RPGMemes

Quick rec for an amazingly good book I read recently. 'Moonstorm' by Yoon Ha Lee. It's a futuristic sci-fantasy where young 'Lancer pilots' fight on behalf of a paternistic empire, in a setting where the gravity of colonized worlds and the very laws of physics are governed by the laws of society and the people that comprise them. This phenomenon is so prevalent that rebel factions live out in a segment of space called 'the Moonstorm', where anarchistic and communal values lead to an erratic and unpredictable (but undeniably beautiful and free) cosmos. In the Empire, authoritative dogma and rigid social hierarchy leads to 'normal' (to us) gravity and 'predictable' (to us) celestial body movements. Gravity is a very heavy-handed metaphor for unity and national identity in the story, and it's brilliant in exploring the divide between an oppressive imperial autocracy and an anarchistic society with just the raw backdrop.

Also, techno-psychic sapient mechs and massive freaking gravity-powered railguns.