the queer elements very much appeal to my particular tastes.) I've heard a lot of buzz around Kate Orman, and after reading even just one story by her, I 100% get the hype.
And it's more than her talent with individual stories: Orman evidently knows how to put together a good anthology. Liberating Earth feels smooth, exciting, rich, cozy, and everything in between, and that's thanks to her and all of the other incredible writers that contributed. There is so much that works here; if the people behind this set out to demonstrate what women could contribute to science fiction writing, they accomplished their goal in spades, and in the process showed the world the talents of writers both new and storied in the publishing world. This is my favorite Faction Paradox book since The Brakespeare Voyage, hands down, and after this I cannot wait to see what Obverse's line of anthologies has in store next.
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