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amygower's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
dannyingram97's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
An endearing and page turning debut novel. Looking forward to the authors future work.
eminemineminem's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. It was fun seeing the journey of the main character through the perspectives of everyone she met along her journey. Would probably read again in the future.
reading_snek_boi's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
s_r96's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
curlyhairedbooklover's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
abipepper's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
krilves's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
this is exactly what it says on the tin: a queer space western about climate change. it does take place on earth, for the most part, but some 800 years or so into the future after the earth has been abandoned due to, well, climate change. the people who stayed behind are overwhelmingly religious in a zealous way - think puritan christian, but the religion is Earth. those who left are considered by them to be sinners and heathens for having left. and those who did leave... formed an evil space empire. interesting world building. i can get tired of evil space empires so i was glad there was little focus on that part of the world.
as a thought exercise to what could happen if earth does get abandoned, this was fascinating. why yes, i can see how those who stayed would've eventually justified and ratified their decision by building a religion around it, and by being really...really...controlling about it, as well. how do you justify staying on a failing planet - your great great x 6 grandparents staying and taking the choice away from YOU to leave - and how do you reconcile with that? they don't know that those who left have it better, or worse, or whatever, but they know what they have, and they know it's bad.
i found the world building more compelling than the actual story taking place - a person in a lifeboat from a space ship trying to travel across this continent (understood to be north america) in search of a communicator to send a message to someone, to find that someone. it's set up as a mystery: who is this person? we don't get her name. we barely get her gender. her identifier changes with the situation. (courier. guest. darling. and so on.) this mystery wasn't compelling so much as it was mildly annoying - i was putting up with it mainly because the journey was uncovering layers of world building. (and, similar to Floating Hotel, which i read first, there were changing POVs and characters which, in my opinion, obfuscated the narrative rather than enhancing it.) then, at about, idk, 90%? I'm not sure, I was reading the paperback, the narrative stops being a mystery and turns into something else I'm not sure how to describe. there's a turning point, where the protagonist gets shot and the timeline jumps to the past, to where she met the person she was going to find, and we get several pages of them meeting and the love unfolding, and we get their names and the point of their journey back to earth, and i'm reading this going 'okay this is nice, but what is the purpose of this, what is going on' and when it comes back to the present, the protagonist is obviously not dead, but has a very tropey and lengthy healing sequence (including bonding with the strangers tending to her) until an aha revelation that spurs her to go back and continue looking, because she has hope - and then she does find her - and at this point the narrative pretty much turns into a sort of action sequence, only not quite? and that's not even getting into all the other short-story like happenings that took place during her journey, during the POV/character switching scenes...
I'm not really sure what my point is. this is sci fi that leans literary (like Floating Hotel), but much like Floating Hotel gave me a 'hm I'd like to see what this author comes up with next because I see potential but I don't think it's quite there yet' vibe, this book does too. it feels like an uncut gem. there's something rough and unfinished about it, like the author is trying to do x y and z but is only managing to do v and w and maybe a bit of a z and half an y, but never getting to the x. and i get it, it is the author's first novel, but also, i feel like i would've liked it a lot more if i hadn't been constantly introduced to new characters and their backstories and then just...not getting anything more about them for the rest of the book. if i think about them as part of the world building it bothers me less, but the part of my brain that loves character driven fiction and characters, is really bothered by being introduced this vast cast of characters but, like, really spottily.
and all that said! i still give it 3 and half stars, because i did really like it, despite all my grumbles. i still do really want to see what this author does next, because i get the feeling that something really good is coming, but also that it might take another book or two before we get there. i don't know. we'll see.
as a thought exercise to what could happen if earth does get abandoned, this was fascinating. why yes, i can see how those who stayed would've eventually justified and ratified their decision by building a religion around it, and by being really...really...controlling about it, as well. how do you justify staying on a failing planet - your great great x 6 grandparents staying and taking the choice away from YOU to leave - and how do you reconcile with that? they don't know that those who left have it better, or worse, or whatever, but they know what they have, and they know it's bad.
i found the world building more compelling than the actual story taking place - a person in a lifeboat from a space ship trying to travel across this continent (understood to be north america) in search of a communicator to send a message to someone, to find that someone. it's set up as a mystery: who is this person? we don't get her name. we barely get her gender. her identifier changes with the situation. (courier. guest. darling. and so on.) this mystery wasn't compelling so much as it was mildly annoying - i was putting up with it mainly because the journey was uncovering layers of world building. (and, similar to Floating Hotel, which i read first, there were changing POVs and characters which, in my opinion, obfuscated the narrative rather than enhancing it.) then, at about, idk, 90%? I'm not sure, I was reading the paperback, the narrative stops being a mystery and turns into something else I'm not sure how to describe. there's a turning point, where the protagonist gets shot and the timeline jumps to the past, to where she met the person she was going to find, and we get several pages of them meeting and the love unfolding, and we get their names and the point of their journey back to earth, and i'm reading this going 'okay this is nice, but what is the purpose of this, what is going on' and when it comes back to the present, the protagonist is obviously not dead, but has a very tropey and lengthy healing sequence (including bonding with the strangers tending to her) until an aha revelation that spurs her to go back and continue looking, because she has hope - and then she does find her - and at this point the narrative pretty much turns into a sort of action sequence, only not quite? and that's not even getting into all the other short-story like happenings that took place during her journey, during the POV/character switching scenes...
I'm not really sure what my point is. this is sci fi that leans literary (like Floating Hotel), but much like Floating Hotel gave me a 'hm I'd like to see what this author comes up with next because I see potential but I don't think it's quite there yet' vibe, this book does too. it feels like an uncut gem. there's something rough and unfinished about it, like the author is trying to do x y and z but is only managing to do v and w and maybe a bit of a z and half an y, but never getting to the x. and i get it, it is the author's first novel, but also, i feel like i would've liked it a lot more if i hadn't been constantly introduced to new characters and their backstories and then just...not getting anything more about them for the rest of the book. if i think about them as part of the world building it bothers me less, but the part of my brain that loves character driven fiction and characters, is really bothered by being introduced this vast cast of characters but, like, really spottily.
and all that said! i still give it 3 and half stars, because i did really like it, despite all my grumbles. i still do really want to see what this author does next, because i get the feeling that something really good is coming, but also that it might take another book or two before we get there. i don't know. we'll see.
sophie74's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0