I struggled with how to rate this novella. But in the end, it's really just a mediocre read for me. I never really engaged in the story and honestly sI struggled with how to rate this novella. But in the end, it's really just a mediocre read for me. I never really engaged in the story and honestly skimmed quite a bit.
Written as a travelogue, the premise is that a team of 4 astronaut-scientists are on a long-term exploration mission from the Earth to explore 4 different worlds. The technology has advanced enough that temporary genetic modifications are possible to allow for the astronauts to physically adapt to each planet. There is also the standard advanced exploration science with habitats, labs, sampling, decontamination protocols, and long-range communication.
Like most of Chambers's writings, this one skewed toward philosophical themes.
We have found nothing you can sell. We have found nothing you can put to practical use. We have found no worlds that could be easily or ethically settled, were that end desired. We have satisfied nothing but curiosity, gained nothing but knowledge.
This is a quiet story that consists mostly of telling and has minimal action (most of the "action" is the science). The narrator is aware she is writing for a non-science audience, and does make the science accessible for non-science people. There's a lot of science, which, depending on your level of science, may or may not be interesting. In other words, it is basically like reading field notes of a research team.
I guess my biggest issue is that there is little interpersonal growth or definitely no conflict. There were a couple of plot points I thought would go somewhere but just were mentioned and then let go. I mean, you would think that 4 people confined in such a small space would have some conflicts over this long-term mission. But nothing, nada. Everyone's nice, everyone likes everyone else, everyone gets along. The characters run along archtypes who don't develop much beyond the type: the botanist, the geologist, the zoologist, and the engineer. While the narrator has interpersonal relationships (and a nice diversity of sexual identity) with each of the other 3, none of those relationships go anywhere. And the relationships between the other 3 are never really discussed. Although in fairness, this story is told from the engineer's POV.
Overall, I thought she did a better job in the Monk and Robot novellas. Here, her attempts to contemplate some rather big philosophical points are adequate but a bit too overt and the ending was too Schrödinger to be successful. 2.75 stars rounded up....more
This book originally came on my radar thanks to BookishFirst. One of the best I have ever reviewed on BookishFirst, so of course I immediately orderedThis book originally came on my radar thanks to BookishFirst. One of the best I have ever reviewed on BookishFirst, so of course I immediately ordered it.
And then it sat on my TBR bookcase for a year and a half.
Why? Mostly because I really wanted to love it but I worried that it wouldn't live up to my expectations.
I have an entire shelf of books in this category.
But I digress. I'm kicking myself for not picking up this book sooner. Marie Lu has created an incredible world. I dove right in and didn't look back. The world-building is fantastic. The characters are compelling and well-developed. The story picks you up and doesn't stop.
So why only 4 stars then? I do wish there had been a bit more depth in some areas. There's pieces of the world that I wonder about. Then again, this is a first POV. We're seeing the world through Talin's perspective and what she understands and knows, which is limited for several reasons. And so, it makes sense that we only see the world as she understands it.
My other reason for giving 4 stars instead of 5 is that like many YA books, some things are a bit too convenient and the story overall is a tad too predictable. This didn't lessen my enjoyment of the story but it does mean I give it 4 stars instead of 5.
Overall, a fast-paced read. I can't wait to get to book 2 to find out what happens next....more
This book could have been aided by some beta readers as it's rife with issues as well as issues with the plot and pacing to character development and This book could have been aided by some beta readers as it's rife with issues as well as issues with the plot and pacing to character development and backstory.
The story is a generic dystopian plot—war + pandemic + a generic evil organization called, ironically enough, Immunity. It's like the author took all the pieces that make a dystopian plot and crammed them together. And the evil organization, Immunity, is almost comically ironic and laughably generic. The basis for this organization is weak. They want to "save the world" from the flu, and to "remake the world." This group started working on this "specific, powerful chain of the flu" (view spoiler)[that they created (hide spoiler)]. Of course that really isn't so much of a spoiler as predictable. The genesis of the war is also rather generic. The world-buidling and backstory were just so generic. Nothing like the incredible world-building and backstory in Station Eleven.
