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paolacanalesl's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
jazzypizzaz's review against another edition
4.0
Russ, whew, a dazzling intellect... this little book packs a punch. I can't claim to have understood it, but I know I'll be looking up reviews/articles later.
eccles's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Picked this up as a curiosity, following the traces of a few now-forgotten bright lights of 1970s sci-fi. As someone else has commented, this is basically an extended suicide note in space, the monologue of someone about to die on a planet far far away. The fact that she’s been wrecked on a distant planet in some distant future in which tesseracts exist and science seems to have overcome all human problems is largely incidental to the central focus of this work, which is preoccupied, I think, with how to die. The scenario is a survival story trope: a handful of disparate people thrown together when they’re wrecked on a desert island, not a million miles from Lord of the Flies or a high-tech Gillian’s Island really. But here the hapless crew are cast away, as the result of a glitch in some kind of high-tech space travel, somewhere so far away as to make rescue perfectly unimaginable. As a consequence, they’re confronted with the choice of starting civilisation all over or just dying sooner rather than later. Our realistic and nihilistic first person narrator has decided from the beginning that they’re already dead and it’s just a matter of playing out how death happens for all of them. In fact, and I suppose inevitably, she just kills them all and then spends the last third of the book musing on life the universe and everything as she starves to death. It’s bleak, and it’s angry. Angry about the bleakness of life, of the human experience, of how society looks when it’s stripped back to the bone. There’s no attempt to create a coherent sense of a future world, and amid the passing references to magical technology of this future, 1970’s America is clearly visible. Because the text is the musings of one person, recorded on her “vodocorder” as she moves through her dance of death, I found the monotone became monotonous. I’m not sure this exercise shed any new or interesting light on the human condition, but maybe writing doesn’t need to. But what’s left is pretty emotionally exhausting.
alyssands's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
alastairherd's review against another edition
2.0
This is book is one of the most disappointing books that I have read in a while. While it had an interesting premise it completely diverted from that very early on and became a self-absorbed character analysis, with the only problem being that the character being analysed was completely faulty in all regards. While the writing style is a least interesting, there is practically no plot after the first 30 to 40 pages, with the end of the book just cycling through the same old ideas used every 10 pages. There is an undercurrent of pseudo-religion that is incredibly poorly understood, I was, however, unsure whether this was supposed to be an integrated part of the character or a fault caused by the author having no understanding of the writing topic. Overall it was a rather frustrating read and I can only say that I am happy that it is over.
lleullawgyffes's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
wincher2031's review against another edition
One of the most harrowing stories I've ever read.
Bleak, hopeless and desolate, the inevitable death of its characters permeates every page.
To take a page from Roger Ebert, I'm giving a zero star rating to this space adventure where the stars don't shine.
I both love and hate this one, an instant favourite.
Bleak, hopeless and desolate, the inevitable death of its characters permeates every page.
To take a page from Roger Ebert, I'm giving a zero star rating to this space adventure where the stars don't shine.
I both love and hate this one, an instant favourite.