I was a big fan of Lakshminarayan’s Ten Percent Thief, a deserved Clarke Award nominee. With Interstellar MegaChef, the first book in a series, Lakshminarayan has spread her wings, unfurling a much larger (one might say galactic-sized) canvas. We get competition cooking, a queer love story and cultural imperialism set against a far future backdrop where humanity (or the humans living on the planet Primus) think [they’re] hot shit, the pin[n]acle of civilisation.

The novel has the progressive and social attitude of Becky Chambers’ work, just without all the ungainly exposition that, for me, bogged down “The Long Way to A Small, Angry Planet”. That’s not to say there’s no exposition at all, but instead, it’s evenly spread, like a tomato sauce applied to a pizza base.** It’s also the second (or maybe third) novel I’ve read this year that deconstructs a utopian society. In my longer review,*** I compared it to Adam Roberts’ latest book, Lake of Darkness, but only because I haven’t read LeGuin’s The Dispossessed.****

I loved all the foods, all the social and cultural commentary, all the characters—even the villains—and I loved that we get to come back to this world, that this is just an entree (or if you are in the US, starter) to what I’m sure will be a multi-course meal. I can’t wait.

*I read it back in 2021 when it was first published in India under the title Analog/Virtual.

**Do you see what I did there?! I’m so proud!

***Guess where. Bet you can’t.

****Which I willingly accept is an error on my part.