A Star Trek plot - humans are the result of genes scattered on Earth by aliens. One human finally evolves enough to communicate with the monitoring ship and the next steps are taken to incorporate humans into the empire. The human is an Indian woman, fighting against a reinstated caste system; the aliens also have a strict and intricate caste system, reinforced by implanted suppressants. What will be the humans' role in the galactic empire? Not as big as they might think. This seems like it should be part of a series - the ending has a sort of hopeful grim note. Floof. ( )

An ambitious and intelligently constructed book. I predict great things from this writer. ( )

Empire of Bones is everything The Ghost Sister is not.
In the near future, India has reverted to a more rigid caste system, catalysed in part by a genetic disease which has crippled the lower castes. Into this comes Jaya, a young woman who begins to hear voices in her head which seem to predict the future. Charismatic, she parlays her newfound abilities into forming a revolutionary movement determined to fight back against the government and restore justice to her caste. But, as she too is crippled with the disease, her movement is crushed, and her life seems over. Then she discovers she is a Receiver.
Aeons ago, Earth was seeded with genetic information by an alien race, and life here was left to evolve. Now evolution has reached a point where humans can begin to communicate with those who started life here – the voices Jaya has heard since she is a child are those of the alien ship, watching in orbit for the first of her kind to emerge.
The precise nature of what the aliens want from their seed colony, how it interacts with the events on Earth, and the political back-story going on in parallel on the alien home world form the backbone of the story. It’s much more coherent than Williams’ first novel, and has some genuinely intriguing ideas at its core. It’s not without flaws, but I begin to see the potential I was told of when her books were recommended.
There’s some nifty paralleling going on with the alien culture – also caste based – and that of India but, unlike The Ghost Sister where you felt as if you were bring soundly beaten around the head with the message, Williams is more content here to draw the parallels more subtly and let her readers work for the conclusions. Her characters are much more believable – particularly Jaya, who is far more sympathetic than any of the characters in the last book – and she doesn’t feel the need to tie everything off neatly in the end.
Empire of Bones is a dense read, but it shows a lot of promise, and I shall approach her next book with somewhat less trepidation. ( )