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brogan7's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
3.5
The story is almost beyond following. While the premise is interesting enough--a mindship returning to "deep spaces," a site of trauma in their past, a murdered girl, and a detective with strange social graces, whose history and motivations are obscure...
But then, the world De Bodard creates is so strange and so without earth references, that it's quite difficult to follow, where are they going? Why are they going there?
De Bodard has a clear vision of this alternate world, and its rules and choices, it's only unfortunate she wasn't able to communicate it more clearly.
The mindship is already a thing to get your mind around, but then the mindship keeps casting itself as an avatar (but also only sometimes)--that's when it gets really trippy in terms of trying to imagine where the characters are in the story. Is the ship a ship? Is the ship a ship projecting itself as a smaller machine to meet with its clients? Where is the ship while the avatar is meeting? When the ship travels, what is the dock it is leaving from? What does it actually look like? Now she tells us the ship is in deep space. What is that, beyond this Alice-in-Wonderland feeling of swelling and shrinking? The ship gets nauseous. I have to wonder: do ships get nauseous? Is that a thing?
By this time, I'm not in the story anymore.
But then, the world De Bodard creates is so strange and so without earth references, that it's quite difficult to follow, where are they going? Why are they going there?
De Bodard has a clear vision of this alternate world, and its rules and choices, it's only unfortunate she wasn't able to communicate it more clearly.
The mindship is already a thing to get your mind around, but then the mindship keeps casting itself as an avatar (but also only sometimes)--that's when it gets really trippy in terms of trying to imagine where the characters are in the story. Is the ship a ship? Is the ship a ship projecting itself as a smaller machine to meet with its clients? Where is the ship while the avatar is meeting? When the ship travels, what is the dock it is leaving from? What does it actually look like? Now she tells us the ship is in deep space. What is that, beyond this Alice-in-Wonderland feeling of swelling and shrinking? The ship gets nauseous. I have to wonder: do ships get nauseous? Is that a thing?
By this time, I'm not in the story anymore.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use
Moderate: Death and Mental illness
TW: trauma
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