Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson

2 reviews

laurareads87's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Ooh I quite liked this! This novella follows the first team to utilize time travel technology for the purpose of a survey of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in service of ecological restoration. It is 2267, and humans live in either 'habs' - contructed habitats on the earth's surface - or underground, having survived environmental devastation. The team are assured by the company holding access to the technology that time travel to the past does not impact the present/future, and so ethical concerns are frequently dismissed. There is a lot of interesting world-building here: from the network of banks and other financial interests with massively disproportionate impact on who pursues which kinds of projects, to the intergenerational differences between those who lived through the worst of ecological catastrophe and those who came after, to the ways that individuals exercise bodily autonomy to the degree of being able to alter their own endocrine systems at will, this little novella covers a lot of ground and includes interesting analysis of ecological distress and the possibilities for change. I also liked the diverse cast of characters and character development overall. I'm happy to hear there is a sequel in the works!

Content Warnings

trikzon's review

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sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Using time travel to fix the disastrous effects of climate change? Awesome, right? Wrong.

I wanted to love this book, but it was a disappointing read to me. The plot wasn't well defined, the characters weren't easy to attach to, and there was no character development.

World Building / Setting

I'll start with the good: This book uses amazing ideas of "eco-tech" that I loved to see. It is based in a world where some people want to cultivate the Earth's surface once again after the apocalypse. It explores body modification technology such as octopus legs and medical technology that allows the user to monitor their health and use stims to temporarily boost their body. The author is able to explore these ideas without using too much technical jargon making the book easily digestible.

The book also develops an interesting political world full of money-hungry bankers who are only interesting in short-term investments, a conflict between the two generations (the plague babies and the fat babies), and different companies and habs that compete economically and house cities.

However, while the setting and world building is great, the characters and plot are very very lacking. And as Brandon Sanderson has said in his fiction writing lectures, setting is the least important aspect to a good story.

Characters

This book follows the main character Minh, a 70-ish year old plague baby who has an octopus leg modification. I've never read a book with such and old protagonist, and it's interesting. There are three other characters who are in on the journey. The largest problem is, while their personalities are different, they are mostly constrained to a single archetype each that they are given when they're first introduced. Minh is old and annoyed. Kiki is young, inexperienced, but determined. Hamid likes animals and doesn't take things seriously. Fabian has an ego and won't let that down. Absolutely no character development happens in the entire book

Kiki was my favorite character in the book. Her interactions with Minh and her curiosity was great. However,

in the middle of the book Minh and Kiki stop talking over a fight. The thing is, it didn't really make sense. Later Kiki gets mad at Fabian for his attitude towards killing past people, but that's exactly what started the disagreement between Kiki and Minh. If anything, Kiki should have stayed with Minh.

Plot

The book's plot is what killed this book for me. It has none. Or rather, very little. Sure, the book follows a crew back in time to survey the land for research purposes. But there is no overall conflict! No real problem to solve. The closest thing to a overall conflict is the passages of the fight between the crew and a past people's king. There's no motivation for the characters to do anything other than what their job is.

Finally, the book ends poorly. Maybe the ending is OK for some readers, but for me I want a happy ending. This ending is quick and disappointingly unexpected. When the final fight takes place you wonder to youself, "How will the crew get out of this alive? What sacrifices will they have to make?"

Oh... they don't come out safe? They're stuck in the past? The book ends there?

The ending is disappointing.

Final Remarks

The ending of this book reads like there will be a sequel. However, there isn't one as of right now. I don't know if the author plans on writing one, but I'll say this. The world building is fantastic. That's the only thing that kept me going and it did well. I hope that Kelly Robson writes a sequel to this novella in the future, hopefully with a better plot and character development. If she does, I will 100% try the book on for size.

Content Warnings

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