Wow, this one was heavy - both literally and figuratively.
I continue to marvel at "Corey's" intricate plotting, especially as we approach the conclusiWow, this one was heavy - both literally and figuratively.
I continue to marvel at "Corey's" intricate plotting, especially as we approach the conclusion to the overall Expanse saga; no idea how he/they have managed to keep everything straight, but this was an absolute - if somewhat convoluted - barn-burner and page-turner.
What with the increasing weirdness of the protomolecule, there were an increasing number of "blink-of-an-eye" moments that changed everything, and a surprising number of high-profile casualties - including both humans and spacecraft, many of which have been with us from the very beginning. (Not a spoiler per se, but I found it ironic that the one major crewmember who dies in the TV series (view spoiler)[ - Alex - (hide spoiler)] is one of the ones who actually makes it to the end.)
Plotting aside, the authors remain masters at dialogue - each main character has such a distinct voice that you can almost always tell who's talking even without actual identification. And then both plotting and dialogue further aside, there's also some really tasty descriptive writing here as well:
"Done," Jillian said, the single syllable sharp and hard as a thrown rock.
…followed just two sentences later with:
Her crew were being pressed back into their couches like God had his palm on their chests.
And okay, maybe the final set piece is just a little too "Rogue One," but that's a minor complaint.
Am already mourning the fact that there's only one more book to go - but then our library just got in the first book of Corey's new trilogy, The Mercy of Gods, which I'm just praying is even half as good....more
Got to almost 70% of the audiobook, but I'm sorry - I just could NOT finish this thing. Despite a fascinating-sounding concept (that I hoped would getGot to almost 70% of the audiobook, but I'm sorry - I just could NOT finish this thing. Despite a fascinating-sounding concept (that I hoped would get better when they finally got out of the Solar System and into deep space), this was from start to...well, close-to-finish just WAY too much math and physics, with WAY too little "ooh!" and "ah!"
One of my New Year's Resolution is to read one of my own books for every library loaner, because I have just WAY TOO MANY books that I've spent money One of my New Year's Resolution is to read one of my own books for every library loaner, because I have just WAY TOO MANY books that I've spent money on but are currently gathering dust. So when I was able to buy the last three books of "The Expanse" for half price (thanks, relocating Barnes & Noble!), I thought this would be a good place to start.
Not sure why, but I thought this final trilogy was set farther in the future and so had a different cast than the earlier books. But blessedly, I was wrong - yes, it's thirty years later, but it's still the Roci and her crew, Drummer, a really old now Avasarala, and Winston Duarte as the bad guy (although I'd totally forgotten who he was, so had to catch up at the Expanse's wiki page (https://expanse.fandom.com - and then make sure I stopped before I got to any spoilers).
The book itself gets off to a weird start. The first 100 pages include an intro chapter that reads like something from God Emperor of Dune (indeed, with its evil empire and Stormtrooper-like armored Marines, much of this book has a more Star Wars/Dune feel than the previous six); and then there's just way too much James Holden mid-life angst, (much like Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead, the way-too-earnest Holden has always been my least favorite character in the series).
But then…the actual plot kicks in and it's an absolute barn burner. Be warned - while it wraps up some of the details by the end, the book still ends in a cliffhanger of sorts, so understand that at some point you're gonna have to read the remaining two. So 500 pages down, and only another 1,000 to go! (This was another combo read-and-listen, which should almost be its own bookshelf by now - especially for nonfiction, as I enjoy listening to those in the car, but then also like having the physical book for the maps and photos.) ...more
Simply stunning. Hadfield has the eye of an impressionist and the heart of a poet - as well as a pretty sly sense of humor, (see final photo). AbsolutSimply stunning. Hadfield has the eye of an impressionist and the heart of a poet - as well as a pretty sly sense of humor, (see final photo). Absolutely recommended for absolutely everybody!
