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satyridae's review
2.0
I wanted to like this book. It's very well-written, but the author's style doesn't resonate with me. There's a sort of remove present, wherein I can see the characters, almost hear their voices but can't connect.
geeklet's review
4.0
This story follows a family as an inter-generational space ship approaches their new home after leaving Earth due to environmental changes. The ship is showing signs of wear and tear and the people are suffering from a general malaise. As they approach their new home, they learn the planet is less hospitable than they had hoped. The citizens of the ship must decide to stay on their ship and continue searching or learn to change and adapt to their new home. As a science fiction story, this is all pretty standard ground and Gloss brings nothing new to this type of story. However, this novel shines as a piece of literary fiction. Gloss has an incredible ability to infuse emotion into her carefully chosen prose. Her writing is concise but impactful. When she wrote about isolation, I felt it throughout her characters. If you’re looking to test the waters of literary fiction but you want to stay in a comfortable setting, I highly recommend this book. However, if you’re looking for a science fiction book that addresses ideas, you may not find what you’re looking for here.
jenne's review
4.0
Quakers! In! Spaaaaace!!!
So interesting to have what is basically a hard SF premise (generation starship) done in a very intimate, character-meditation way. Kinda loved it, even though it was uncomfortable to read at times.
So interesting to have what is basically a hard SF premise (generation starship) done in a very intimate, character-meditation way. Kinda loved it, even though it was uncomfortable to read at times.
geekmom's review
2.0
I was enjoying this until I hit the rape trope. So done with rape in speculative fiction.
dearbhla's review
4.0
Dolores Negrete is leaving home, she will be boarding the Dusty Miller along with many other Quakers and leaving the planet, heading for the great unknown of space. Earth is dying. The land has, for the most part been used up, species are going extinct and people are dying of cancers and starvation and disease. The Quakers have organised themselves. They are fleeing earth and looking for a brighter future.
The main story takes place 150 years or so later, aboard the spaceship, as the potential colonists might have a habitable planet within reach. The eco-system of the ship is beginning to creak. It is still working, still functioning, but the cracks are beginning to be felt. Plagues have killed off some species, and people are beginning to feel the effects, there are suicides, as all this time in space begins to really have an impact.
I really loved the other two books by Gloss that I’ve read. Both The Hearts of Horses and Falling from Horses are wonderful wonderful stories that I would urge anyone to read. So I was really looking forward to reading The dazzle of day.
I’d still say that I love her writing. It is just so beautiful and evocative.
Unfortunately this book is more about humanity and culture and people as a whole rather than the story of an individual or even a group of characters. Gloss is exploring what it is to live in a community. What it is to be human, with all those conflicts, big and small, with all those unresolved issues that are such a part of life.
Unresolved is a great way to describe this book. We never really know what happens to any of the threads of the story. In the beginning Dolores is thinking will she or won’t she leave earth. She is in her sixties, is she too old to give up all she knows for a journey into the great unknown? Well, I sort of assumed she does board the ship, but the reader is never actually told. Likewise the characters aboard the Dusty Miller generate questions that are never answered, so much is left unresolved and unknown to the reader.
So I didn’t love this one, but at the same time I did love aspects of it. While reading it I was utterly engrossed and intrigued by the stories and characters. But then I wouldn’t feel all that inspired to pick it up, so it took me a whole week or so to get through. That manner of reading probably didn’t really help with me appreciating the story. Maybe if I read it again in bigger chunks it would work better?
I also really liked the way religion was depicted in the book. Any one who knows me knows that I am not a religious person. I don’t really believe in the whole “god” thing. But I loved the way god was an integral part of the Quaker culture, while at the same time some of them seemed to be agnostic at least and possibly atheist. I also loved the community meetings. I’m not sure I’d enjoy such outside interference in my life, the “divorce” discussions were a tad intrusive, even if they did serve to clear the air, but the meetings where anyone could say whatever was in their head and be listened to. That idea is just great. Although, of course it only works with small communities. Can’t imagine it working in a big city.
It is a beautiful story, and if you enjoy Gloss’s writing I’d recommend this. If you enjoy books for their writing rather than their plot and character then, again, I’d really recommend this. But I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to.
