Reviews

Goldilocks is a thriller with sci-fi, dystopian, environmental crisis, and feminist trappings, but only one of those elements ia actually intrinsic to the story.

The premise of Goldilocks is that four woman scientists, led by charismatic entrepreneur Dr. Valerie Black, steal a spaceship to explore a new habitable exoplanet named Cavendish. Habitable exoplanets are critical because earth’s biosphere is 30 years from collapse. The women steal the spaceship because rising anti-woman sentiment has edged them out of opportunities to go to space, and the all-male crew meant to take the ship are not as thoroughly trained.

The stage is set for a claustrophobic psychological thriller where the women begin to wonder whether they can trust one another, and what each woman’s true motives are for being on this voyage.

The problem is that there’s no real reason, plot-wise, to have an all-woman crew. The plot would have proceeded exactly the same with a mixed-gender crew. Thematically, the challenges of being a smart, driven woman in a time of growing anti-woman sentiment are entirely told rather than shown, aside from one rather pat incident. It’s also weirdly blinkered to frame banning abortion and blocking women from the workplace as largely a problem because it thwarts the ambitions of professional women such as female astronauts. So the whole issue lacks relevance or urgency, and comes across as an attempt to grab onto a trend.

The environmentalist angle is better done, with more work put into showing the urgency of the problem and how it impacts peoples’ lives in real ways. I’d have been happier with more environmentalism and less oppression of women.

Finally, the sci-fi angle. Here, my problem isn’t with the space ship, or the space science. My problem comes from the women’s plans for their time on Cavendish.

Spoiler

Apparently five astronauts are meant to establish Earth’s first colony on an alien planet, and make it sufficiently robust that it will be able to take settlers within a couple years. This is the original mission plan, which is just... absurd. Even more absurd is Dr. Black’s plan to keep Earth’s people from repeating their environmental and gender-based sins on the new planet, which is to either a) blackmail Earth into sending shiploads of children (1 carer for every 15 kids, if I remember correctly) to be the first settlers, or b) grow settlers for Cavendish in artificial wombs using the thousands of frozen fertilized embryos that have been hidden on the ship.

So basically the plan is to have an alien planet with five women and... hundreds of children? A ratio of one adult for every 15 kids, across the entire planet? Who’s going to grow food, conduct science, even perform basic maintenance on the settlement, when they’re all going to be busy babysitting? It makes aboslutely no sense, and it’s what ultimately sank the book for me.

As a thriller, it’s fun and suspenseful. As a science fictional story, it fails basic tests of consistency and plausibility. As a Handmaiden’s Tale style anti-woman dystopia, it is shallow and unnecessary.

saintburns's review

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4.0

I hate to compare a book I’ve just finished to another but this is like if The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Martian. A nearly all female cast of characters do their best to change their lot in life. The idea of the Trolley Problem helping me enjoy this book is delightful. It fulfilled my need to have more female astronauts in my reading life. I can’t wait until this movie is released I will see it twenty times. I enjoyed the writing m. It flowed very easily and it never felt like there was too much science. Though I may be biased because I love science. I got an e arc in exchange for an honest review. Thanks

carter84's review against another edition

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3.0

I have to say, I’m a bit conflicted over this. The premise is right up my alley, I like the alternating chapters in the past and in the present and all of the characters are pretty interesting.

The writing style however is almost clinical, to the point that for a while I struggled to get into the plot. The biggest problem however is that the villain goes to such twisted extremes that it’s basically impossible to even see her point of view, which kind of hurt the overall delivery of the story.

sarah_meyr's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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