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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
Charming and fun, but I advise reading it quickly because there are so many--maybe too many--suspects and moving parts to keep track of. 3.5 rounded up for all the cocktail recipes and Gimlet the dog.
Fantastic book!! I love the disability/chronic medical condition rep! Love the service dog rep! Love the non-binary rep!
As someone with a chronic illness, Tesla was so relatable and the amount of space her condition takes up in the book felt representative of the amount of space my condition takes in my real life (having to think about things literally every time you get up).
Aside from the wonderful representation and inclusivity, I absolutely loved our main character and their spouse, as well as the wonderful service dog and Maria the cop.
I was constantly infuriated by the cop in charge, just as much as our main character!
The mystery started to lag a bit for me but then it pulled together wonderfully in the end!! The author really tricked me for a second there!
As someone with a chronic illness, Tesla was so relatable and the amount of space her condition takes up in the book felt representative of the amount of space my condition takes in my real life (having to think about things literally every time you get up).
Aside from the wonderful representation and inclusivity, I absolutely loved our main character and their spouse, as well as the wonderful service dog and Maria the cop.
I was constantly infuriated by the cop in charge, just as much as our main character!
The mystery started to lag a bit for me but then it pulled together wonderfully in the end!! The author really tricked me for a second there!
This book was a delight and everything I needed. I appreciate the author's dedication to presenting a future with so much diversity and compassion, while presenting a "Nick and Nora" relationship that still fits its time.
FUN!
Really enjoyed this sci-fi/mystery! Hope there will be more! MRK is a wonderful writer that I will follow anywhere. Read it!
Really enjoyed this sci-fi/mystery! Hope there will be more! MRK is a wonderful writer that I will follow anywhere. Read it!
I read this because I knew they were going to talk about it in some depth on the Writing Excuses podcast, which the author co-hosts. I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew going in that it was "The Thin Man in space."
I loved it. The characters were engaging and believable, the mystery was complex and not obvious, the clues were all there in front of the reader to pick up if we were reading carefully (I was not :) ), and I thought the ending wrapped everything up nicely. And the humor was woven throughout in such a way that it enhanced the experience but never BECAME the entire point of the story or the characters. An excellent adaptation of Nick and Nora Charles. In space.
One thing I enjoyed was that the main character had a disability that actually affected her mobility and ability to do everything she wanted...but it never BECAME her identity. The story was never ABOUT her disability. She simply had to work around it. And that is realistic. Oh, and in the end, she wasn't miraculously cured.
This was my first novel-length Kowal read, and I'll definitely be picking up some of her other novels, now. I've been a fan of her short fiction for some time now.
I loved it. The characters were engaging and believable, the mystery was complex and not obvious, the clues were all there in front of the reader to pick up if we were reading carefully (I was not :) ), and I thought the ending wrapped everything up nicely. And the humor was woven throughout in such a way that it enhanced the experience but never BECAME the entire point of the story or the characters. An excellent adaptation of Nick and Nora Charles. In space.
One thing I enjoyed was that the main character had a disability that actually affected her mobility and ability to do everything she wanted...but it never BECAME her identity. The story was never ABOUT her disability. She simply had to work around it. And that is realistic. Oh, and in the end, she wasn't miraculously cured.
This was my first novel-length Kowal read, and I'll definitely be picking up some of her other novels, now. I've been a fan of her short fiction for some time now.
This cozy, sci-fi murder mystery was a delightful romp in a fascinating world! With all the elements of a traditional murder mystery and a classic whodunit feel, the story is set on a luxury spaceship cruise with enough technological jargon to give the whole setting a fresh, authentic twist. The setting is fun to explore both for the imaginative sci-fi but also the glimpses of kindness in a future society where standard politeness includes introducing people with their pronouns and courtesy masks. The main character suffers from chronic pain as well as PTSD and the management of both is key to the plot. Although the pain-suppressing technology implanted in her brain is cool, the star of the show is certainly Tesla's therapy dog, Gimlet. The mystery pulled me along and kept me enjoying the questions (Where did that extra body come from if everyone on board was accounted for? Who else on the ship has the necessary robotics knowledge? What is the magician hiding? WILL GIMLET BE OKAY?) while never feeling true fear for the characters (yes, including the dog!). It's a solid cozy read, with just enough thrill, sci-fi and romance to add flavor. Also, each chapter begins with a cocktail recipe and I'm looking forward to trying them!
Kowal's gift is to absorb the tropes of a genre (regency romance, Edwardian melodrama, 1950s sci-fi) and then turn them on their head with adaptation to the inclusion of unexpected people and elements. In this case, The Spare Man is 1930s screwball comedy/mystery in space, with a Nick and Nora Charles (and dog!) on a space liner, plus cocktails and Agatha Christie large cast/red herring plots. It absolutely delivers, although it's a reminder that these are sparkling and fun in the abstract, and awkward when genre necessitated unapologetically drunky rich socialites collide with a futuristic progressive ethos where they have to be apologetic about it.
A wannabe SF mystery that's totally abysmal. There are so many things wrong. Start with the worst trained service dog and human pair in history. Then go to an author too focused on trying to write cute dialog that plot takes a back seat. Then add in too many twists and cliff hangers to do anything other than make this reader shake his head.