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Aside from being a former astronaut, (and fighter pilot, test pilot, engineer and musician), Hadfield has also written a memoir An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, and recently published his second Tom Clancy-esque techno-thriller, The Defector. So all I can say is, cut it out, dude - you're making the rest of us look really bad! _________________________________
(The second photo above shows a bunch of "oxbow lakes," which I'd never heard of before but which are apparently formed when extreme oxbow rivers try to straighten out their courses and so snip off some of the more extreme loops...or something like that. But just bizarre and REALLY cool!...more
Just reread Max Barry's excellent Providence, and wanted to find some other books with sentient spaceships, so Google pulled up this one. But, yeah...Just reread Max Barry's excellent Providence, and wanted to find some other books with sentient spaceships, so Google pulled up this one. But, yeah...this is one big wedge of poorly aged 1960's cheese, from its cover with the bombshell blonde and lawn-dart rocket ship to…whatever the hell was going on around page 80, when I finally bailed.
Basically a collection of short stories published from 1961-69, the overall plot (such as it is) follows the "brainship" HX-834 and its "brain" component Helva as she cycles through various human "brawn" partners to cruise the galaxy and share such dramatic space adventures as providing physical therapy to children, delivering embryos to sterile planets, or…well, that's as far as I got. Too much '60s dialogue ("let's cut the chitchat!"), and frankly - and I know this will sound bad - too many female characters getting over-emotional, particularly Helva herself.
Also - "Helva"? Not a particularly great name, but certainly better than "Acorna," the heroine of another of McCaffrey's ten book series. Yikes.
(I actually read the library's paperback "pocket book" copy, not Kindle - but this is the only GR listing that had the proper cover)...more
POTENTIAL SPOILERS ABOUND, SO PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK:
Great initial premise, where a returning deep space colony ship finds itself stuck in an invisiPOTENTIAL SPOILERS ABOUND, SO PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK:
Great initial premise, where a returning deep space colony ship finds itself stuck in an invisible "mine field" between two equally invisible and way-beyond-our-comprehension warring intelligences, and so they are slowly being destroyed by random hits - aka, "engagements" - that seemingly come out of nowhere. But then Brown inexplicably abandons this promising scenario to turn her story into the movie "Alien," only set on a bigger ship with a bigger crew; and then turn it into "Aliens" before stealing the ending from both movies plus "Alien Resurrection." And only THEN does it return to its cool initial premise for a quickie (literally the last three pages) ending that is basically an outer space "and then everyone lived happily ever after."
Major props to any first-time author - every one of them has my unqualified respect. But since Brown begins their acknowledgements by noting that "I finished this novella in little under a month," I gotta say that in this case (as they say in the tech biz) that's a bug, not a feature.* Because, y'know, you're writing a book - so take your time. Brown also ignore one of writing's golden rules - "show, don't tell" - and so we're given numerous passages like the below:
The creatures were off the ship. The plan had worked. (Two slightly longer sentences) The crew was safe. The ship was clear. She had done it.
So, yeah - obviously an outlier viewpoint, so just take it for what it's worth. And DON'T open the door. __________________________________
* Actually, I think they usually say it the other way around; but you get my point....more
Well, this was disappointing. Having seen the trailer for George Clooney's "The Midnight Sky," I thought this would be more of a sci-fi story where thWell, this was disappointing. Having seen the trailer for George Clooney's "The Midnight Sky," I thought this would be more of a sci-fi story where the last man on Earth with a radio helps a lone spaceship return home from deep space. But turns out that Earthman and spaceship don't even find each other until around page 200, and then they only have three brief conversations that accomplish, um...nuthin. So overall, with the endless backstory on love lives and bad behavior, this was more soap opera than anything else - and not a particularly good one at that. The ending is a combination of one huge coincidence which strains belief way beyond the breaking point, and a "big reveal" which I saw coming 150 pages earlier.
Quickly went to see the Clooney film on Netflix to see if it was better - and it was, but still not particularly good, so hard to really recommend either version. If you DO want to read a good book about a long-mission ship heading back to Earth only to learn that the planet did something really dumb, you'd be much better off reading Becky Chambers' To Be Taught, If Fortunate. 1+ stars rounded up for no good reason other than I really don't like giving 1 star reviews unless REALLY deserving....more
Sorry, but I'm calling it at 130 pages. Not that Martha Wells has totally ruined other robots for me; Sea of Rust's Brittle was a great - and totally Sorry, but I'm calling it at 130 pages. Not that Martha Wells has totally ruined other robots for me; Sea of Rust's Brittle was a great - and totally different - robo-character; and Daniel Wilson's two "Robopocalypse" books were a nice take on evil robots. But this is just TOO "similar to;"* and to paraphrase Lloyd Benson,** "I know Murderbot, and Unit Four, you're no Murderbot." So I could struggle to finish this - or I could go reread Network Effect, (which I really need to do)!
