My review is now online on tor.com: https://www.tor.com/2018/08/29/quiltb...Magical spacefliiiiiiiiiiiight!Source of the book: Bought with my own money

Another wonderful read by Melissa Scott, Five-Twelfths Of Heaven does a fantastic job of building it's own unique and interesting universe that I wish could be explored for a thousand more books. Like many of Melissa Scott's books, we see complex social hierarchies and independent social issues, many which mirror problems we face in modern society but ones that are actively examined as part of the text, not just glossed over.If you love scifi with a dash of space opera this is a great tale for y...

Interesting and enjoyable science fantasy. I find Melissa Scott's writing style, characters, and world-building compelling, and I love the role of music in the magical technology of this universe. The very unusual method spaceflight reminds me a little of the Ninefox Gambit series, in that the authors pretty much throw out most of our current science and take a highly creative and colorful approach to the subject instead, which I heartily approve of. The ships in the story run basically on alche...

In this universe, Space Magic(TM) is - quite literally - space magic. Engineers are musicians, pilots are mystics and just about everyone else is a complete dickhead. Also, dubstep is a weapon of mass destruction, which is weird since the book was first published in 1985 and Skrillex and his ilk weren't even embryos then.

I don't know what to say about this book. I read it because it was written by Melissa Scott and also it intrigued me when Tor.com wrote an article on it. But overall it was a disappointment, and I think mostly because Silence wasn't a fully formed character more a lense and the really interesting parts the marriage between Silence and her two husbands wasn't explored much. Overall I have the second book but I'm not sure I will persist with the series.

I originally read this some time around when it came out in paperback (which was in 1985). For this reread, I'm going with the Kindle edition, updated by the author and published in 2012.Back at the end of last year, I wrote myself a list of 19 books to read in 2019. Mostly, they were ones I have had sitting waiting to be read for much too long (plus one where I put off starting it because I loved the first in the series so much I don't think the second can possible hold up). This was one of the...

My favorite part was how the people in the story relate to their technology metaphorically as magic, but you can totes tell it's science.My least favorite part (and that almost cost the review a star) was how it started to feel like... magic. I want to read a sequel and I want it to categorically state that you aren't 'born' a magus in this world, you study to become one, and the study involves physics.Still, it's a "lost colonies" world and I love those, and I love "geas" whenever it gets used,...

This science fiction novel has a truly radical approach to faster than light travel: it is all done by magic — literally. The pilot goes into a trance and visualizes “purgatory” as a series of alchemical symbols to navigate around. Silence, a rare female pilot, is unexpectedly stranded in a misogynist regime where women can’t own property. To avoid being cheated of her grandfather’s ship, her only inheritance, she marries two total strangers (a gay couple whose marriage is not legal where they l...

3.5 starsA very interesting sci-fi novel, using the concepts of music, purgatory, heaven, and hell for space travel, and also magic. A woman pilot, stranded in a fundamentalist culture, accepts the help of a stranger captain, pilots him and his ship out, and then agrees to a multiple marriage of convenience in order to get his friend citizenship— but along the way they ge involve in a way and the search for earth, long lost.

Really one of the most original methods of space travel I've ever read, where pilots reach worlds by visualising symbols in a kind of musical alchemical phase shift.I always find Melissa Scott very readable - I'm just interested in what happens next, although a lot of this story is just the protagonist, Silence, reacting to circumstance. She lives in a very woman-unfriendly part of the galaxy. Most of it has been conquered by the Hegemony, which strips most of the rights from women. Even outside...

The traveling through purgatory was a neat concept, and luckily there was a lot of it.Some annoying gender essentialism, but all in all cool enough that I'm interested in the sequel to see where it goes.

This book is fantastic. Certainly a lost SFF gem (to me at least, that found this almost by accident). How detailed the workings of space travel are in this story. Even though is a completely "magical" system, we fell thrilled, tense, as to the dramas and hardships required for those machines to "fly".Also really glad that there is an easily available kindle edition on amazon.Can't wait to read the other books in the series.

I used to read a lot of Sci-Fi and Fantasy when I was in my teens and early twenties (the 1970s and 1980s) but my tastes changed and I only dip in occasionally now. Looking back, as I got older, I think I started to find all the fantasy names a bit silly. On the other hand, after hundreds of Michael Moorcock novels, other Sci-Fi probably seemed a bit too much like hard work. Starting Five-Twelfths of Heaven, I was reminded of the hard work required to become immersed in a Sci-Fi novel. The autho...

I have so many mixed feelings on this novel. So... context first. I picked it at random off the shelves, and decided to read it because I liked the title. If you look at the cover, note that it shows a blond woman and two men, a ship in the background--that and the blurb make it sounds like a classic space opera type story. The cover is bullshit. This is a science fantasy space-opera about a religious mageocracy who rule space travel through magic and enforce a highly unequal society, particular...

2021 bk 95: As a female pilot, Silence has learned to deal with the prejudices of her universe, the variations between the rules for women as they change from planet to planet. When the extreme oppression of the planet where her grandfather passes away and sly cunning of her uncle leave her with no options, she grasps the one option that suddenly appears. Marriage to two men, triple marriage is not unknown on Delios, but is unusual enough to bring attention. Melissa Scott's space opera is well t...

Science Fantasy where FTL travel is powered by alchemy, tarot cards, and a musical instrument that can be tuned to the music of the spheres. I couldn't help but imagine all the spaceships sort of looking like guitars, cellos, violins, etc.

I’ve read this whole series at least 3 times. Scott has created a very ‘real’ world and the characters are well constructed. I like the way ‘unconventional’ relationships (in ‘modern’ Western eyes) are written as straightforward. It is really classy science fiction with strong human stories. Great

Five-Twelfths of Heaven is a story set in a universe that is very difficult to wrap your head around. Part science, mostly magic, ships travel according to a harmonic scale, ascending towards Heaven, completing journeys across the stars in a matter of minutes. The main characters are in a polyamorous “relationship” - really, a marriage of convenience, and the romance is very very minor, almost nonexistent save for a tiny spark towards the end. What I appreciate the most is that the worldbuilding...

Jo Walton called this "polyamorous alchemical space opera", and she nailed it, though the three-way love story isn't even part of the story, just a casual plot element.I really love space opera that just flows, and this nails it. Never even a paragraph of plodding exposition or clumsy "As you know, Captain..." monologue. I'm never a fan of worldbuilding without story, so this world gets a doube thumbs up because it is creative and essential to the story. Spaceships travel faster than light throu...

This wasn't a bad book at all, but I think I maybe should have started with a different book by this author. The magic/science/flight system is very unique and interesting. The plot is about as you'd expect from a book like this, but I mostly enjoyed it. However, I felt disconnected from the characters. Also, and this is maybe unfair on my part since the book was published in 1985, but I'm really tired of the female lead suffering All Oppressive Sexism which forces her into the main plot, and th...