Dust

Author: Elizabeth Bear

There are distinct similarities between the familiar patterns of space opera and the familiar patterns of medieval quest fantasy (see Samuel R. Delany's Nova, for instance), but this novel makes the connection between the two explicit. Centuries before, a generation starship suffered a devastating failure and managed to limp into the system of a binary star, but repairs have proved seemingly impossible and the society aboard the ship has fractured into rival factions. The fragments of the AI that control different functions aboard the ship have manifested themselves as angels, and within the strict hierarchy there are knights in armour and magical weapons, and a serving girl called Rien must rescue a captured angel and escort her on her quest. But the quest to heal the world, as it would be in a medieval romance, here becomes a quest to repair the ship before catastrophe strikes. It's always interesting to see a basic space opera transformed into something else by the way the story is told, and this is a very inventive use of the form.