Reviews

Ancestral Night: A White Space Novel by Elizabeth Bear

silentquercus's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.5

ellianderjoy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring 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

This romp of a space opera takes you along for a wild ride in a sci-fi vision of the future where humans and aliens co-exist and keeping your emotions in check is aided by technology. Intertwined with the space adventure are snippets of Haimey's toxic relationship with her ex, complicated relationship with her biological family and her touchstone friendships with her found family crew (including their ships AI). For fans of space adventures, grumpy lesbians, cats and reluctant heroes!

ellasilver's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous 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? Yes

4.0

jkinkadeblack's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

boldlyno's review against another edition

Go to review page

I couldn't get into some of the language, especially afthands. Maybe I'll try again! 

barondp's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

shoshin's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I enjoyed the book a great deal, liked its exploration of the nature of the self, and found some of what it did very intriguing (space whales that communicate through their barnacles!) but I thought it dragged in places and wanted parts of its universe to be better developed. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

cowardlycod's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

Takes a while to get it's footing, and I mean a while, but it's worth it.

monroev1225's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging mysterious 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

5.0

 On an indecisive day, I messed around with the audible recommendation and Ancestral Night popped up for me. I thought I would give it a whirl, assuming it would be more of a throw away read for me. Something that would satisfy the immediate craving but nothing I would remember. And for the first idk, 100 pages this continued to be my thought.

But I stand corrected today. By the end I became deeply invested in the main character and I craved more of them and that universe. Now this is the first installment, but from what I can tell of the synopsis of the next installment, Machine, it doesn't contain the same characters. So I'm not sure I want to continue. There was a lot to be answered, I thought, from this installment that I assumed the same characters would be in the next. So my excitement to continue with the series is slightly dampened.

The exploration of human psychology and tech. The exploration of social contracts. These were wonderfully crafted into a world with interesting tech, plot, aliens, and people.

This book quickly jumped into a personal favorite for me. 

godzillaismycopilot's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

3.5.