Should I Read This: Yes
BookShop.org Link (not an affiliate link): The Shamshine Blind
Author’s Website: Paz Says
This is going to be a short review, because the book is simply really good, and I think you will enjoy it. Let me explain.
The Shamshine Blind by Paz Pardo is an excellent mix of a clever science fiction idea and a solid noir mystery. Pardo imagines a world where emotions have a physical component, and that component can be weaponized. In Pardo’s world, Argentina got to those weapons first, during the Falkland War, defeated NATO and is not an occupying force across most of the world. The story centers on an office in a special police unit dedicated to tracking down illegal use of pigments, the means by which emotions have been weaponized and/or medicalized and a case that is, of course, mixed up in power, money, and politics.
This not a traditional noir, however, even if the noir aspects are done very well. In addition to the mystery, the book is almost a rumination on emotions and how people deal with depression, the loss of hope. The pigment police are depressives, because the belief is that they can handle the surge of emotions better than neurotypical people can, and so there is quite a bit about depression and other such conditions. but there is also a very nice rumination on how hope is held onto and how being hopeful does not negate neither the bad things in life nor your justified emotional reaction to said bad things.
I have some issues with the world building, but they are minor. I don’t believe that the US and NATOs nuclear advantage would be eliminated in the way the book posits, and some plot points require the Argentinians to be superhumanly good at intelligence operations. But those are very minor quibbles. Overall, this book does just what a good science fiction book should do. It takes a weird premise and uses it to explore real human emotions and society. That it does so while also telling as great noir mystery is gravy.
The book is beautifully written, well-paced, thoughtful in the best ways. I heartily recommend it.