The main story takes place 150 years or so later, aboard the spaceship, as the potential colonists might have a habitable planet within reach. The eco-system of the ship is beginning to creak. It is still working, still functioning, but the cracks are beginning to be felt. Plagues have killed off some species, and people are beginning to feel the effects, there are suicides, as all this time in space begins to really have an impact.
I really loved the other two books by Gloss that I’ve read. Both The Hearts of Horses and Falling from Horses are wonderful wonderful stories that I would urge anyone to read. So I was really looking forward to reading The dazzle of day.
I’d still say that I love her writing. It is just so beautiful and evocative.
Unfortunately this book is more about humanity and culture and people as a whole rather than the story of an individual or even a group of characters. Gloss is exploring what it is to live in a community. What it is to be human, with all those conflicts, big and small, with all those unresolved issues that are such a part of life.
Unresolved is a great way to describe this book. We never really know what happens to any of the threads of the story. In the beginning Dolores is thinking will she or won’t she leave earth. She is in her sixties, is she too old to give up all she knows for a journey into the great unknown? Well, I sort of assumed she does board the ship, but the reader is never actually told. Likewise the characters aboard the Dusty Miller generate questions that are never answered, so much is left unresolved and unknown to the reader.
So I didn’t love this one, but at the same time I did love aspects of it. While reading it I was utterly engrossed and intrigued by the stories and characters. But then I wouldn’t feel all that inspired to pick it up, so it took me a whole week or so to get through. That manner of reading probably didn’t really help with me appreciating the story. Maybe if I read it again in bigger chunks it would work better?
I also really liked the way religion was depicted in the book. Any one who knows me knows that I am not a religious person. I don’t really believe in the whole “god” thing. But I loved the way god was an integral part of the Quaker culture, while at the same time some of them seemed to be agnostic at least and possibly atheist. I also loved the community meetings. I’m not sure I’d enjoy such outside interference in my life, the “divorce” discussions were a tad intrusive, even if they did serve to clear the air, but the meetings where anyone could say whatever was in their head and be listened to. That idea is just great. Although, of course it only works with small communities. Can’t imagine it working in a big city.
It is a beautiful story, and if you enjoy Gloss’s writing I’d recommend this. If you enjoy books for their writing rather than their plot and character then, again, I’d really recommend this. But I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to.
christytidwell's review
3.0
This book took some effort on my part. It took me days to get through the first half because the pacing was slow and I couldn't help but feel that nothing was happening (even though things were demonstrably happening).
The second half of the book is also slowly paced and has a distant, sort of meditative quality to it that takes you away from what is happening and into the characters' descriptions of what is happening and their thoughts and feelings about it. At times, this works well, with some beautiful and insightful writing that draws the reader in to the world as the characters experience it; at other times, this approach is too distant, too reflective, preventing any real connection between reader and text.
I think this one just wasn't right for me right now. I would definitely read another of Molly Gloss's books, though, based on the parts of this book that I liked.
The second half of the book is also slowly paced and has a distant, sort of meditative quality to it that takes you away from what is happening and into the characters' descriptions of what is happening and their thoughts and feelings about it. At times, this works well, with some beautiful and insightful writing that draws the reader in to the world as the characters experience it; at other times, this approach is too distant, too reflective, preventing any real connection between reader and text.
I think this one just wasn't right for me right now. I would definitely read another of Molly Gloss's books, though, based on the parts of this book that I liked.
tundragirl's review
4.0
A lovely novel. Ostensibly about the colonization of another world, it's really about the relationships between people, and focuses mainly on women of a certain age and how they relate to each other and to their spouses and children. Some good world-building and Quakerism thrown in as well.
myxomycetes's review
5.0
Basically if I start a book one day and finish it the next, it's going to get five stars from me.
Sure, this book's plot is oblique and the major conflicts are mostly domestic. Yeah, there's the looming question of whether or not the colonists will leave the generation ship and settle on their new world, but what kept me reading was whether or not Juko patches up things with her ex-husband, and the social intricacies of life aboard the ship.
Fans of Ursula K. LeGuin will enjoy.
Sure, this book's plot is oblique and the major conflicts are mostly domestic. Yeah, there's the looming question of whether or not the colonists will leave the generation ship and settle on their new world, but what kept me reading was whether or not Juko patches up things with her ex-husband, and the social intricacies of life aboard the ship.
Fans of Ursula K. LeGuin will enjoy.
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