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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
hopeful
Oof ok, here's the other for the dnf shelf. I listened to about half of the audiobook of this, and I imagine that if I'd actually read it physically, I might have skimmed to the end. Fortunately about halfway through, I stopped and looked it up. Nope, doesn't improve.
It reminds me of a less-good Salvaged, a book I read years ago that had to do with crazy religious ship people who oppressed their womenfolk, and my only real complaint there was that the MC had the most epic good luck in running into help. Here, the same thing happens, but it's somehow more horrible; the oppression and body horror comes from other women, and the abuse is at a level at which Matilda and Potter would have a drink and be like daaammmn we got off lucky. :P but somehow our MC here is just...super okay once free of her ship.
I want to reiterate, the forced lack of body autonomy is gross, and while I understand that this is the point, the pivot from "I don't want to be someone else's incubator" and "I'm okay with that as long as I've decided that's the move" is jarring, and about where I gave up.
Side notes:
A) IDK how anyone missed the trans character; literally the second they talked about how their chromosome difference was A Thing, I guessed, and
B) the constant calorie counting while set up such that it's understandable, is so goddamn annoying, oof. IDK if that's unreasonable, but there it is
It reminds me of a less-good Salvaged, a book I read years ago that had to do with crazy religious ship people who oppressed their womenfolk, and my only real complaint there was that the MC had the most epic good luck in running into help. Here, the same thing happens, but it's somehow more horrible; the oppression and body horror comes from other women, and the abuse is at a level at which Matilda and Potter would have a drink and be like daaammmn we got off lucky. :P but somehow our MC here is just...super okay once free of her ship.
I want to reiterate, the forced lack of body autonomy is gross, and while I understand that this is the point, the pivot from "I don't want to be someone else's incubator" and "I'm okay with that as long as I've decided that's the move" is jarring, and about where I gave up.
Side notes:
A) IDK how anyone missed the trans character; literally the second they talked about how their chromosome difference was A Thing, I guessed, and
B) the constant calorie counting while set up such that it's understandable, is so goddamn annoying, oof. IDK if that's unreasonable, but there it is
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Going off the way Goodreads labels the stars, and this is a solid "it was okay."
Everything was too extreme. The bad guys are comically bad, even as children, torturing the main character without repercussion. The good guys are perfectly good, beloved by all, without question.
All plans work perfectly, on the first try. Need information? Ask this one guy and be able to perfectly put together what's going on. Pendt gets off on a station and "goes on the run"? The very first people she runs into at a "seedy bar" are perfectly able to solve her problem, and actually, she doesn't have to run anywhere!
There's also apparently LGBT+ representation, which I only picked up on reading someone else's review.
The epilogue is especially heavy handed.
It's just a bit hard to care about the characters or the situations when everyone is perfect, and even the villains are perfect in their inability to even accidentally be decent people.
Everything was too extreme. The bad guys are comically bad, even as children, torturing the main character without repercussion. The good guys are perfectly good, beloved by all, without question.
All plans work perfectly, on the first try. Need information? Ask this one guy and be able to perfectly put together what's going on. Pendt gets off on a station and "goes on the run"? The very first people she runs into at a "seedy bar" are perfectly able to solve her problem, and actually, she doesn't have to run anywhere!
There's also apparently LGBT+ representation, which I only picked up on reading someone else's review.
Spoiler
Fisher is assumed to be a transman, rather than, say, having a chromosonal abnormality, because that apparently never happens. Him being trans is perfectly accepted, though no one ever actually mentions it in the story, enough that Pendt can joke about how Ned is "one of a kind even with a twin brother." Apparently fraternal twins don't exist in this universe either.The epilogue is especially heavy handed.
Spoiler
Despite the problem apparently literally burning through the lives of thousands of gene-mages, Pendt is just perfectly capable of solving the problem single-handedly, with no formal training or education, and now planning a mission to save the universe!It's just a bit hard to care about the characters or the situations when everyone is perfect, and even the villains are perfect in their inability to even accidentally be decent people.
The versatile Johnston tackles sci-fi with the story of Pendt, who grows up on her family's space cruiser. She's the runt of her family and her life is shaped because of that.
Johnston is great at writing books that stick with me.
Johnston is great at writing books that stick with me.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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:
Complicated
I owe this book a debt of gratitude. I was beginning to think that a book would never hook me that way again, that I had studied too much literature to find myself powerless in the grip of a talented author's spell. I started this book at 10 pm, just to see if I should renew the library loan on it. At 6 am the next day, I finished, turned back to page one, and started reading it again.
adventurous
This book started very slow and was confusing. However, in Ch. 7 it starts to pick up speed. By the halfway point, it was very hard to put the book down! I really enjoyed the second half and the ending!
adventurous
hopeful
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:
No