And sadly, that isn't the biggest problem.
One of the bigger issues is that this book is 310 pages long. It takes halfway, nearly 150 pages, for the actual plot to get started. Okay, yes Jax shows up around page 50 but still nothing really happens. I got bored with the story before the actual plot even began. The first half of the book is full of scenes unconnected to the main plot, like the ones with Conrad, a minor bad guy who lives near the MC and her family. The book opens with Conrad sexually assaulting the MC, the entire purpose of which seemed to be simply to establish him as a bad guy. And the word used most to describe Conrad is fat. Throughout the start of the story, the MC is talking about getting enough game to survive the winter and how thin she is, and yet somehow the neighbor Conrad is fat. Not only is this descriptor is overused, along with other synonyms, such as heavy, massive bulk, bulky, and thick, it felt a bit fatphobic. It also felt like lazy writing. A little too much tell and not enough show.
Another rather significant issue is that despite this book was published in 2018, it is rife with all sorts of issues like racism, sexism, homophobia, and sexual assault. For example, the flu is referred to as the “Asian flu” or the “yellow flu,” which the reader is told isn’t racist but that people are just "too sensitive." No, just no. Stop right there. Calling out racism is not being "too sensitive." In addition to the opening sexual assault scene, the MC reminiscences about the time she tried to have sex with a younger character. Not only was this another time she was telling the reader about some backstory (that again, has nothing to do with anything other than to show she's basically a sex-crazed 12-year-old boy, but more on that below). She walked into his room, climbed on top of him, and started kissing him even though “he seemed flat-out scared." And then she became offended when he didn’t want to have sex with her and decided he must be gay because of it. WTF? Why is this acceptable? And that leads to the next big issue—the MC.
I'm not sure the author has ever spent actual time with an actual woman. Does the author have any female friends? Did any women beta read this book? Doubtful. I'm not sure what made the author decide to have a female MC because he clearly knows nothing about women. Yes, I get that this is a dystopian world and that she grew up under somewhat horrible circumstances. But that doesn't explain or excuse any of her behavior. It's not like she's Tarzan living alone amongst the apes with no other role models. She went to school until her late teens. Her mother is still alive and living with her. The MC also remembers the "before" times. And yet, she acts like a 12-year-old boy, obsessed with sex and fueled by anger. Seriously, when the book starts, the MC is supposed to be 23. I once was a 23-year old female. I have many, many female friends. And I can't think of any of them that would act this way, despite the dystopian isolation. The problem: the MC has no depth. None at all. Completely one-dimensional.
Generic and boring, the prose is lazy and it just isn't a good story. The only good thing I can say about this book is that the author didn't kill off the dog. ...more
This is not a book I normally would've picked up. In fact, the only reason I had it was because it came in one of the monthly OwlCrates. And then it sThis is not a book I normally would've picked up. In fact, the only reason I had it was because it came in one of the monthly OwlCrates. And then it sat on my shelf for nearly nine months. But I finally picked it up yesterday because of a reading challenge. And I pretty much couldn't put it down. (I say pretty much because I finally did put it down last night because unfortunately work doesn't understand things like "read all night" and "book hangover" as an excuse not to come in.)
So I started this book a bit hesitantly. I wasn't really sure what it was about. But I became intrigued in the alternating storylines—Cee's written in first person and Kasey's written in third person. In fact, I didn't even pick up on that at first, as I found it well written and immersing. When I finally realized it, I thought it a bit weird but at the same time it worked. It was also around this time, around chapter 8, when I realized that Kasey's chapter numbers were written natural numbers and Cee's were in hashmarks. Clever.
