First, some trigger alerts. Tordotcom is known for novellas. At 540 pages, Exordia is not a novella. If genocide, rape, mind control, and lots of gory mass destruction offend you, opt out. Many readers liked the beginning but found the later development not to their taste. I was not offended, but I did wish for a bit more concision.
Some reasons to opt in. Seth Dickinson has done his research on the recent history of Kurdistan, fractal mathematics, and particle beams. It gives a codger like me a cultural frisson to read about the Obama administration as a historical era. In his afterword, Seth Dickinson says that the book was drafted in 2017 but delayed by COVID and the exigencies of traditional publishing, during which time history changed the story's ambiance.
So what’s it all about? A Kurdish refugee of the Iraq war is living in New York when she encounters an alien eating turtles in a pond. She and the reader initially suspect it is a symptom of post-traumatic stress, but sadly, it is real. The alien is an outlaw with a homicidal streak, but it is not so bad as several other groups of aliens that have landed in Kurdistan and involved two American brothers on opposite sides of their interstellar conflict. It all makes Independence Day look like a cakewalk. The aliens offer several variations on Sophie’s Choice and the Trolley Problem. But then, so did our actual history.
How about this for a conundrum? “What’s a promise worth when it comes from a multigenocidal space snake?” Or this: If we are “temporarily immortal,” should we be temporarily immoral too? ( )

For about the first quarter of this book I felt like I was reading what might be the best hard SF novel of the year. At about the half-way mark though, Dickinson really goes off the rails, as what started as a domestic first-contact story has become a military thriller meets cosmic horror, and I'm not sure that the whole exercise doesn't start collapsing from its own weight; though I know that I found the whole train wreck fascinating to watch. I can't help thinking that this novel made me respect Neal Asher even more, as this sort of thing is his bread and butter, but with a lot less angst. The biggest issue though is that this novel winds up on a somewhat dispirited cliff-hanger, and Dickinson has made it clear that there is no guarantee that he'll get to write a follow-on book (which he has the raw material for), and I really want to read that book! ( )

I loved this, and have very little to say that isn’t spoilery, but it feels like Dickinson let go of some fear and just wrote without embarrassment. It starts with Anna, a victim of the Iraqi genocide against the Kurds, forced to commit atrocities of her own, living now in the US with no real hopes or dreams. Then the alien Sssrin comes, claiming that their stories match (which is a pretty bad sign, actually, and also that Sssrin explains that her entire species is doomed to hell). Then comes the EMP, and then the men with guns to take Anna back to her homeland, where an alien spaceship has appeared. It is about colonialism, and about how the world ending is not unusual for some humans, and also about physics and trolley problems and compromises and tragedies that are too big to comprehend and therefore humans (and aliens) can inflict them. I dunno, read it! ( )

EXORDIA, by Seth Dickinson, is an epic story of humanity attempting to repel a global alien assault. a small group of military, scientists, and civilians, who each bring something special to the situation, have to figure out what is going on, why it it is going on, and hopefully how to stop it, while also dealing with their own interpersonal challenges.
The book feels apocalyptic to say the least. There is an ever present feeling of immediate global annihilation while reading that keeps the reader on edge. There is a lot of military and scientific jargon that I had a tough time understanding and keeping up with. It slowed down the momentum building of the plot for me, but another reader might embrace and enjoy it more than I did. I did enjoy the plot and where the book lead the reader to in the end and Dickinson does a great job of creating complex, interesting and realistic characters that the reader will inevitably connect with emotionally and pull for to save the world.
Dense, complicated, and emotionally rewarding, I enjoyed EXORDIA.
I received this book as part of the Goodreads Giveaway program. ( )