As far as i’m aware this is only currently available in the anthology Carbide Tipped Pens, which, for some reason unbeknownst to me, isn’t available on Kindle: yes folks, it appears that the luddites are at it again attempting their very worse to ruin life for us technologically advanced hominids who read ebooks and love trees.   But, not to be outdone, i suggest that maybe you could get imaginative with your technologically advanced minds and dream up ways of how you may wish to obtain a copy to read.

And that was my first usage of “unbeknownst” on this website.   A lovely old word.   Some words are just too good to let fade away.

Oh yeah, it’s supposed to be a review of the story, i know, i’m getting to it, but you can’t get to the story until you actually have a copy to read so that had to be dealt with first.

So once again we’re back with the Galactics and the Rongs and now instead of downloading/uploading dead people into V-Space they now seem to be able to take dead people and upload/download/re-sleeve them into new bodies.   Think Altered Carbon kind of thing but i’ve no idea how it’s being done in Aliette’s universe as that bit’s not explained.

The problem with re-sleeving people is that after a period of time, especially if you lost touch with them, you may not be able to tell who a person was or wasn’t.   This whole thing would obviously lead to whole new areas of crime with re-sleeved people claiming to be people who they aren’t and claiming things to which they aren’t entitled.   This then leads to a whole new occupation, that of people who ascertain the validity of re-sleeved people.

And so, that’s where we are with A Slow Unfurling of Truth.   A Galactic has turned up claiming to be someone and it’s very important that the Rong know if it’s true or not: enter the authenticators, a human and mindship pair working together to “unfurl the truth”.

I really enjoyed the re-sleeving and V-Space aspects of the Altered Carbon books, and it’s great to re-encounter this kind of thing being written by other writers, especially writers as good as Aliette is.   So yeah, would love to read a whole lot more of this re-sleeving V-Space stuff from Aliette in the future — she’s certainly created a big enough universe to shove a ton more stories into.

P.S.   This has since been released in Shoreline of Infinity 11, which — unlike Carbide Tipped Pens — you can actually buy for your Kindle and be nice to the trees.

P.P.S.   When i first read A Slow Unfurling of Truth i didn’t have a copy of the next book, The Frost on Jade Buds, and so i jumped straight over the book after that, A Hundred and Seventy Storms.   However, on 10th February 2020 i found that Aliette had released The Frost on Jade Buds and so i came back and re-read this just to get myself back into the Xuya-verse before embarking upon the new story.   And i’m glad i did, re-reading this followed immediately by The Frost on Jade Buds gave a whole new meaning to this story which i will cover in my review for The Frost on Jade Buds: which i’ll be writing later this morning.

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