As I kept reading, I became completely immersed in this story. This future-climate-critical world. The world building is interesting and complex. Kasey's world is clearly high tech with cures for most diseases, holographs, intrafaces, and stasis pods, but suffering under the consequences of years/decades/centuries of decimating nature and failing to take aggressive action to stop and even turn the tide of climate change. Cee's world is a bit harder to decipher, intentionally done by the author, to create a sense of the isolation and desolation of being on an island alone.
As I finished the book, part of me wondered what the heck I had just read. Yes, it is a kind of dystopian SciFi story, but at it's core, I think this is a more philosophical work questioning what we owe each other. Asking tough questions about freedom to live as one chooses versus living for the collective good (a rather current question given covid), about international harm versus societal good, and even about what makes a human human.
And yet, this is a story about a individuals, their journey of discovering who they are and what it means to be family. About the bond between sisters and finding commonality beyond DNA, about each exploring differing world views through the lens of the other. Two sisters who seem quite different, who see the differences and each feel less, and yet. . .
Logic ended where love began.
This is a book that is hard to review. It's not going to be for everyone. It's going to be either rated high or low. Either people will become immersed or fail to get captivated. For me, I immersed fully into this world. This arduous exploration of a world too close and yet divergent from our own reality, a world that is difficult to feel comfortable with and yet transfixes. 4.5 stars....more
DNF’d at 25%. The premise was intriguing. An alternative history where ghosts are real and caused a major world-altering event. The Magic system, whatDNF’d at 25%. The premise was intriguing. An alternative history where ghosts are real and caused a major world-altering event. The Magic system, what little I learned of it, seemed interesting. The narrator, Bahni Turpin, is a good narrator.
So why DFN? Because the main character was bleh. I thought a drug addict magic user would have depth and be interesting. But she was as boring as a piece of plywood. No depth. No personality. No wit. The drugs are a just crutch that are overused. She has no no gumption, no spunk. She really doesn’t do anything—things just happen around her and she reacts, normally by popping a pill, which seems to be her answer to every problem.
I found the story lackluster because Chess was just so boring. I had to force myself to keep listening, and I finally decided it wasn’t worth it. I much rather have a badass heroine like Mercy Thompson or Kate Daniels....more
Uneven is the first word that comes to mind. The premise was intriguing and right up my alley. But after the first few chapters, my enthusiasm waned aUneven is the first word that comes to mind. The premise was intriguing and right up my alley. But after the first few chapters, my enthusiasm waned as the execution of a multiverse story failed.
Even though I labeled this as scifi, there's actually very little science in this science-fiction novel. Mostly, it focused on politics and philosophy and the scifi bits were just a convenient way to allow the characters to "traverse" the worlds. But there was never any explanation on the how. Not even one bit of physics, only that it was "figured out" by this genius guy.
Then the plot, or what passed for a plot, was uneven. Honestly, I saw no real plot until maybe the last 1/3 of the book, and even then it felt as if the MC was just reacting instead of having any real motivation to act. The MC spent most of the book just stumbling along. And the world building was uneven. The book opens with a lot of info-dumping but there's not a lot of context for the actual world (Earth 0). After the initial info dump, the story became mostly internal to the MC. Moments where interesting dialogue could have happened ended up being summarised—lots of tell and no show. And there were some weird subplots which I'm still not sure what the point was.
As for character building, well again, it was uneven. Okay, so we get a convenient explanation for Cara but no real depth, no fleshing her out. There was nothing as to her motivations for anything she did (save for her motivations to Dell). Again, it was like she was just bumbling along, conveniently fitting into whatever scene happened to be occurring at the time. Things happened to her but then unfolded so conveniently that there was no suspense at all. The rest of the characters were all so one-dimensional. Such a lost opportunity to really develop an incredibly complex villain in Adam Bosch.
This book was just so uneven and really disappointing. The lack of a real plot from the start is what really killed it for me. ...more
I finally finished it mainly because I wanted to get it off my shelf.
