Book Review: The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

 

I was put off by all the character changes early on. Maybe I've just absorbed the writing "rules" that you shouldn't abandon characters, you shouldn't start with characters who won't show up (barely) again, you should have your characters eventually meet. But my emotional reaction shows me that these rules are there for a reason. I felt disappointed when the initial character was clearly left behind. I felt frustrated when a four-person spaceship crew that I had struggled to get to know all or mostly abandoned their captain. Maybe it is realistic that not everyone would stay but I had an aversion to getting to know the new crew when my previous investment had been squandered. 

There was a bit of hope when a long-ago character, who had seemed very important and indeed is where the title comes from, turns out to live long enough to potentially meet up with the current characters. There was hope that two people who'd both lost their lovers long ago would end up together. These hopes were destroyed in a nuclear-type reaction at the end. Very unsatisfying.

Another source of dissatisfaction was with the timing. One of the main questions is finally answered around 70%, but the character very selfishly doesn't do anything about it for a while. Maybe this is realistic but it made me mad at him and wanting to skip ahead to when something interesting happens. 

The author's use of language and the sci fi of his world are definitely unique. He turns nouns into verbs and makes up great tech: near-FTL travel is done by folding into the pocket and riding celestial currents that have names. Time dilation is real and affects people's lives profoundly (at least at the beginning). The ships are piloted with cat's cradles. Cool stuff like that.  (There is a chance I just don't know that this is common in these kinds of stories!)

I also appreciated how many non-heterosexual relationships there were without any mention or need to use identity words. Very much just a "this is how the world is."

And overall it is a thumbs up because hey, I finished it! Granted, it was my only book while camping for two weeks (thanks to having left my kindle on a plane, unexpectedly returned by Delta's great lost and found system), which basically forced me to get over my annoyance at the loss of main characters so early. By then I was invested enough, and hopeful enough, to carry on. But it was worth reading. 

Book Review: All Systems Red by Martha Wells

 

Not a very sympathetic protagonist: A human who does the least possible work in order to maximize their TV viewing time is pretty annoying. It helped a little that she is a bot, because then it is a novelty really, but it still interfered with me wanting to cheer for her.  What I did find sympathetic is how ashamed she seemed to be about her identity and her past. Again this was unexpected for a robot which is probably what makes these books such a big deal right now.

Another complaint: when she does find a group of people who don't have a negative bias toward her, there's no explanation for why they are different from everyone else in their culture. How much stronger would it have been if the protagonist could have converted them onto her side? 

Finally, [spoiler alert], I was dissatisfied with the ending. It seems to be setting up to have an interesting sequel rather than providing a satisfying conclusion. I haven't analyzed the text to see how much it fits with the Heroine's journey, but another guess is that the author didn't recognize how a strong ending could be that the protagonist stays with her found family, and instead pushed her to become the independent, solitary hero that we are so often told is the only option.

As for what I liked, the overall point is that I managed to finish the book so these days that's a strong positive. As small craft positive was that the injury the protagonist suffers at the beginning was a great device for describing her physicality. 

Book Review: Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

 

I failed to write this early on so am missing some things I'm sure. Overall, 4/5. I loved how color was so important in the world, and how inventive it was. Truly unusual, very imaginative creatures. It felt like an easy read, never bogged down, but it wasn't compelling enough for me to look for a sequel. A positive in that I read it all the way through, but I also can't remember the ending a few months later.

Book Review: The It Girl by Ruth Ware

 

I don't remember what led me to put this on my library hold list, but other than not being speculative, it has strong similarities to my current work-in-progress (aka the moon novel). Dual timelines, with one character known to die from the beginning. Grief in the 'after' timeline. But it is basically a murder mystery, which I don't usually read.

Overall, I liked it. I stayed in bed an hour this morning reading the ending because there were some major twists. I was really happy that I hadn't identified the killer, and even happier with the final twist.

Book Review: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I heard the author interviewed by Ezra Klein regarding his third book which features an octopus protagonist (or multiple). Sort of a big coincidence considering I just read Remarkably Bright Creatures.  And this is Sci-Fi... sounded intriguing.

The beginning was very promising, with multiple major position changes happening in the first chapter. Oh, and I liked the decimal chapter headings. The non-human protagonists continued to be interesting, which was the main reason I kept reading to the end.

But I just couldn't care about the human characters. The protagonist is not supposed to be a hero but he just seemed boring. There are diversions as the humans fight each other that don't seem to get us anywhere other than demonstrating how horrible humans are. Oh, and to take up time and give the characters something to do. And despite the intriguing concept of interacting with non-human intelligence, the connection happens too fast and without enough detail. 

I would guess the writing of future books will get better but I'm not putting the sequels high on my list.

Review: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

 

Not sure if I would have kept reading without a friend's recommendation, but in the end I was glad I did. It felt over-written and the mystery of how the characters were connected became obvious quickly and then was told overtly to the reader at the midpoint, so a long wait for the characters to figure it out, but it was still a sweet story.  I expect her next books will improve on all that!

Book Review: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Leguin

 

This is another classic that was familiar as I started to read it; I think I'd tried twice before. Knowing more about the author helped me push through a lot, and it was worth getting through, but of course I have complaints.

The two timelines is one thing I"m doing with my novel (I think that is why this was recommended to me by a writing partner). Because we have the later timeline and we know <spoiler alert> he's going to get kicked out of his country as a traitor, the mystery of the younger timeline becomes: how? Unfortunately, it seems we're shown that he is different from toddlerhood on: not wanting to share. In retrospect after finishing, this might be that everyone is like this--the effort required to turn all humans into communal, sharing people--but while reading it felt like he was just different. So then it seems obvious how he will get kicked out as a traitor.

In the later timeline, the fun was seeing an individualist society through the eyes of someone raised communally. It is also suprising to find that he doesn't like it, since his younger self seems destined for that path, and the tension in the later timeline comes down to: will he make it home again? It is a relief, then, when he's back on the ship, but it is ultimately unresolved. He was kicked out of his society. This ambiguity didn't quite work for me.

I did enjoy the balance of the cultures: how neither is all good or all bad. That is something else I'm striving for in my work, too.