Elizabeth Bear's "Carnival" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Michelangelo Buonarotti, the artist, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, the poet

Although it would seem at first that the characters are named after two artists, especially given the importance of art and artists in the novel, Michelangelo in fact explains at some point that Vincent has been named after the American poet rather then the Dutch painter.

Answer: The young ones of the alien Dragon race, artificially stopped in their development

The race of Dragons decided at some point to transfer their consciousness into incorporeal form, giving up physical bodies. They decided, however, to leave behind a group of the young ones - their "children" - as guardians. These were artificially stopped from developing full consciousness, even when they reached physical maturity.

Their descendants are the khir, who would still be able to mature into sentient Dragons, if given a specific treatment.

Answer: Only women have full civil rights there

New Amazonia has male population, but men are kept under strict control and treated almost as domestic slaves, with civil rights granted only to women. The colony is one of those no longer under Old Earth jurisdiction, but certainly not the only one.

Answer: His mother is a famous politician, opposing the ways of the Terran government

Vincent's mother, Katherine Lexadaughter, is a spiritual and political leader of the Ur colony. Although Vincent himself is a kind of telepath, we know nothing about his mother's possible talents. Katherine trusts her son, an accomplished diplomat, to help her in her political intrigues and is fully supportive as far as his way of life goes.

Answer: The alien race of Dragons

Penthesilea has been renamed by its human inhabitants (after a mythological Amazon queen) and inhabited by New Amazonians, but it was built (or rather, bred, as the city is a living being) by the ancient alien race of Dragons.

Answer: They are deemed useless for the population and killed

The First Assessment was a planned genocide, eliminating 90% of the human populace. It was introduced after an ecological catastrophe in order to avoid further damage to Earth. After that, every human being was given a choice: leave for a colony or stay on Earth and undergo mandatory Second Assessment, when further individuals deemed useless were killed and the Earth population stabilized at c. 50 million inhabitants. Since then, Assessment is the way of dealing with every human being who does not want to comply to the strict rules of the government.

Answer: She loves her slave-partner Robert and trusts him fully

Lesa Pretoria is special, because, unlike other women of New Amazonia, she loves the father of her children and trusts him, in her own words, "more that any woman". Males in her household (or rather, in the household of her mother, with whom she still lives) are treated better than anywhere else.

It does not make her too trusting towards the unknown men, however: at first she treats Vincent and Michelangelo as threats, only later realizing that they and herself are on the same side.

Answer: Take her gifted son Julian with them, to give him a chance for a better life

Lesa realizes that for her little son Julian, who is talented and interested in engineering and mathematics, there is no place on New Amazonia. While she herself does not want to leave the planet, she, as a mother, wants to make an ultimate sacrifice: to send her son away to the Ur colony, to give him a chance for the education he deserves.

Answer: The artificial intelligences that enforce the rules set by their designers

After the ecological catastrophe on Earth the surviving humans built the Governors: the network of artificial intelligences, designed to enforce the new laws of strictly ecological way of life, to perform Assessment and to control each and every aspect of human life on Earth.

Answer: Because he was afraid to face Vincent, whom he had betrayed years ago

Michelangelo missed Vincent for many years, yet he was afraid to face him: many years before, on their last meeting together, Michelangelo purposefully sabotaged their mission. He did it as a member of the resistance movement, opposing the totalitarian rule of Earth, but it ruined both his and Vincent's careers as well as their relationship.