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lynguy1's review
4.0
MACHINE by Elizabeth Bear is a space opera and the second book in the White Space series. It is also the first book that I have read by this author. While reading book one in the series might provide more background, this read well as a standalone novel. Dr. Jens is a trauma doctor and rescue specialist. She is of the crew on an ambulance ship answering a distress signal. Two ships, one centuries old, and another one that is contemporary are connected and no one is responding so Dr. Jens and Tsosie, the ambulance’s commander and senior trauma specialist are going to enter the vessels.
Dr. Jens is a likeable main character and definitely someone you can root for. She felt three-dimensional with a lot of depth, believable motivations and appropriate emotions. Details of her family situation and some of her work history were shared through her reflections. The secondary characters were not as well developed, but the relationships between the characters felt believable and not contrived. The story line was intense and complex. The world-building was vivid and gave a clear sense of time and place. Occasionally the dialogue wound go on too long and did not seem to move the story along. The science is well-integrated and the mystery was compelling.
Overall, this was a tense read that had high stakes, an investigation and some unusual plot twists. If you are a fan of both space operas and mysteries, then you may want to check this one out. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series as well as checking out other books by this author.
Gallery Books – Saga Press and Elizabeth Bear provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review and opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.
Dr. Jens is a likeable main character and definitely someone you can root for. She felt three-dimensional with a lot of depth, believable motivations and appropriate emotions. Details of her family situation and some of her work history were shared through her reflections. The secondary characters were not as well developed, but the relationships between the characters felt believable and not contrived. The story line was intense and complex. The world-building was vivid and gave a clear sense of time and place. Occasionally the dialogue wound go on too long and did not seem to move the story along. The science is well-integrated and the mystery was compelling.
Overall, this was a tense read that had high stakes, an investigation and some unusual plot twists. If you are a fan of both space operas and mysteries, then you may want to check this one out. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series as well as checking out other books by this author.
Gallery Books – Saga Press and Elizabeth Bear provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review and opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.
being_b's review
adventurous
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
rilkegriffin's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
rallly's review
4.0
A hospital in space that treats different species from across the galaxy is the perfect place for world building and fun characters. I picked this up thinking it would be horror at first, but it quickly veers into adventure mystery and I still loved it. Came for the horror, stayed for the mantis cop.
kleonard's review
5.0
A space opera the incorporates aliens, the Marie Celeste, hospital drama, disability, sabotage, and jumping through space--Machine has it all. Bear brings disability and physical otherness to the fore with her openly disabled protagonist, Dr. Jens, and the many different other forms of sapient life aboard the ambulance and hospital where they work in space. All of the various threads and themes of the novel are beautifully woven together, and the result is a thriller that is a blast to read.
lynn4mk's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
beq3's review
2.0
This is really terrible sci-fi. Very juvenile. Psychologically and emotionally it falls somewhere between Enid Blyton and Harry Potter. All the systers getting on so well together! Running a big hospital for the benefit of all! Giant trees! Rightminding all the inconvenient emotions away! Happy happy! Everyone loves work! Lots of little lectures on gender and racism. Anyone would think I was reading a modern version of The Pilgrim's Progress. There's an effort to give Llyn more depth with a broken marriage and a child she hasn't seen in 20y but these facts seem to have zero impact on Llyn and even less on the story.
I had previously read Ancestral Night but had forgotten I had done so and probably would not have bought this if I'd remembered. This is initially better written but hangs less well together overall imo.
The initial set up is interesting and you can kind of ignore the flaws in execution. However around 70% it descended into conspiracy theories and I just totally lost interest in watching Llyn tell me how she was figuring it all out with her pals. I flicked through to the end but it was all very lackluster.
Plus this author is WAY too fond of the word atavistic. She needs a thesaurus. That annoyed me in the last book too. Where is her editor?
I had previously read Ancestral Night but had forgotten I had done so and probably would not have bought this if I'd remembered. This is initially better written but hangs less well together overall imo.
The initial set up is interesting and you can kind of ignore the flaws in execution. However around 70% it descended into conspiracy theories and I just totally lost interest in watching Llyn tell me how she was figuring it all out with her pals. I flicked through to the end but it was all very lackluster.
Plus this author is WAY too fond of the word atavistic. She needs a thesaurus. That annoyed me in the last book too. Where is her editor?
malreynolds111's review against another edition
4.0
I had mixed feelings about this book. I love the world building. Its nice to have characters that aren't humoid based. I enjoyed the premise of the machine. The idea of right-minding makes me think. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I really have mixed feeling about brookllynn. Sometimes I really like her and other times I can't stand her. Any book that makes me think this much about it gets a decent star rating from me.
ARC FROM NETGALLEY
ARC FROM NETGALLEY
librarian_of_trantor's review
4.0
The White Space universe is fascinating. And Lynn Jens, physician and rescue specialist, is a wonderful character. And her base hospital, Core General orbiting the black hole at the center of the galaxy, is a beautifully realized setting. Bear has conjured some fascinating alien races who are physicians and patients there. And some great AI characters. Bear's concept that humans being totally civilized beings required learning "right-minding", adjusting your thoughts, hormones, and neurotransmitters to control your worse impulses and make better decisions. But one aspect of the plot show that depending on those techniques has dangers of its own.
I liked the first book [b:Ancestral Night|26159745|Ancestral Night (White Space #1)|Elizabeth Bear|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549453849l/26159745._SY75_.jpg|41186071] better mainly because I'm a sucker for ancient alien races, which the first book had, but that alien race was not part of the story in this book. And I was a little disappointed that this sequel was simply set in the same universe. The end of "Ancestral Night" really cried out for a sequel to continue the story from the first book. Bear is a very prolific writer so maybe that book is still coming.
Bonus points for Bear's Acknowledgements were she credits the influence of James White and his Sector General series.
I liked the first book [b:Ancestral Night|26159745|Ancestral Night (White Space #1)|Elizabeth Bear|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549453849l/26159745._SY75_.jpg|41186071] better mainly because I'm a sucker for ancient alien races, which the first book had, but that alien race was not part of the story in this book. And I was a little disappointed that this sequel was simply set in the same universe. The end of "Ancestral Night" really cried out for a sequel to continue the story from the first book. Bear is a very prolific writer so maybe that book is still coming.
Bonus points for Bear's Acknowledgements were she credits the influence of James White and his Sector General series.
tensy's review
3.0
A good science fiction detective story about a doctor on a rescue mission to recover the inhabitants of an ancient generation ship launched from Earth/Terra centuries ago. This is the second novel by Bear in the White Space universe and you will find endearing characters, weird systers/aliens and sentient shipminds/AIs with a sense of humor. Unfortunately, as with my reading experience in her other novels, an editor should have axed about 150 pages by deleting unnecessary repetition of facts and endless soul searching internal monologues.