Review: Countess, by Suzan Palumbo

Countess
Suzan Palumbo
168 pages
Release: September 10, 2024
ISBN 9781770417571
Publisher: ECW Press

Suzan Palumbo is a new writer to me, a Brampton, Ontario denizen of Trinidadian background. Her short fiction has appeared in many of the more edgy spec-fic magazines, and she’s also deeply committed to championing Caribbean voices, and Ignyte Awards which is a people’s choice award.

Her new novella, Countess, has received critical praise from several Canadian writers, as well as Publishers Weekly and other periodicals.

The marketing blurb:

A queer, Caribbean, anti-colonial sci-fi novella in which a betrayed captain seeks revenge on the interplanetary empire that subjugated her people for generations

Virika Sameroo lives in colonized space under the Æcerbot Empire, much like her ancestors before her in the British West Indies. After years of working hard to rise through the ranks of the empire’s merchant marine, she’s finally become first lieutenant on an interstellar cargo vessel.

When her captain dies under suspicious circumstances, Virika is arrested for murder and charged with treason despite her lifelong loyalty to the empire. Her conviction and subsequent imprisonment set her on a path of revenge, determined to take down the evil empire that wronged her, all while the fate of her people hangs in the balance.

What Palumbo delivers is, for this reviewer, a competent if not particularly original adventure. The themes are well-known, which is fine, but Palumbo fails to breathe new life and vision into a tale of oppression and subjugation. As a result, much of what occurs is predictable. However, to Palumbo’s credit, her plotting and style do keep the reader engaged.

There were several plausibility issues I encountered, but that’s to be expected as anyone who knows me will attest. Food is one of those issues. While Palumbo’s detailed descriptions of familiar Caribbean and Indian culinary dishes are evocative, I kept questioning the validity of mango, roti, and other such foodstuffs and food products in her world-creation. She is, after all, dealing with another planetary system, which very conveniently seems to be composed of Earth-class environments, into which all things Earth have been transplanted. Truly, the entire story could have easily been staged on our home planet. It would have been interesting if Palumbo had created familiar dishes with indigenous foodstuffs, thus truly exploring the concept of immigrant cuisine adapting to new environments. Certainly, we find bountiful evidence of such adaptations throughout our own history.

Then there’s the underlying theme of the novella: the oppression and subjugation of people of colour. This is a continuing societal problem of today’s Earth, one which has existed time immemorial. And apparently, in Palumbo’s world-building, humans have learned nothing at all about allowing people to simply be people. That’s plausible; just look at our own history. But into the struggle Palumbo presents in her novella, the uprising is scripted directly from any of the revolutionary tracts of Earth, not just the revolutionary tracts of people of colour, but of any oppressed people anywhere. Not that Palumbo shouldn’t examine that very real truth, but that at least she might have offered a new window on an ancient human failing.

And here comes a spoiler alert I feel is necessary to this review: in the very last few pages, the main character is assassinated, a main character whose voice has been front and center throughout the novella. It is her voice we hear throughout the tale, and only her voice. Up until that moment, it is her story, and only her story.

After that moment, there is a hurried, omniscient point of view which sums up the story arc and closes the narrative. Altogether, a jarring disappointment, and I cannot help but feel that once again ECW Press, and Michael Curry of the Donald Maass Literary Agency, have failed their author. This could have been a larger story, with greater depth, a story which could have captured more than a lightweight, entertaining read. I believe Suzan Palumbo deserved better representation and editing oversight, because here is a young writer who could write something quite astonishing if given the right mentorship, guided by her skill as a writer, and not the demographic she represents. Dangerous and heretical words for me to write, but I stand behind that statement.

Countess is a good novella. It could have been great. And Suzan Palumbo is a good writer. I believe she could be great.