Too Like the Lightning. Terra Ignota, Book I

2016 Palmer, Ada [Louise Grace] (b. 1981). Too Like the Lightning. Terra Ignota, Book I. New York: Tor. 432 pp. PSt

A complex novel set in a 25^th century technological flawed utopia. Abundance. Much on gender roles. The public practice of religion has been outlawed. Most people belong to world clans that are economic entities in competition with other clans. First volume in a series. The second volume is Seven Surrenders: Terra Ignota, Book II. New York: Tor, 2017 in which certain groups have conspired to maintain stability on the planet through selective murders. The third volume is The Will to Battle: Terra Incognita, Book III. New York: Tor, 2017 in which the utopia has collapsed and turned into a dystopia. The fourth volume is Perhaps the Stars: Terra Ignota, Book IV. New York: Tor, 2021 where war breaks out with devastating consequences, but at the end a better world is slowly being rebuilt. The series has explicitly utopian threads throughout. See https://irradiate.space/worldbuilding/notes-on-oaths-and-laws-from-terra-ignota/utopia/ for the Utopian Oath from volume one. The female author holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and is a Professor of History at the University of Chicago.