Looking for an 80s-90s sf book with Brazilian interstellar traders

December 12, 2024 8:28 PM

I don't remember much about it, but the one strange detail that sticks out is that the clan had a special skill in paper marbling.

Things I do remember:

It was a family clan of space traders, of Brazilian descent, I think with multiple space ships that sometimes met up and possibly traded personnel.

It was definitely before 2000, and I think probably from the 80s, but I don't think it can be much older than that, I'm pretty sure it was new when I got it from Hole in the Wall books.

I think it had a brightly colored parrot on the cover, but I could be mis-remembering that.

It's possible that the space traders who did paper marbling bit is being dragged in from another book, but I *think* it was this one. If I'm wrong, I'd still like to know about the paper marbling book too!

posted by tavella to Writing & Language (3 answers total)

Response by poster: ...and after spending a lot of googling time and failing I posted this, and then stopped worrying about it, whereupon a name drifted into my head, "S. N. Lewitt", and yup, found the book, "Songs of Chaos", and a quick search on a copy of the book scanned on the Internet Archive confirmed the paper marbling, though it is actually a refugee fleeing Earth that ends up with the Brazilian trading clan who has the skill.
posted by tavella at 1:22 AM on December 13 [5 favorites]

the recall skills of the mind (especially when more relaxed) is an incredible thing :)
posted by many-things at 1:56 AM on December 13

Response by poster: Though going by the reviews, I entirely forgot the entire first part of the book, all about genetic engineering and earth politics around it. The refugee is actually the main character, but the only part that stuck with me was the trader clan and their culture. So the recall skills are spotty!
posted by tavella at 9:41 AM on December 13