I thought I would enjoy this story because I love sci-fi and the idea that a femI finally finished it mainly because I wanted to get it off my shelf.
I thought I would enjoy this story because I love sci-fi and the idea that a female who's been in cryostasis for 1,000 years finally waking up sounded intriguing. But sadly I was wrong. There's actually little about this that's sci-fi—AI, bots, nanos, a supposed spaceship—but little else. Overall, I felt the execution failed due to poor world-building, limited character development, and a lackluster plot.
Although there was some world-building, none of it was fleshed out enough to give this world any substance. The author primarily relied on language to world-build but language by itself isn't enough build an entire world. The language of this world, called High Goddess, is a poorly-evolved, or maybe devolved, version of English. Would some miscommunication be expected after 1,000 year? Of course. But what was used here felt gimmicky, overused, and disrupted the narrative flow. Some examples of High Goddess include “Neg, certz not” and "don’t you reck?” And then the author added the suffix -ish to any word that ends it in -ly: mereish, apparentish, especialish, unsuccesfulish, definitish, resolutish, finalish, legitimatish. And just WHY? And finally, the author just decided to straight up misspell words as a part of this language, such as skooled, sorcer, spoze. Sadly, this random-seeming language doesn't add anything to the story. And since most of the world-building is based on this language, well, it just failed across the board.
Although it is mentioned that there are other languages in this world, none are mentioned and everyone in the story speaks High Goddess. It also doesn't make sense. Presumably it's called High Goddess because the first goddess spoke it and the first goddess, who also would've awoken from cryostasis, would have spoken modern English. If the characters, like Zhade and Marat learned HG when they were children, then they should have been able to speak relatively close modern English. And since we can assume that the timing of the language (i.e., when HG became a language) isn't that remote because (view spoiler)[Zhade is the child of the first (hide spoiler)], then there's no real explanation for how the language became so distorted. Regardless, the HG language annoyed me to no end and I ended up skimming a lot of Zhade's POV because of it.
The character development also lacked. Most of the story centers around the relationship between the Andra and Zhade but little happens in their development either of their selves or their relationship. Marat, who was written to be the villain, was so one-dimensional when he could have been a rather sympathetic villain. But he wasn't fleshed out enough. The rest of the characters, like Lew and Doon, might as well not even been mentioned. I will say that I was happy for once a YA book didn't involve insta-love. In fact, there's very little romance between the the two main characters, which was a nice change.
The plot, according to the synopsis, is about a girl waking up on a dying world trying to find her way home. Sure, Andra spends time thinking about how she's going to get home. But it's done in a rather boring way. Even the big action scenes and the so-called "ah-ha" plot twist moments are lackluster. And the twists really aren't twists. The supposed big twist (view spoiler)[Andra is an AI (hide spoiler)] was obviously hinted at throughout the book. So when I got to the last couple of chapters, I was just happy to finally call this book done.
Overall, disappointing and annoying because of the HG language. 2 stars.
This is a hard book for me to rate. On the one hand, I finished it and read it fairly quickly. On the other, I'm not clear on what this book was reallThis is a hard book for me to rate. On the one hand, I finished it and read it fairly quickly. On the other, I'm not clear on what this book was really trying to convey or be. I liked the premise, but I guess I was expecting more Scalzi-esque type humor or more cerebral-esque Atwood. But unfortunately, I got neither.
I read it fairly quickly, I think in part, because of it's first person POV written in journal-styled entries. The prose isn't great, but it oddly sort of worked for this style. It's clear the author is a journalist, because that's kind of how it reads, almost as a journalist's notes for the larger report he's working on. But then that style leads to a lot of telling instead of showing. And overall, there's actually little action. The author excels on the "entries" that are sharing the various news reports of that day or one of documentaries that the main character is watching.
That being said, the book failed for me. This was the most depressing dystopian-esque book I've ever read. I mean even in The Handmaid's Tale the characters had some hope, something they strove for. Here, there is nothing but dispair, although that in a way did seem rather realistic.
