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shoffschwelle's review against another edition
4.0
An interesting story set in the future reflecting on the future of humanity, relativity, and how they intertwine.
brianthehuman's review
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
librarianmel's review against another edition
5.0
I really liked this. It is well-written and inventive. The sci-fi aspects made sense (and were still pretty hard sci-fi) and the cultural aspects of the society were logical and (also) well-explained. I hope the series will continue.
annarella's review against another edition
5.0
An excellent sci-fi with a great world building and fascinating characters that are well developed.
The writer is a talented storyteller and I was fascinated by the world building and the voice of the different characters that creates an entertaining and engrossing plot.
I hope this is the start of a series because I want to know more and travel with these characters.
In any case I look forward to reading other stories by this writer.
It was an excellent read, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
The writer is a talented storyteller and I was fascinated by the world building and the voice of the different characters that creates an entertaining and engrossing plot.
I hope this is the start of a series because I want to know more and travel with these characters.
In any case I look forward to reading other stories by this writer.
It was an excellent read, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
lilreaderclauds's review against another edition
2.0
It’s not very often that I stop reading a book... I like to finish what I start. But for a story that contains such exciting and well written sci-fi concepts, I have never been more bored. I simply couldn’t get myself to finish.
The writing is great. World-building and descriptions abound. But that’s literally all this book is. I have officially stopped reading at page 239/291 because literally NOTHING has happened in this book. I’m not sure where the hell the climax is, but it’s taken me way too much effort to even get to this point at all. I’ve been skimming the past 30 pages, looking for SOMETHING. Some sort of character struggle? Some sort of physical struggle? Nope. This book a series of anecdotes strung together, like the author had a concept idea and no clue where he wanted to go with it.
I recognize that I didn’t finish this book— and I’m assuming the point of the story in those last 50 unread pages. But this was just too painful. You’d think with 90% of the book being background and set-up, the characters would at least be... dynamic and developed? But somehow even that didn’t happen. Adem’s character can be summed up into two words: self-conscious do-gooder. He’s flat as hell, and has no negative qualities (besides being annoyingly BORING). Hisako is definitely more developed because we see her grow up, but her apathy and overall “I don’t care about anything” attitude gets old really quick. For the amount of time the author spent on story set up, I would at least expect these characters to have more substance.
The story’s back-cover summary is also the most inaccurate, misleading summary I have ever read. “Sparks fly when Adem and Hisako meet” ????? WHERE??? This could not be FURTHER from the truth. There is no chemistry what-so-ever between these two characters. They are uninterested when they meet, and remain uninterested for what I have read. I can only imagine this was put on the back cover because there was simply nothing else to say about this book, since again: nothing happens.
You can’t just omit plot from your book. I am upset that I spent money on this.
The writing is great. World-building and descriptions abound. But that’s literally all this book is. I have officially stopped reading at page 239/291 because literally NOTHING has happened in this book. I’m not sure where the hell the climax is, but it’s taken me way too much effort to even get to this point at all. I’ve been skimming the past 30 pages, looking for SOMETHING. Some sort of character struggle? Some sort of physical struggle? Nope. This book a series of anecdotes strung together, like the author had a concept idea and no clue where he wanted to go with it.
I recognize that I didn’t finish this book— and I’m assuming the point of the story in those last 50 unread pages. But this was just too painful. You’d think with 90% of the book being background and set-up, the characters would at least be... dynamic and developed? But somehow even that didn’t happen. Adem’s character can be summed up into two words: self-conscious do-gooder. He’s flat as hell, and has no negative qualities (besides being annoyingly BORING). Hisako is definitely more developed because we see her grow up, but her apathy and overall “I don’t care about anything” attitude gets old really quick. For the amount of time the author spent on story set up, I would at least expect these characters to have more substance.
The story’s back-cover summary is also the most inaccurate, misleading summary I have ever read. “Sparks fly when Adem and Hisako meet” ????? WHERE??? This could not be FURTHER from the truth. There is no chemistry what-so-ever between these two characters. They are uninterested when they meet, and remain uninterested for what I have read. I can only imagine this was put on the back cover because there was simply nothing else to say about this book, since again: nothing happens.
You can’t just omit plot from your book. I am upset that I spent money on this.
caitsidhe's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, Grief, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty
thesffreader's review
4.0
Review first published on The Curious SFF Reader
Set in a future where humankind left a dying Earth to reach the stars, The Light Years follows Hisako Saski and Adem Sadiq, two people forced to marry to fulfill the wishes of their respective families.
The Sadiq own The Haji, a sub-light ship used to carry goods between planet. While this ship is very valuable, it’s getting old and the family cannot afford to lose it. The captain has a plan to transform it by using the remains of a warship powered by a lost technology. To do so, she needs the help of a physic scientist well-versed in the subject.
Hasiko Saski’s parents decided she was going to marry into the Sadiq family before she was born. This alliance is the only way for her to have a good education and a relative peaceful life on Freedom, a planet that is slowly yet surely succumbing to a civil war.
Hisako learns about the arranged marriage as a child and she’s definitely not pleased about it. Especially because one of the requirements is that she must obtain a PhD in United America- a long lost civilization- physics.
I didn’t expect this book to be what it was. With the synopsis, I thought it was going to be a kind of enemies to lovers’ space romance with a bit of political maneuvering thrown into the mix. It wasn’t, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the story. On the contrary, I was pleasantly surprised to read a fascinating story following two protagonists trying to live their best life in a world that is falling apart.
