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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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
Was not a big fan of the ending, but the rest of the story was really interesting. I felt the mildly disappointing ending was mitigated by the direction the sequels took, however.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
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:
Yes
90% of this book is a solid 5 stars for me - each chapter is a new POV, as part of a multigenerational space travel epic to an unknown star. The writer does an incredible job of making me interested and invested in each new character, and they have complex motivations. But the last two chapters lose steam and aren't as riveting as the rest of the book, making the ending fall flat. Still, I loved this book and will read the sequel.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Interesting story, but quite dull writing.
I've enjoyed much of this novel's middle sections, but the beginning is boilerplate sci-fi, and I'm not quite satisfied by the rather abrupt and open ending. It's the story of an interstellar fleet launched to investigate a strange object detected in deep space, a journey that will take more than a century at relativistic speeds and almost ten times as long for the population left on earth -- plus the same on the voyage back. The hook here is that each chapter leaps forward to a new generation, and the ship culture undergoes some interesting fluctuations and mission creep over that span, especially once they lose contact with the homeworld. I'm reminded of titles like A Canticle for Leibowitz or The Years of Rice and Salt, which similarly build up and discard multiple eras across the length of their narratives. All crew members in this tale are clones as well, inviting the reader to consider nature-versus-nurture issues as identical gene blueprints surface as successive figures throughout the text.
There's a lot to dig into and appreciate in that premise, but not every individual protagonist and subplot is equally engaging, and the larger thematic thrust of the work is somewhat hazy for me. I expect the sequels will continue jumping further into the future and eventually reveal more about the alien artifact and its creators, but without the continuity of characters beyond the shipboard A.I., I'm not sure I'm invested enough in that storyline to stick with the series and find out.
[Content warning for slavery and mention of rape.]
[I read and reviewed this title at a Patreon donor’s request. Want to nominate your own books for me to read and review (or otherwise support my writing)? Sign up for a small monthly donation today at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke !]
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
There's a lot to dig into and appreciate in that premise, but not every individual protagonist and subplot is equally engaging, and the larger thematic thrust of the work is somewhat hazy for me. I expect the sequels will continue jumping further into the future and eventually reveal more about the alien artifact and its creators, but without the continuity of characters beyond the shipboard A.I., I'm not sure I'm invested enough in that storyline to stick with the series and find out.
[Content warning for slavery and mention of rape.]
[I read and reviewed this title at a Patreon donor’s request. Want to nominate your own books for me to read and review (or otherwise support my writing)? Sign up for a small monthly donation today at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke !]
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
Fun, hard Science Fiction that helped get me through Hurricane Irma.
Ich liebe SciFi und die Spekulationen darum, was da draußen wohl außer uns sein und wie man dieses Unbekannte erkunden könnte.
Ganz besonders freut es mich immer, wenn ich über eine Autorin stolpere, die sich diesem Genre widmet, ist es doch (leider) ein sehr männlich dominiertes Gebiet.
„Die Reise“ begann ein wenig holprig aber vielversprechend: im All wird ein seltsames „Ding“ entdeckt und man beschließt, dessen Erforschung mit einem großangelegten Projekt zu finanzieren. Da dieses Objekt sehr weit entfernt ist und das Leben der Menschen zu begrenzt, beschließt man, die passendsten Anwärter für diesen Job zu klonen – und ihre weitere Fortpflanzung auf dem Schiff mit weiteren Klonen zu sichern.
Wir begleiten diese Klongruppe nun auf ihrem Weg zu dem unbekannten Gegenstand, doch was eigentlich interessant hätte werden können, entpuppte sich für mich sehr schnell als sehr zäh.
Statt einer einzelnen Figur zu folgen, springen wir zwischen diversen Klonen und diversen Zeiten hin und her und betrachten das Geschehen aus der Sicht unterschiedlicher Klongenerationen, die zwar alle ihre Eigenheiten haben, sich aber im Großen und Ganzen wenig voneinander unterscheiden.
Das eigentliche Ereignis gerät dabei fast vollends in den Hintergrund und es fiel mir immer schwerer, meine Aufmerksamkeit auf die Geschichte zu lenken.