2.5 stars at best, but feeling generous...
(BTW, this may also belong on my "aliens" bookshelf - but 1/3 in, they still ain't showed up...) _________________________________________
* ...even down to the inscrutable two-word title...
UPDATE: Wow...so just finished Season 5 of "The Expanse," and they did their usual oustanding job (with a few MAJOR changes from the book). HOWEVER - UPDATE: Wow...so just finished Season 5 of "The Expanse," and they did their usual oustanding job (with a few MAJOR changes from the book). HOWEVER - and I cannot stress this enough - if you go into the show without first reading the book, you will probably be way confused...
ORIGINAL REVIEW: Know I've gotten in trouble for saying this elsewhere,* but if I have the time to read 500 pages, it ain't going to be some "wait, I can explain…" political BS from the likes of Bill Barr or Kellyanne Conway - no sir, I'm heading straight back to "The Expanse"!
On top of which, I've also finally gotten Amazon Prime, so wanted to read this before I got into Season 5 of what is one of the best shows on TV, (are these things still called "TV shows"?). Anyway - can't really say anything about the story that's not said better in other reviews, but this was an excellent follow-up to Cibola Burns, bringing the action firmly back into our own solar system after a first trippy adventure beyond the rings. I will add that this is (I think) the first book where the four narrators are the four leads and crew of the Roci, Holden, Naomi, Alex and Amos; as well as the first without Miller, (not that he couldn't reappear in later books).
Probably won't revisit this until I'm ready to watch Season 6 - and have no idea how they're going to wrap up the final four books in just six final episodes - but they'll done well by Corey so far, so doubt they will disappoint.
* Feel free to read my review of Barr's One Damn Thing After Another and the following mixed bag of comments https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... - apparently (and among so many other things) I'm a trash person! :)...more
SECOND UPDATE: Having recently finished Persepolis Rising, I returned here mainly for "Auberon," which is another Empire-based story that takes place SECOND UPDATE: Having recently finished Persepolis Rising, I returned here mainly for "Auberon," which is another Empire-based story that takes place some time after Persepolis. And it was really good - Corey has always done a great job making even his villains well-rounded, morally-conflicted and even sympathetic characters, and he does so again here. He also links in other minor characters from a range of previous material - Singh, Cortazar, Overstreet, even a lovely surprise return from "The Churn" - so that when I was done with this story, I went back and reread a few of the others, particularly "Strange Dogs" (which I didn't remember being set on Laconia, and which includes some vital background on Singh and Duarte) and "The Vital Abyss" (Cortazar and Michio Pa), just to see how well-crafted all these stories are in pulling together bits and pieces from other stories and books.
Probably my biggest personal problem is that I've stretched out reading The Expanse for well over a decade - first read Leviathan Wakes way back in 2011 - so I've either forgotten some of the characters and their backstories, or get them confused with their often-different TV versions. However, reading or rereading these stories (and checking The Expanse's character wiki pages) has helped pull it all together. There's still one more story here - "The Sins of Our Fathers" - but I think I have to finish the last two doorstop novels first; so will be a while before I can actually move this book from my "will-get-back-to" list to just "read" :)
Anyway...in light of this latest story - and a heightened appreciation of The Expanse's "bigger picture," am upping to 4 stars.
FIRST UPDATE: Just finished Babylon's Ashes and the final season of Amazon's excellent "The Expanse," so revisited this to read two more stories that bookend Ashes - "The Vital Abyss" and "Strange Dogs."
- "Abyss" (set before Ashes) gets off to a slow, "Squid Games" kinda start, and then spends too long in a fairly boring character backstory. But it picks up (and becomes almost a prequel to the original Leviathan Wakes) when it finally discusses the early days of the protomolecule's discovery and misuses.