And that leads to the larger problem I had with the book—the author provides no vision of the future he's imagined. Nothing to say, "Ah-ha, here's what he's trying to tell us." I felt as if the author was attempting to by cynical about the moral dilemmas of this quasi-immortality, but it really never came together. In fact, I thought the book suffered from trying to figure out what it actually wants to be: dystopian, noir-ish, romance-esque, thriller, moral philophy? All of the above? Sadly, it failed across the board.
I noticed I felt, as I was reading, as if I was reading a clinical paper. Something rather sterile because I had no emotions for the characters. I neither rooted for them nor against them. And this I think is the biggest fail of this book. Give me a character to care about. I wanted to root for John. To care about his trials, his joys, and everything he went through. But in the end, (view spoiler)[ even when John finally kills himself at the very end (hide spoiler)] I felt nothing. Nothing at all.
Overall 2.5 stars. Mostly because I finished it and I think, with more work, this could have been a much better book....more
**spoiler alert** On the surface, this story has a certain amount of realism—kids with psi abilities being rounded up in concentration camps, governme**spoiler alert** On the surface, this story has a certain amount of realism—kids with psi abilities being rounded up in concentration camps, government establishing "rehab" programs and a special government unit to deal with the camps, economic collapse, factions fighting for power, a president who takes advantage of the chaos and seizes power. Yes, I can buy all that.
But this realism doesn't account for the two main problems with this book—the world-building and plot holes.
The world-building provided a minimal back story. Or rather, there's something there but it's never explained. We know that a disease killed off a large majority of children and that the survivors (assuming all of the survivors as this is one of the things that's never really clear) have some sort of psychic powers. The government puts the survivors in "rehabilitation" camps. The entire story is focused around these Psi children but no one seems to question or wonder how they got those powers in the first place. Apparently, some sort of testing happened or is happening but that's all vague.
Second, some of the world-building had no real purpose. The Psi guards seemed to be on the sadistic side. I'm assuming it's because of fear and based on references to actual concentration/internment camps. But there was no real reason given other than to maybe to show these children as victims. But isn't the sympathy points fairly high just because they were children taken from their homes? Whatever the reason, this just didn't work for me.
Then on top of no real explanation for this disease and its results, the powers are never clearly explained and only referred to by the classified color: green, blue, yellow, orange, and red. It was vaguely hinted that certain powers had a certain color (something about being good with numbers = green; telekinesis = blue; electricity manipulation = yellow; fire = red; and mind control = orange;) but a clearer explanation would have been nice. Maybe I somehow missed an explanation during one of the times I was skimming a chapter.
As for the plot, well, it lacked. Basically Ruby escapes with the help of the League but then she has a moment of clarity and escapes from them too and meets up with some other esacapees. But then they just kind of stumble on the most boring road trip ever. I skimmed a lot through the middle bits because even the so-called tense moments were not. Chubs and Zu have their moments of brilliance but end up contributing very little to the overall plot. The group just meanders around until they just happen to stumble upon the camp with the so-called Psi-savior, the Slip Kid. And seriously, this so-called journey took about two-thirds of the book.
So now we learn that not only are the government rehabilitation camps bad (is anyone surprised the government is bad?), we also have learned that the League is also bad but no real clear idea why. Really, none of the various organizations have been developed to make them compelling enough to read book 2. Yes, we get that the various factions all want to use the kids to take control of the country. But again, this is the problem with the book—plot holes and lack of world-building. The various factions rarely interact. Characters pop up, do stuff, then disappear again, and we have zero idea why anyone is doing anything except maybe the bounty hunters because the monetary incentive is simply enough.
