High Times in the Low Parliament

May 9, 2022
With this charming fantasy novella, Nebula Award winner Robson (Waters of Versailles) offers a satirical take on political gridlock. In a fascinating, all-female world, fairies have established a European Union–esque system of government called Low Parliament to keep humans from destroying each other and the planet. Flirtatious scribe Lana Baker is persuaded into writing and delivering a letter for fellow scribe, Cora, in exchange for a few kisses, and winds up being sent to Low Parliament in Cora’s place. It’s a dangerous assignment: there’s a hung Parliament, and the fairies will drown everyone who works there if Parliament can’t come “unhung” by the new moon. Lana quickly befriends the fairy in charge of the scribes, Bugbite, via magical yeast (which acts a bit like marijuana) and psychedelic mushrooms. While high, they encounter Eloquentia de la Barre, a dancer with whom Lana becomes infatuated, convinced she’s the only person who can save Parliament. Lana is a charmingly breezy narrator, though her falling asleep during the penultimate parliamentary debate undercuts Robson’s argument that parliamentary systems, however flawed, are worth preserving, and Eloquentia’s climactic call for decision feels a little left-field. Still, Robson’s fans will enjoy this easygoing perspective on a politically charged fairy tale world. Agent: Hannah Bowman, Liza Dawson Assoc.

July 15, 2022
Robson's quirky fantasy novella, set in an alternate England called Angland, skewers political bureaucracy with its depiction of the Low Parliament, in which constituents are too busy arguing to accomplish anything, even saving their own lives. Frivolous but talented scribe Lana will do anything for kisses from a pretty girl, which often lands her in trouble. Soon she's tricked into taking another scribe's place in the Low Parliament, where she and her fellow scribes are forced to record Parliament's futile debates forever, or until the fairies, who developed Parliament to save humans from themselves, flood the whole place in despair. Despite her layabout tendencies, Lana recruits grumpy fairy overseer Bugbite and beautiful constituent Eloquentia to scheme a way to avoid a watery death. Robson's story, like Lana, is a tease, fascinating and clever without fully committing. Even with the threat of imminent death, stoner Lana parties or sleeps her way through the plot but props up Eloquentia enough to call for a nonsensical world-saving vote. The political satire is sharp, though, in this lighthearted romp.

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