- "Strange Dogs" turned out to be the slightly "huh??" pre-credits story that kicks off every episode of Amazon's Season 6 - so not a bad story at all, but if you've seen the show there's really no reason to read this story, because they are frickin' identical.
So overall - still holding steady at a solid 3 stars.
ORIGINAL REVIEW: Getting ready to read Nemesis Games and then watch Season 5, but thought I should read at least those stories here that lead up to Nemesis. Turns out three of the stories - "Drive," "Butcher of Anderson Station" and "The Churn" take place even before the events of Leviathan Wakes (although for some reason "Churn" is the fourth story in the book), while "Gods of Risk" takes place between Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate.
Also turns out that at least the gist of the events in "Drive" and "Butcher" were included as flashbacks in Seasons 1 and 2, and all of "Gods" became at least a part of Bobbie's story back on Mars throughout Season 4. And now that I know Amos goes back to Baltimore in Season 5, I'm curious whether they incorporate part of his "Churn" background here.
"The Churn" was definitely the best of the stories here, and well worth listening to separately as an audiobook (which I had done previously). Now that I'm caught up, I'll probably revisit the remaining stories at the right time as I read through the next couple of books....more
Obviously didn't exactly "read," but listened to all the radio plays back when they was first broadcast in the last '70s, and then bought the CDs to lObviously didn't exactly "read," but listened to all the radio plays back when they was first broadcast in the last '70s, and then bought the CDs to listen to with my sons in the early 2000s.
The books are generally outstanding, but can't help but fade a little bit as the series goes on - impossible to maintain the level of freshness found in the first 2-3 books. And these radio dramas are equally wonderful, with spot-on character voices that my kids still mimic nearly 20 years on.
Find and listen to these if you can (despite being called "complete," this package only contains the Primary and Secondary Phases; the others are all available separately) - you will not be disappointed....more
Strong concept (spaceship captain wakes up after a decade of hibernation to find out that a number of the still sleeping colonists she's transporting Strong concept (spaceship captain wakes up after a decade of hibernation to find out that a number of the still sleeping colonists she's transporting have been murdered) that gets weirder and weirder until it ultimately ends up going ALL over the place...but Thompson still manages to (more-or-less) bring it all back together by the end. In any case, whether you love it or hate it, you will NEVER have any idea where it's going next...and in my book (no pun intended), that's always a good thing.
Probably enjoyed it more than I should, but as my first experience with a new and previously unknown author, I was pleasantly surprised and consistently intrigued. WIll definitely read more....more
ORIGINAL REVIEW: Another solid story from Max Barry, who I had never heard of before reading his equally strong Jennifer Government. With Providence,ORIGINAL REVIEW: Another solid story from Max Barry, who I had never heard of before reading his equally strong Jennifer Government. With Providence, Barry gives us a 21st Century update on old-school science fiction, the type that plows right past the impossible physics of wormhole-type “skipping” and instantaneous communications between Earth and deep space so it can get right to the meat of the story - space war against lizard/bug alien hordes!
Barry avoids one of the dumbest and most common mistakes in such tales – the unbridgeable gap between unevolved and uncommunicative alien critters who basically run around naked going ”Ack! Ack!” (or in this case, "Pak! Pak!"), yet have somehow still developed the advanced space and weapons technologies to pose a threat to the galaxy – by keeping his “salamanders” decidedly low- or even no-tech. They are simply a primitive but murderous race whose hives float through space destroying whatever they come across. As such, these are no “different-but-equal-and-so-we-only-have-to-understand-them” insectoids (as in Ender’s Game or the film “Alien Mine”); no, these are the “so-different-we-need-to-destroy-them-all” kind found in “Starship Troopers,” “Independence Day,” and the “Alien” movies.
Unlike Jennifer's large and globe-hopping cast, Providence's enormous yet claustrophobic ship holds a crew of just four, whose personalities, behaviors and backstories continue to develop throughout the book in ways that are both believable and yet ultimately surprising. The unnamed ship* itself serves as the book’s fifth main character – but to say more would have to include major spoilers.
While not contributing anything genuinely new to the genre – seriously, how often can that still be done? - Providence, like Jennifer, was an exciting, escapist and unputdownable joyride. Highly recommended for fans of Star Trek, Star Wars and other “pew! pew!” sci-fi.
