Reviews - Antimatter Blues

1k reviews for:

Antimatter Blues

Edward Ashton

3.84 AVERAGE

breezyjean's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous funny reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

giouxsie's review against another edition

3.0

The plot of the second half of this second book is really strong, expanding on an interesting concept from the first in a way that makes this book standout distinctly from it's predecessor. But ultimately it's the same "that was pretty fun!" quality, feeling a little bit shallow in it's exploration of an interesting world and concept, with a narrative voice and dialogue that's way too MCU all the time.

However, once again, these books will make for an incredible film under Bong Joon-Ho! Between buying this book and reading it, the film has been delayed a year but I'm still very excited!

airb842586's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous funny hopeful 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: Yes

echoesofstrdst's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

antimatter blues is a great continuation of the story started in mickey 7. in this book, mickey deals with managing the alleged relationship he established with the creepers near the dome while attempting to retrieve the bubble bomb he hid in a pile of rocks- leading to an adventurous, daunting journey to get the bomb back in order to ensure the colony has enough fuel to make it through the next winter, something that won’t be possible without the return of the bomb.

i read a few books in between mickey 7 and antimatter blues, but it was extremely easy to jump right back in where the story left off. the author’s voice is remarkably similar to the first book, which makes sense because the same person wrote both books, but i was struck by the author’s voice as i started.

overall, i feel like the books started a little bit slow and then quickly picked up pace. my favorite parts of this book was the deepening lore of the world, both on niflheim and on other space colonization attempts made by the human race. learning more about the creepers, getting to see what comes alive during the warm seasons, and getting introduced to a new organism was very fun and very entertaining. i felt a serious dread as i realized the friends to the south was likely a parasite. mickey calls it a fungus and the description of the organism reminds me of the cordyceps fungus on earth. which. no thank you. terrifying.

one thing that this book had that i believe mickey 7 didn’t have to quite this extreme we’re the moral and ethical quandaries that come up when you’re in an unfamiliar and hostile environment with language and cultural differences. how do you adapt and compromise your ways of communicating and your understanding when negotiating with an alien species? who takes precedence? who should bend, and where, and how far? which promise matters more when you have made conflicting agreements? it was something that infinitely frustrated me as i read this book, especially the xenophobia that was clearly expressed by the humans regarding speaker, who i think wound up being my favorite character.

Content Warnings

bookitchewie's review against another edition

3.0

Good to see this continuation and what happens with the characters, but didn't really build as a sequel.

Half point deducted for Marshall's end, which did not feel earned at all.

samgchristopher's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

rrrebekahmay's review

4.0

adventurous challenging funny hopeful 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: No

I actually enjoyed this second instalment more than the first, even though Mickey is retired. We already know all the characters when we begin this book so I was already attached to a few of the people we follow. I think that's what really helped with my enjoyment of this.

While I enjoyed the humour in Mickey7, I thought it landed better in Antimatter Blues and I really enjoyed the interactions everyone has with the native lifeforms. I liked learning more about the world and seeing more of the terrain, and seeing more of the life on this planet. I also enjoyed the focus on a smaller group instead of the broader colony.

My main gripe with Mickey7 was that nothing really happens, which is solved in Antimatter Blues by them having a goal in mind and everything is moving towards that, so I thought the pacing was way better. Despite it taking me a while to read this because of life things, I actually flew through it every time I picked it up.

I'm, ultimately, glad I ended up picking this up even though I wasn't feeling it after finishing book one. I think I'll probably pick up more by Edward Ashton in the future now.