Reviews - The Spare Man | The StoryGraph

1.09k reviews for:

The Spare Man

Mary Robinette Kowal

3.76 AVERAGE

nina_avocado's review

4.0

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

murderbot42's review

3.75

adventurous emotional funny informative mysterious tense medium-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

This was better than I thought it would be honestly. It was hovering around a 3 because while I really enjoy the idea of mysteries, I also tend to be kinda bored by their execution. Anytime I read a mystery smashup with either fantasy or scifi, it's inevitably only a matter of time before I get bored.

Thankfully, that didn't happen until much later in the book for me because of the really interesting way Kowal wrote about our MC's disability and her panic attacks and PTSD and the therapy dog, Gimlet. These were all excellent additions to the book and very well received by me and now I understand why a 'simple scifi mystery' is nominated for the Hugo this year.

Very well-deserved shout out for Kowal's fantastic interweaving of an MC with several so-called 'invisible disabilities'.

Recommended for: People who like murder mysteries especially, but also anyone interested in reading the Hugos for this year or anyone interested in a really realistic, well-done disability rep by Kowal.

danielles_reads's review against another edition

2.0

mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Lmao what even was this!! I can’t believe this was nominated for a Hugo. 😩 I had zero emotional reaction or investment the whole time that I considered DNFing but I wanted to find out whodunnit. But this ended up being so aggressively mid that I don’t feel like typing up a huge review but like…

Why is EVERYTHING gender neutral when people still use she/her and he/him? Like why wouldn’t you just stay neutral until told otherwise? Why is calling a woman “ma’am” considered offensive? (Also why isn’t being a robotics heiress billionaire considered offensive….)
Why is a service dog being used to manipulate people? Why is everyone allowed to pet it at all times? The author even says in the back of the book that you should not look at or touch service dogs you see in public. Then why does everyone in this book do that!!! (Also as someone who doesn’t like dogs, I find it offensive that not liking Gimlet is seen as “suspect”)
Who are all these million characters, like I literally lost track of all the names. Someone died at the end and I was like, who? (Not like their death is given any emotional significance anyway) Kowal as a narrator only knows how to differentiate voices by using different accents, lmao. Wtf is Lunar European??? What was the point of that
kidnapping a kid (Ory and Ewen)
side plot?
Literally not a single character has any personality. Tesla’s accident could have been interesting, but it’s barely explained. And sorry but I got tired of hearing her talk about her breathing and her pain and noticing things. I understand that’s real life, but in a book it’s not enjoyable to hear these coping mechanisms 20+ times, especially when it’s the only thing attempting to give this annoying character depth. Her husband has no personality either. I got tired of all their quirky quips. At one point Shal even said, literally, “surprised face.” ??? Everyone in this book is a caricature and doesn’t talk like a real person.
The final reveal makes no sense lmao. I don’t want to spend any more energy thinking about this but like
where did this dude come from and how did he impersonate literally everyone? Did he stab himself with scissors? How did he know he wouldn’t die? How did he impersonate Shal to the point that everyone actually thought it was him? Did he somehow change his skin color??? What did those twins have to do with anything? I don’t understand what Bob and the security chief did and what their motivations were. Just money? Why were all the working class people portrayed as / seen as so suspicious?? What even are spoofers? Lol
Sigh.
I literally do not care what the difference between octopoids and octobots is, but apparently this is so important to Tesla that she mentions it at least 5 times.
It’s also weird to me that the author said at the end that we shouldn’t demonize or judge people who don’t drink alcohol, but spent an entire book talking about alcohol and sharing alcoholic recipes…? I literally just zoned out during every cocktail recipe. As someone who drinks once in a blue moon, they all sounded the same to me.

This book was so ridiculously cartoonish that I actually want to read super serious books next to scrub my brain of this, lol.

I feel like this book fits solidly under the cozy mystery genre (and I didn’t like the first one I read), which convinces me that this genre is not for me. And neither is Kowal’s writing.