RE-READ UPDATE: After a few disappointing space operas recently, I very much wanted to read something I knew would be good, and this book DID NOT DISAPPOINT. In fact, I liked it even better this time around; and so going against my normal rule I'm actually bumping it up to the full five. Not only was it a straight-up (if old school) page turner, but the character development was really well planned out, so that (view spoiler)[despite frequent questioning of why these particular four persons were selected as a crew by the massive AI that dominates much of the story, by the end each character became exactly the person they needed to be in order to do what they needed to do. (hide spoiler)]. A real tour de force of anticipatory - but not clumsily foreshadowed - plotting. Just outstanding. _________________________________
* Unlike what some reviews claim, the ship is not named "Providence;" it is one of several "Providence-class" ships built to defeat the salamanders. Pak! Pak!!...more
Apparently I missed the excitement here - bunch of negative reviews before it was even published, then a bunch of 5-stars in response. So in order to Apparently I missed the excitement here - bunch of negative reviews before it was even published, then a bunch of 5-stars in response. So in order to maintain this delicate cosmic balance, I'll give it 3, since I quit at about 100 pages and so can't comment on the whole thing.
But what I did read came across as a pilot episode for a new Star Trek: Ansari TV series, or a lesser entry in "The Expanse.” Neither of which are bad in their own right; but in that case, I figured I'd be better off just watching more Star Trek: Discovery, or reading Nemesis Game.
Also, what particularly bothered me about this book - what bothers me about SO MANY sci-fi books - is Tomlinson's sporadic lack of imagination, which when it happened just totally pulled me out of the story. According to Tomlinson (https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-inter...), the story takes place "400'ish years" in the future - and yet enemy forces are still hacking each others' computers, the Packers are still winning the Super Bowl, and Chili's restaurants are still serving southwest egg rolls? I get that Tomlinson (and other authors) want to show some historical or cultural continuity (or something?)...but Chili's and pro football will be lucky to survive COVID, much less whatever-the-hell the next four centuries is going to throw at us.
The world today is changing SO FAST, that these kinds of projections are as ridiculous as Asimov's gear-and-vacuum tube robots, the original Star Trek's bulky CRT computer monitors, or the physical book-library-on-the-spaceship in Stanislaw Lem's otherwise prescient Solaris. All those examples are from the 50's and early 60's, so are somewhat forgivable - but for something written in 2020, we should be able to do better....more
Not the best in the series, but I am still amazed by Corey's ability to tell each story solely through the points of view of four characters (differenNot the best in the series, but I am still amazed by Corey's ability to tell each story solely through the points of view of four characters (different for each book), so strong technical points just for that.* Of course, the downside of this is that many of the characters you enjoyed in a previous book may not be in the next - or any other - one, and so you have to be prepared to love 'em and leave 'em.
As with the previous two books in the series, I found it VERY helpful to both read the book and watch the comparable TV season at the same time, as despite diverging in a number of ways, the combination of the two really made the whole plot much easier to follow. That said, I did have a few gripes with Season 4.** Since the show has moved to Amazon, the DVD for some reason no longer includes closed captions, and so with the various "space accents" used, I found it really hard to follow some of the dialogue. Also, the TV show this season devoted a LOT of time to the characters of Bobby, Avasarala, Ashford and Drummer (none of whom really appear in this book); which would have been okay except that to make room for them, the writers had to cut much of the real plot from the book, including both the whole character of Havelock (one of the four main "narrators," so kind of a key guy), as well as Naomi's whole "adventure" aboard the Edward Israel, (no details provided here, as that would be a major spoiler).***
The book itself hits a slow patch for nearly 100 pages (roughly 300-400); but then picks up again for a strong finish, (if slightly derivative of not only The Lord of the Rings and Robopocalypse, but also the last "Matrix" movie) - so do keep reading it you get discouraged. But all that said, still a solid 3 and change that I'm rounding up to 4 based on the book/show combo.