The worldbuilding was wonderful. Basically, in this future, if you’re not wealthy enough, you cannot have children. If you still decide to have children, you have to either abandon them in the street, indenture yourself to buy the right to keep them or, legally bind them to a company or a family.
In the case of Hisako, a marriage contract was the only solution for her parents to provide her with a good life – food, a home outside of the refugee camp of Freedom and education. The only requirement of the contract was that she spent 2 years working on the ship.
This book follows each character and we get to see how they experience time and life very differently. The story starts with Adem visiting Freedom to sign the marriage contract when Hisako isn’t even born. He then returns on the Haji to continue his work on the trade ship. The Haji is traveling almost at the speed of light so while he is traveling from planet to planet, his relative time is not moving at the same rate as Hisako’s. Which means that for the first part of the book, we follow Hisako’s first 24 years of life, which represents only a couple of months for Adem.
It created a very interesting dynamic: the two characters have very different approaches to the arranged marriage and we get to see how they deal with it in their own way and for different lengths of time.
I also really enjoying discovering the reasons for this unlikely alliance and how business-like it was for Adem’s family. At the same time, I feel like I wanted the two characters to get along because I could feel like I knew them so well. However, I could definitely understand the frustration each party had for one another, especially when they first meet.
I just have to reiterate that this is not a romance story, I think the blurb is pretty misleading, it’s not lying per say but if you decided to pick up the book because of that, you might feel deprived from what you wanted. I didn’t mind because this book had a lot of elements that I found fascinating. It was however, definitely slow and character-driven. The plot is not groundbreaking and not a lot of things happen.
I didn’t find it boring at all because I had way too much fun learning about the world and the characters but I think it’s worth mentioning. For me, it shares a lot of similar traits to A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. To be honest, I actually liked this more than Chambers’s works because the structure and the themes explored in this book were more interesting to me.
If you are looking for a quiet science fiction story with two interesting characters who are just two good human beings trying their best, I would definitely recommend The Light Years. I hope Greene will write other books or stories set in this world because I will be reading them.
Four stars.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Angry Robot. All opinions are my own.
Set in a future where humankind left a dying Earth to reach the stars, The Light Years follows Hisako Saski and Adem Sadiq, two people forced to marry to fulfill the wishes of their respective families.
The Sadiq own The Haji, a sub-light ship used to carry goods between planet. While this ship is very valuable, it’s getting old and the family cannot afford to lose it. The captain has a plan to transform it by using the remains of a warship powered by a lost technology. To do so, she needs the help of a physic scientist well-versed in the subject.
Hasiko Saski’s parents decided she was going to marry into the Sadiq family before she was born. This alliance is the only way for her to have a good education and a relative peaceful life on Freedom, a planet that is slowly yet surely succumbing to a civil war.
Hisako learns about the arranged marriage as a child and she’s definitely not pleased about it. Especially because one of the requirements is that she must obtain a PhD in United America- a long lost civilization- physics.
I didn’t expect this book to be what it was. With the synopsis, I thought it was going to be a kind of enemies to lovers’ space romance with a bit of political maneuvering thrown into the mix. It wasn’t, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the story. On the contrary, I was pleasantly surprised to read a fascinating story following two protagonists trying to live their best life in a world that is falling apart.
The worldbuilding was wonderful. Basically, in this future, if you’re not wealthy enough, you cannot have children. If you still decide to have children, you have to either abandon them in the street, indenture yourself to buy the right to keep them or, legally bind them to a company or a family.
In the case of Hisako, a marriage contract was the only solution for her parents to provide her with a good life – food, a home outside of the refugee camp of Freedom and education. The only requirement of the contract was that she spent 2 years working on the ship.
This book follows each character and we get to see how they experience time and life very differently. The story starts with Adem visiting Freedom to sign the marriage contract when Hisako isn’t even born. He then returns on the Haji to continue his work on the trade ship. The Haji is traveling almost at the speed of light so while he is traveling from planet to planet, his relative time is not moving at the same rate as Hisako’s. Which means that for the first part of the book, we follow Hisako’s first 24 years of life, which represents only a couple of months for Adem.
It created a very interesting dynamic: the two characters have very different approaches to the arranged marriage and we get to see how they deal with it in their own way and for different lengths of time.
I also really enjoying discovering the reasons for this unlikely alliance and how business-like it was for Adem’s family. At the same time, I feel like I wanted the two characters to get along because I could feel like I knew them so well. However, I could definitely understand the frustration each party had for one another, especially when they first meet.
I just have to reiterate that this is not a romance story, I think the blurb is pretty misleading, it’s not lying per say but if you decided to pick up the book because of that, you might feel deprived from what you wanted. I didn’t mind because this book had a lot of elements that I found fascinating. It was however, definitely slow and character-driven. The plot is not groundbreaking and not a lot of things happen.
I didn’t find it boring at all because I had way too much fun learning about the world and the characters but I think it’s worth mentioning. For me, it shares a lot of similar traits to A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. To be honest, I actually liked this more than Chambers’s works because the structure and the themes explored in this book were more interesting to me.
If you are looking for a quiet science fiction story with two interesting characters who are just two good human beings trying their best, I would definitely recommend The Light Years. I hope Greene will write other books or stories set in this world because I will be reading them.
Four stars.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Angry Robot. All opinions are my own.