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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A classic murder mystery, set 50 years in the future on a space cruise line. Unfortunately it falls short of even being a fun bit of fluff with too many red herrings, and an overly heavy hand with gender literacy. Becky Chambers is a perfect counterpoint to show how total commitment to a world with high gender literacy and gender expansiveness can be done with flair and subtlety; this felt like Kowal wanting to be sure that their readers know that This Is The Right Way To Behave and it comes across as stilted and too much in the foreground for a culture that supposedly thinks of things like sharing pronouns as the norm.
Regarding the mystery itself, it gets so cluttered with extra plot and endless wandering around the ship that in the end it's almost an anticlimax particularly when the readers are denied enough information to have puzzled it out on our own along the way.
Regarding the mystery itself,
This is just SO boring. It's a rotating cast of characters, all of them strange and unrelatable, with question after question in a whodunnit that is just going nowhere and dragging endlessly along. I'm glad for the chronic pain representation and anxiety rep, but it's because a huge hindrance to the plot progression, especially because it's mentioned so much and then the character brushes right past it as if it doesn't matter, but every time she does that, it then does matter and the investigation comes to a standstill so we can psychoanaliz pain yet again because the character is too dense to get it through her own head...even though she's supposed lived with it for years? So I don't trust her at this point to be able to solve a crime. Then the random sexy scenes that never go anywhere but are just inserted haphazardly to show their "love" for one another, but always fizzle out and slog things down AGAIN. The ship has to be the most boring ship on space too. We keep going from location to location in a closed loop, closed door mystery, but every location that should be exciting isn't so we don't even have a cool setting I can groove with and enjoy. I'm just done. I've checked this book out 3 times now from my library to try to finish it, each time I get maybe another 20% further...I can't face my Librarian again, and it's bringing down my Fall reading TBR/reading mojo.
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Yeah... It was fine.
I like the ship, and the science. I also liked Telsa's back story - it was probably more intriguing than the story presented here.
There were several issues with this book. They start with the main character(s) been pretty unlikable - especially Tesla herself. There's next to no reason for her to stick her oversized bank balance and nose into any of this.
By the end, I was just tired and hardly paying attention. I heard the murderers reveal, but really wasn't bother by that point. Could have been anyone, for all the ground work that lead into it.
Mostly fine, but I hope the authors other books are better. I've heard good stuff.
I like the ship, and the science. I also liked Telsa's back story - it was probably more intriguing than the story presented here.
There were several issues with this book. They start with the main character(s) been pretty unlikable - especially Tesla herself. There's next to no reason for her to stick her oversized bank balance and nose into any of this.
By the end, I was just tired and hardly paying attention. I heard the murderers reveal, but really wasn't bother by that point. Could have been anyone, for all the ground work that lead into it.
Mostly fine, but I hope the authors other books are better. I've heard good stuff.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
mysterious
tense
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
This is a pretty straight forward homage to The Thin Man books and films (which I adore) with a sci-fi twist. Tesla Crane and her new husband Shal are enjoying their honeymoon on an Earth to Mars cruise ship, trying to avoid being recognized by the paparazzi. But when someone is murdered, and Shal is framed for it, Tesla (and her service dog Gimlet) are forced to investigate. This is a classic whodunit set on a sci-fi spaceship; of course I love it. The banter and playfulness of Tesla and Shal really mimic the dynamic of original novels, but Kowal has added discussions of priveledge, race, gender, and ability to the conversation. The only downside is that the second act dragged a bit, but the book features cocktail recipes at the beginning of every chapter, Gimlet is a very good dog.