* Well, I think just two in the first book - Holden and Miller; but then Holden, Bobbie, Prax and Avasarala in Caliban's War; Holden, Anna, Melba and Bull in Abaddon's Gate; and now Holden, Elvi, Basia and Havelock in Cibola. And even more impressive is the fact that other than Holden, none of those voices belong to the main recurring characters in each book - the Rocinante's crew of Alex, Naomi and Amos - and so their evolving and fully-fleshed out stories are constantly being told through their interaction with the various "narrators"...again; just an impressive feat of literary virtuosity.
** That said, one thing the show gets better than the book is the character of Amos. While his personality is the same in both, the book describes him as a large, shaven-headed guy who reminds people of a very large baby, whereas Wes Chatham's portrayal will always be THE classic Amos:
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*** The original "Edward Israel" was a little-known 19th century astronomer and member of the ill-fated "Lady Franklin Bay Polar Expedition," (1881-1884). When the expedition's resupply ship failed to arrive, the team survived only due to Israel's ability to guide them by the stars. Sadly, Israel himself did not survive - he was just 24 - and so other than an historical marker erected in 1972 at his grave in Kalamazoo, this fictional ship may be his most lasting legacy. Coincidentally (or most likely not), that expedition was led by one Adolphus Greely - and as any follower of "The Expanse" knows, the head of THIS ill-fated Edward Israel expedition is named Adolphus Murtry.
I'm sure it's intentional at this point: Martha Wells is having a lot of fun deciding what type of story to stick our favorite SecUnit Murderbot, P.I.
I'm sure it's intentional at this point: Martha Wells is having a lot of fun deciding what type of story to stick our favorite SecUnit into next. If Artificial Condition was structured like a classic Western, and Rogue Protocol played out like a multi-level videogame, then Fugitive Telemetry is her (largely successful) attempt at a "whodunit" murder mystery. As such, this book has less real action than the previous stories - but that makes it even more of an "ohboy-ohboy-ohboy" moment when on page 122, Murderbot finally says:
Yeah, not we, me. I said, "This is the part that's my job."
That said, despite the 4 stars this was one of my least favorite books in the series. Murderbot's "voice" -what made him such a unique character in the first place - is beginning to sound forced or at least overused here. The endless sarcasm, too frequent parenthetical asides (inside other parenthetical asides (inside still MORE parenthetical asides)...), etc., at times take you out of the story rather than draw you further in. But this being Murderbot, being my "least favorite in the series" doesn't mean this isn't still a great story.
Chronologically, Telemetry takes place after Exit Strategy but before the novel-length Network Effect. As such, I am still waiting for the true "next" Murderbot story, which hopefully will expand on the open-ended situation and new characters (Amena, Three, even 2.0) in Network. So overall, Telemetry was filler - great, popcorn-movie filler - but now it's time to get on with the real show!...more
(Re-read - again - as pre-read for the new System Collapse, with which I plan to start the new year. Still great, if still a bit confusing with the va(Re-read - again - as pre-read for the new System Collapse, with which I plan to start the new year. Still great, if still a bit confusing with the various Central System, DockSecSystem, targetContact and targetControlSystem entities - but that's robots for ya!)
RE-READ UPDATE: Made more sense the second time around, and considering that it brings back a favorite character from the past and introduces THREE great new characters (and note that only one of those four is human), am upping my rating to the full 5.
Would definitely recommend any Murderbot fans similarly re-read this one before the November release of the next book, System Collapse, as it looks to be another full-length novel (vs. the earlier novella format) that is a direct sequel to Network Effect. In fact, if you look at the cover of System, that giant spidery thing in the background looks like one of the "ag-bots" which features in Network.
INTERESTING GENERAL OBSERVATION: Didn't notice this earlier (I can be slow that way), but Wells' frequent incorporation of ancient and little-understood "alien remnants" and "strange synthetics" in her stories (without ever actually encountering aliens) seems very Strugatsky-esque. Not sure if intentional, but I can't imagine it NOT being... __________________________________
ORIGINAL REVIEW: There is almost nothing you can say about the story here that isn't a spoiler on some level; so I will only say that while the plot (pretty much by necessity) once again involves a surly Murderbot saving more "stupid humans," Wells does so with her usual combo of brilliant dialogue and fully-developed cast (both human and otherwise), bringing back some fan favorites as well as introducing some wonderful new characters - one of whom only appears in the third act but delightfully reminds us why we loved Murderbot in the first place.
