Intergalactic Feast by Lavanya Lakshminarayan
I would like to thank Solaris for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Solaris
Published - Out Now
Price – £10.99 paperback £5.99 ebook
FEAST boggles the mind, delivers a sucker-punch to the senses, and launches food into the far future. It blends rich, evocative memories with impossible dreams. Just add water!
It has been three months since Saraswati Kaveri and Serenity Ko won Interstellar MegaChef with their groundbreaking new food simulation, Feast.
But victory is only the beginning. Saras is busy promoting their invention as the public face of Feast, while Ko keeps fighting battles to steer its development at XP Inc. And then there’s the kiss. They’ve decided to just be friends for now, at least until the sim’s impending launch, but the memory of that heady night hangs over them.
And sometimes it seems the whole galaxy is lined up against them. Saraswati’s secret past is coming under scrutiny, while old rivals are running smear campaigns against her. The cookery world is divided over Feast, proclaiming it a bold new invention and a betrayal of the chef’s art by turns.
And others see Feast’s darker potential—not as an experience, but as a weapon...
NB – this is the sequel to the excellent Interstellar Megachef by Lavanya Lakshminarayan and there will be spoilers for that book
Culture is a fascinating term we can mean our art and history but it’s a much bigger and complex term that covers everything from the food we eat, the language we speak and the way we want the world to see us and how we see the rest of the world. We often may be wrongfooted by how those not from our part of the globe see us and vice versa. In Lanaya Lakshminarayan’s absorbing new science fiction novel Intergalactic Feast we explore these themes not just with food but also how we deal with identity giving a lot of insight into our world too.
In Interstellar Megachef Saraswati Kaveri arrived as a refugee on Primus one of the galaxy’s major powers and centre of galactic culture on all things including fine cuisine. Being from earth and a cook who actually dealt with real food not enhanced flavours she was soon scorned and her brief appearance on the hit reality show Interglactic Megachef was a high-profile disaster but Saras meets the ultra-competitive (sone would say excessively) Serenity Ko who is developing a new food Feast that creating mental simulations using food. The two worked closely together combining their team’s skills with flavour and technology to create a stunning success and Saras became a high-profile winner. Saras though now riding high on fame is aware she was not telling anyone the truth she is actually a runaway from Earth’s most notorious crime family and just as everyone is starting to explore what Feast means for the future of Primus her past is finally getting ready to catch up with her.
If you enjoyed Interstellar Megachef then I am delighted to say you’ll enjoy this follow up. Once again Lakshminarayan has what could be a very simple cosy plot of cooks and scientists working together to create a new food business but we get a whole lot more. This story balances the fun and chaos using its two leads with a fine simmering will they won’t they romance and for me the highlight is the recurring themes of identity being explored in the story. If last time the driver was Saras showing the people of Primus she was not to be underestimated here is the quiet plotline that Saras was lying to everyone about where she came from is the tripwire waiting to be hit that will unsettle the whole world, we saw created last time.
Our core focus is again Saras and Ko and I really liked the way the two are developed here. Saras last time was very much a character to cheer for but here her past is weighing heavily on her mind. We often get chapters told in her voice and she is juggling the joy of being now famous, acclaimed and popular with a whole new set of friends on Primus and yet knowing she has told everyone a lie. We feel her guilt, her nerves and that looming feeling its all going to go wrong. The story really puts her into some moral dilemmas as people start to gig into her past and pressure is put on her to follow their orders. As Feast the food technology is all about using food’s ability to create memory there is an underlying danger to the technology various powers see as an opportunity and so its Saras who gets to cross lines in an effort to save herself and safe to say this will not go well.
Last time Serenity Ko was the force of chaos learning finally there is a bit more to life than power and acclaim. Now she’s finally got that she is perhaps realising its not quite what she wants. In her sections we see her slowly realising she is falling hard for Saras and its quite powerful how much we now care for this character when we see her inability to tell Saras this hurts her even more. Ko is still prone to making the worst possible decision for the right reasons and this creates a good level of conflict but at the same time with the two characters constantly being near each other, then the romance builds and builds so that we as the readers should all be just screaming will you two just kiss. The tension is strong and yes, many many barriers await but perhaps just perhaps this couple may just work! These two are working through the identity they show to others and who they really want to be and the discovery for both of them is a really effective character arc.
Around this powerful set of characters though is again where the series shines using what on paper could sound goofy a world heavily focused on food to explore how culture is so many things at once. Saras’ success has not stopped people seeing her as interloper and how she is being scorned soon becomes apparent its because she is an immigrant and indeed in reality here very much an illegal alien. We (as so Saras’ friends) start to really see the daily micro-aggressions and insults foisted upon her and as things get very dangerous later on we see saras being interrogated and punished in ways that will remind you of many news stories we have recently seen. Saras’ past is indeed the catalyst for her story but its Primus’ bigotry and superiority that means she can never just tell people who she really is. The reality that no refugee is going to be perfect is something this story subtly introduces and creates the world the story takes place in. That we get to effectively follow Saras’ experience of it is a great lesson that science fiction doesn’t just need future technology ideas but also to explore our own world thoughtfully.
While this story does have a pleasing conclusion there are still plotlines that could be followed up in another instalment which I will be there for if it ever appears. In the meantime, Interstellar Feast was a chewy delight of a read full of passion, humour, kindness and human frailty that I think reminds us empathy and understanding is much needed if we want a better culture to develop. It is highly recommended!