Then there's the ignorantly used PC language. The first thing anyone does on meeting is mention pronouns? Get to know somebody first. Not to mention if you meet 10 people at dinner, you aren't remembering them. On a business card or elsewhere fine. Not the first thing you think matters, especially as somebody can just use your, gasp!, name. Follow that up with Mx. Well, if we have three gender pronouns and everyone states them first thing, why not Ms, Mr and Mx? Why only one? Then there's "they." This author isn't ignorant enough to think that's it, as the owner does use Ze sometimes. Why not always? No clue. They remains plural and there's no excuse to use it. Xe should be used for non-binary and unknown.
All told, this is a total loser. The rest buried the plot and I gave up.
Then there's the ignorantly used PC language. The first thing anyone does on meeting is mention pronouns? Get to know somebody first. Not to mention if you meet 10 people at dinner, you aren't remembering them. On a business card or elsewhere fine. Not the first thing you think matters, especially as somebody can just use your, gasp!, name. Follow that up with Mx. Well, if we have three gender pronouns and everyone states them first thing, why not Ms, Mr and Mx? Why only one? Then there's "they." This author isn't ignorant enough to think that's it, as the owner does use Ze sometimes. Why not always? No clue. They remains plural and there's no excuse to use it. Xe should be used for non-binary and unknown.
All told, this is a total loser. The rest buried the plot and I gave up.
As a spoof on The Thin Man, this works well. On its own, the main character is an entitled princess who throws her weight around in an annoying way.
I don't quite know how to describe my issues except that it was "fine." I felt jolted out of the story by lots of worldbuilding choices that felt either weirdly modern (versus futuristic) or just plain flat. I don't think it helps that the world building and character development in the beginning is a massive dump of information. It made for a dull start.
I will also admit that I kept getting jolted out of the story by one of my pet peeves: folks who are in serious pain/injured but for some reason repeatedly want to have sex. I've only read Kowal's Lady Astronaut series, so I know she writes some seriously horny characters (I like it in that series, it seemed sweet to see adults in a long-established relationship still wanting each other), but it really did not work for me here. I find it hard to believe that one adult with a back that is screaming in agony (hi, I have chronic shoulder, neck, and back pain - ask me what sounds like a horrible idea when they're acting up) despite a futuristic pain control mechanism and one adult who is gasping and wincing in every scene over an injured rib. Every time they flirted about "going back to their room" I want to say "To lie down?! Right?! RIGHT?!"
The mystery was fine. It's a locked room mystery, which I find can be hit or miss for me. In general, this one just wasn't "off the wall" enough for me considering I'm reading spec fic, not a straightforward mystery. The bad guys were easy to determine long before the finale, but in general that doesn't bother me a ton because a well-written novel should set you up for that. It just didn't leave much mystery behind. I think that's my issue throughout the book. Things were so obviously laid out with the disability awareness, queer awareness, mystery set up. It just didn't make for a particularly fun, flowy read for me.
I think that if the characters and world building had felt more removed (as in more futuristic) from modern sensibilities and hot button topics, I'd have enjoyed it more. The Murderbot Diaries is an example of similar series expressly showing certain modern sensibilities (varying pronouns, queer relationships, etc.) that aren't necessarily super removed from current progressive values. The difference for me is that the Diaries manage to promote/normalize these same values without making it so obvious that it feels frustratingly patronizing. It's not that I don't like or want these things. It just feels really poorly done here.
I will also admit that I kept getting jolted out of the story by one of my pet peeves: folks who are in serious pain/injured but for some reason repeatedly want to have sex. I've only read Kowal's Lady Astronaut series, so I know she writes some seriously horny characters (I like it in that series, it seemed sweet to see adults in a long-established relationship still wanting each other), but it really did not work for me here. I find it hard to believe that one adult with a back that is screaming in agony (hi, I have chronic shoulder, neck, and back pain - ask me what sounds like a horrible idea when they're acting up) despite a futuristic pain control mechanism and one adult who is gasping and wincing in every scene over an injured rib. Every time they flirted about "going back to their room" I want to say "To lie down?! Right?! RIGHT?!"
The mystery was fine. It's a locked room mystery, which I find can be hit or miss for me. In general, this one just wasn't "off the wall" enough for me considering I'm reading spec fic, not a straightforward mystery. The bad guys were easy to determine long before the finale, but in general that doesn't bother me a ton because a well-written novel should set you up for that. It just didn't leave much mystery behind. I think that's my issue throughout the book. Things were so obviously laid out with the disability awareness, queer awareness, mystery set up. It just didn't make for a particularly fun, flowy read for me.
I think that if the characters and world building had felt more removed (as in more futuristic) from modern sensibilities and hot button topics, I'd have enjoyed it more. The Murderbot Diaries is an example of similar series expressly showing certain modern sensibilities (varying pronouns, queer relationships, etc.) that aren't necessarily super removed from current progressive values. The difference for me is that the Diaries manage to promote/normalize these same values without making it so obvious that it feels frustratingly patronizing. It's not that I don't like or want these things. It just feels really poorly done here.