While the plot isn't overly original, Wells does enjoy playing with story construction here, offering some apparent back-and-forth time cuts (that only make sense at the end) and introducing multiple narrators (also near the end). So it really pays off to read at least the last third pretty slowly to make sure you really follow what's going on, especially when things start getting a little bogged down in software hacks and virus attacks.
Next book in the series, Fugitive Telemetry, comes out in April, and I can hardly wait. Network ends with a bit of a new direction for Murderbot, so hopefully that will help avoid the usual pitfalls of "series fatigue." But at the same time, I also hope we haven't seen the last of Amena, Three, and maybe even 2.0!
Good story, beautiful cover, nice mix of cultures/genres/genders...so yeah, another strong Tor novella. That said, this would have worked better as twGood story, beautiful cover, nice mix of cultures/genres/genders...so yeah, another strong Tor novella. That said, this would have worked better as two chapters in a Binti novel, or one episode of a Binti miniseries. An apparent trend that (for me at least) started with Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries as a series of linked novellas just goes a step too far here with this 90-page "book" (with small pages at that) - and perhaps both Okorafor and Tor realized that as well, since both sequels bump up to around 150+ and 200+ pages respectively. (And in fact, it looks like a non-Tor publisher has indeed published all three books in an "omnibus" edition which is only 370 pages long...so, y'know, a book.)
Our library didn't shelve this as YA, but it definitely had that vibe for me. I also have Okorafor's latest, Remote Control, waiting for me at the library, and so I'm anxious to see what she's up to now, having spent the years between Binti and the more adult-targeted Control largely writing Black Panther and Shuri stories for MARVEL....more
Kind of disappointed in this one, but that's more on me than the authors. Both are professors of astronomy and physics, not xenobiologists - but stillKind of disappointed in this one, but that's more on me than the authors. Both are professors of astronomy and physics, not xenobiologists - but still, where are the aliens?
The book focuses on the types of potentially habitable planets out there (a more narrow focus than their earlier, better book Exoplanets: Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar Planets, and the New Search for Life beyond Our Solar System), and then how life could potentially evolve there and what type of technology it might develop. So for example, on a planet tidally locked to its star - i.e., same side always facing the star, like the moon faces earth - you'd have a narrow habitable "halo" circling the planet where the sunlit side met the dark side. You'd also have very strong, hot, high-altitude winds blowing from hot to cold side, and very strong surface winds blowing back from cold to hot; and so you'd have creatures that were low to the ground with stronger skeletons or exoskeletons, and technology based on wind power. And that's about it.
Most of the book discusses "life like us," i.e., carbon-based lifeforms. There is then an all-too-brief chapter on "life not like us" - based on silicon, say, or evolving in a liquid other than water, (neither of which the authors believe in, BTW). And then there's a final chapter on "life really not like us," which covers non-organic life (metal- or mineral-based), and artificial intelligent life (either self-evolving or man-made).
So some interesting premises here, but kind of a slog and just none of the way-cool hypothetical alien nonsense I was hoping for.
Final conclusion, for those few people who read my description of the authors' earlier book: Stormy ultimately never pays for the pizza....more
Didn't quite "quit in the middle," but didn't legitimately finish it either. Gave it a solid hundred pages, but was just getting too much family backgDidn't quite "quit in the middle," but didn't legitimately finish it either. Gave it a solid hundred pages, but was just getting too much family background and not enough "ooh-and-ahh" outer space stuff. Basically, I thought it would be more intellectual To Be Taught, If Fortunate but it turned out to be more The Andromeda Evolution. And specifically: (view spoiler)[they never did reach much less settle the "Goldilocks" planet of the title (boo), but got waylaid by some evil supervillain shenanigans which kept them well within the Solar System (even bigger boo). (hide spoiler)].
Still, I did want to know how it ended, so by just skimming ahead to the important chapters (luckily they are all dated, so I could just bypass all the unnecessary backstory), I was able to find out what all was going on, without wasting the extra days that would have made me drop this to a 2-star review out of disappointment. Oh, and a totally WTF cover design - just what is that supposed to be a picture of? Looks more like "On Golden Pond" than anything outer-spacey......more
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