Ode to the Half-Broken

by Suzanne Palmer

Synopsis:

Forty years ago, the world nearly ended.

Be is an old robot who was there, and doesn’t want to think about what happened, or what role they played in that conflict. They have settled into a life of isolation in the abandoned ruins of an old mill in the former New York Botanical Gardens, disinterested in what has happened in the outside world since they stepped away from the war. Someone out there, though, has not forgotten about them, and when they are attacked, their person vandalized, and one of their leg stolen, they set out to find the thief accompanied by a cyborg dog and a human mechanic.

The world has changed, but the recovery from the war is uneven and faltering, and Be begins to suspect a malicious hand trying to rekindle the old conflict and finish what was started. In order to stop them, Be needs to come to terms with both their own past and who they have become, and how everything and everyone else they knew has changed in their absence. Being left alone is no longer an option, and peace may be impossible.

This is a story about coming to terms with your past, with who you’ve become and who you still want to be: a tale of resilence and hope, an ode to those struggling to become whole in a world half-broken.

I really really liked Suzanne Palmer’s Ode to the Half-Broken; it was very close to being a five-star read for me, but something just holds me back — I think it’s the fact that it feels like it could’ve been juuuust a little tighter, and would’ve felt stronger for it. I really liked the way it’s set post-apocalypse and people are still trying to survive, that people and mecha are trying to be good to each other despite everything, and that maybe even the holdouts could eventually be persuaded of that. For something set in a pretty post-apocalyptic landscape, it’s surprisingly hopeful.

It starts with a nameless protagonist, an old war mecha who redefined their own purpose and withdrew to live in their own quiet way. Dragged back out into the world by the theft of their leg, they end up teaming up with a surprisingly diverse crew of sentients, and travelling all over the place to try to understand exactly what happened and what’s going wrong with the increasing number of weirdly, uncharacteristically belligerent mecha.

There are quite a few twists and turns, and I’ll admit I saw most of them coming from varying distances: I almost immediately clocked why the protagonist’s leg was stolen, and figured out something relating to the protagonist’s sibling-mecha before they did. That said, the fact that they don’t see it coming makes sense: they don’t know they’re in a story, and aren’t suspiciously watching for twists!

I loved our nameless protagonist, the meditations about personhood and culpability, and the ragtag band of friends and allies they build up. The bits of worldbuilding — railmechs! drone society! the “ecology” of mecha and humans that they briefly travel with! — are all a lot of fun.

So yeah… I think I could wish it had just been a little tighter, here and there, but I did really really enjoy it. Comparisons to Murderbot and the Monk & Robot stories are fairly apt, I’d say, though there’s also more to it (of course).

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)