Yes, there is some revelation from the Slip Kid but no real information that would actually tell me where the plot is going. And then Ruby throws in with the League, despite what she's learned about the League, in some vain effort to save Chubs, who may or may not have survived. She doesn't know. We don't know. And frankly, she risked a whole heck of a lot, including Liam, on the slim chance that the League did help Chubs. WHY?!? In other words, over two-thirds of the book = WASTED pages because after all that random rambling about where nothing really happens and nothing is really learned, Ruby ended up going with the League after all. I could've saved myself about 400 pages and skipped from page 99 where Ruby leaves Cate and the League to page 470 where Ruby pages Cate with the panic button. Basically, this is a similar plot issue as Indian Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
2 stars mainly because I read the entire book. But this book didn't keep my interest nor entice me enough to continue onto book 2....more
I struggled with how to rate this book. On the one hand, I found myself at times completely drawn into story, and I could really see Aster, Theo, GiseI struggled with how to rate this book. On the one hand, I found myself at times completely drawn into story, and I could really see Aster, Theo, Giselle, Ainy and the rest of the cast of characters. On the other, I felt the plot was disjointed and at times the story dragged. A bit too much tell and not enough show.
The premise of the book is intriguing, but a bit confusing for me. Basically it takes the antebellum South and puts it on a space ship. The confusion came from me having to take a leap to wrap my head around the fact that a civilization that had the technology to design and build such a ship (which must be fairly massive based on the descriptions) still had such oppression and slavery. Basically, the exact opposite of Star Trek. This might have been explained had the backstory been more developed. As it is, there is little backstory as to why and how these people are on this ship (and apparently on it for several centuries) and there is only a scant outline of their religion, which seems to be a driving force as to why this society is on the ship. So for me, that was a huge plot hole. The backstory mostly revolves around the characters' backstories, which while that does fill in some of the blanks, it still leaves a lot of questions. As it was, I had to take it on faith (pun intended) as to why this civilization is as it is.
The strongest part of the book are the characters. I thought Solomon did a good job capturing the voice of each character. Aster and Theo in particular. Aster is a neuro-diverse, non-binary main character, which is an almost unheard of combination in literature. The other support characters also have nice diversity from an undiagnosed mental illness and all sorts of various traumas (from emotional to physical) to various LBTGQ+ representations.
Solomon's writing is solid and at times beautiful, but the storytelling is where this shows itself as a debut novel. At times, the storytelling became rather fragmented and disjointed. I do think some of it was a choice by the author. Some of it had to do with Aster and her personality. And I find that style of storytelling, encasing the reader completely in the MC's world so as to experience it as the MC does, can work. Allowing some degree of frustration of the reader can be thematically appropriate and necessary. But here, this became a pattern over the whole book, and so I felt the story became a bit boring and found myself skimming parts. This type of storytelling requires a tight balance to allow the reader to be frustrated but keep them engaged in the story at the same time, and Solomon just didn't quite achieve that balance.
This story has some brilliant ideas, but sadly, many of those ideas got lost in execution. And at times, I felt there were too many ideas trying to compete for space which ultimately resulted in a lackluster, and dare I say disappointing, ending.
WoW! What a ride. I picked up this book and couldn't put it down. Friggin' fantastic from page one to the end.
As a kid of the 80s and a gamer geek, IWoW! What a ride. I picked up this book and couldn't put it down. Friggin' fantastic from page one to the end.
As a kid of the 80s and a gamer geek, I loved it. Brilliant references, fantastic plot, fun characters. Clearly this book isn't for everyone. The constant references not only to all things 1980s but all the technical gaming references could be irritating and even confusing. And I can see how the story would lose something if you don't get the references. But for me, it's a 1980s geek kids paradise read.
And I found that underneath all the 80s pop culture references lie a larger lessons. I thought the book was not just a fun ride, but well-done too.
Amazing story. I understand why it won the Newberry Medal. I'm going to have to marinate on it awhile before writing a review. But definitely worth reAmazing story. I understand why it won the Newberry Medal. I'm going to have to marinate on it awhile before writing a review. But definitely worth reading....more