„Die Reise“ ist eine eher soziologische Betrachtung einer möglichen Zukunft, bei der der technische Aspekt zwar vorhanden, aber nicht näher erläutert wird.
Nicht mein Ding.
Ganz besonders freut es mich immer, wenn ich über eine Autorin stolpere, die sich diesem Genre widmet, ist es doch (leider) ein sehr männlich dominiertes Gebiet.
„Die Reise“ begann ein wenig holprig aber vielversprechend: im All wird ein seltsames „Ding“ entdeckt und man beschließt, dessen Erforschung mit einem großangelegten Projekt zu finanzieren. Da dieses Objekt sehr weit entfernt ist und das Leben der Menschen zu begrenzt, beschließt man, die passendsten Anwärter für diesen Job zu klonen – und ihre weitere Fortpflanzung auf dem Schiff mit weiteren Klonen zu sichern.
Wir begleiten diese Klongruppe nun auf ihrem Weg zu dem unbekannten Gegenstand, doch was eigentlich interessant hätte werden können, entpuppte sich für mich sehr schnell als sehr zäh.
Statt einer einzelnen Figur zu folgen, springen wir zwischen diversen Klonen und diversen Zeiten hin und her und betrachten das Geschehen aus der Sicht unterschiedlicher Klongenerationen, die zwar alle ihre Eigenheiten haben, sich aber im Großen und Ganzen wenig voneinander unterscheiden.
Das eigentliche Ereignis gerät dabei fast vollends in den Hintergrund und es fiel mir immer schwerer, meine Aufmerksamkeit auf die Geschichte zu lenken.
„Die Reise“ ist eine eher soziologische Betrachtung einer möglichen Zukunft, bei der der technische Aspekt zwar vorhanden, aber nicht näher erläutert wird.
Nicht mein Ding.
See full review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eq4p-PipiQ
Noumenon is amazing. It's probably one of the best sci-fi books I've read this year, maybe in my entire life. This is Marina J. Lostetter's debut novel, which is just utterly mind-blowing because it feels like it was written by one of the greats well into their established careers and with several books under their belt. She's written short stories before but to undertake this as her first published novel, it's impressive. I didn't pay for this book, picked it up for free at NYCC a few years back, but I would have paid double the MSRP for it if I knew how much I was gonna like it. It's very similar in many ways to Star Trek, which I love, and it should come as no surprise that Lostetter, at least based on her Twitter is also a fan, so I have no verification, but I bet that influenced some of her writing. I think what I love most is how optimistic it is. As Reggie said of the convoy's genetic makeup being cloned, not Utopia, "But hopefully less chance of Dystopia". Even the view of Earth, The handle that she has on this expansive universe that I had trouble even describing second-hand, is unparalleled. If anything I've said has at all intrigued you, and while I went a little more in-depth than I was planning, there was a lot I left out, so if anything has piqued your interest, go check out this book, it's truly one of my favorite books I've ever read, and I don't usually use that term lightly. Like MASH, one of my favorite books, Hitchhiker's Guide, a classic, Noumenon? I wasn't expecting it to make the list so soon, but it totally deserves a spot on it. I highly recommend this book to any sci-fi fans looking for their next read. So go out! Buy this book, or find it at your local library!
Noumenon is amazing. It's probably one of the best sci-fi books I've read this year, maybe in my entire life. This is Marina J. Lostetter's debut novel, which is just utterly mind-blowing because it feels like it was written by one of the greats well into their established careers and with several books under their belt. She's written short stories before but to undertake this as her first published novel, it's impressive. I didn't pay for this book, picked it up for free at NYCC a few years back, but I would have paid double the MSRP for it if I knew how much I was gonna like it. It's very similar in many ways to Star Trek, which I love, and it should come as no surprise that Lostetter, at least based on her Twitter is also a fan, so I have no verification, but I bet that influenced some of her writing. I think what I love most is how optimistic it is. As Reggie said of the convoy's genetic makeup being cloned, not Utopia, "But hopefully less chance of Dystopia". Even the view of Earth,