Scan barcode
darusha's review
4.0
These two stories are about as different as chalk and cheese. So, they require two separate reviews.
The Hunt for Red Leicester is like fondue. The science fiction and mystery elements are the bread fo the tale, there to provide a solid basis for all that lovely gooey cheese. And by cheese, I mean puns. I laughed aloud at much of the wordplay (Sweet Baby Cheeses - OMG!) and they are so cleverly interwoven into the story that the actual plot would be greatly diminished by the lack of them.
Gordon Mamon, the hotel detective at the heart of this story, is a favourite character of mine for his classic detective stylings crossed with a reluctance to do any work whatsoever that rings funny and true. This caper is a terrifically complex one, which had me guessing as to how it would possibly all play out for much of the story. Fun. Very fun.
Flight 404, on the other hand, is not fun at all. A serious, rock solidly hard SF tale of fundamentalism, greed, space travel and authenticity. Charmain, the narrator, is a believable, flawed and complex character, who finds herself in her abandoned homeland in the middle of a search for a missing spaceliner. In the process, she is forced to deal with her past - the people she left behind when she left her home and the reasons she felt she could no longer stay.
On the face of it, this story is about what happens to the missing spaceship, but it's really about how the choices we make affect our futures, how we interact with the memories of people from our past, how we strive to be true to ourselves. While fundamentally a story about people, Flight 404 doesn't disappoint in the science department. Science literally solves the puzzle.
My only complaint is that the bundling of these two stories is a bit odd. I certainly loved both, but many people who would enjoy one might not find the other to their taste.
The Hunt for Red Leicester is like fondue. The science fiction and mystery elements are the bread fo the tale, there to provide a solid basis for all that lovely gooey cheese. And by cheese, I mean puns. I laughed aloud at much of the wordplay (Sweet Baby Cheeses - OMG!) and they are so cleverly interwoven into the story that the actual plot would be greatly diminished by the lack of them.
Gordon Mamon, the hotel detective at the heart of this story, is a favourite character of mine for his classic detective stylings crossed with a reluctance to do any work whatsoever that rings funny and true. This caper is a terrifically complex one, which had me guessing as to how it would possibly all play out for much of the story. Fun. Very fun.
Flight 404, on the other hand, is not fun at all. A serious, rock solidly hard SF tale of fundamentalism, greed, space travel and authenticity. Charmain, the narrator, is a believable, flawed and complex character, who finds herself in her abandoned homeland in the middle of a search for a missing spaceliner. In the process, she is forced to deal with her past - the people she left behind when she left her home and the reasons she felt she could no longer stay.
On the face of it, this story is about what happens to the missing spaceship, but it's really about how the choices we make affect our futures, how we interact with the memories of people from our past, how we strive to be true to ourselves. While fundamentally a story about people, Flight 404 doesn't disappoint in the science department. Science literally solves the puzzle.
My only complaint is that the bundling of these two stories is a bit odd. I certainly loved both, but many people who would enjoy one might not find the other to their taste.
tsana's review
5.0
Flight 404 by Simon Petrie is a science fictional novella set in the mid-distant future with interplanetary travel possible but not as common and easy as an intercontinental flight now.
The main character, Charmain, is piloting a small ship, one of many sent to investigate and search for the remains of a large, missing passenger liner. The main action of the plot deals with the search for the liner, both Charmain's and others' and the mystery surrounding its disappearance.
We are also treated to a lot of Charmain's backstory. It turns out that Charmain has more of a personal stake in the missing liner than she realised at the outset. And furthermore, her life as a trans person in a conservative society (before she left to become a pilot) wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs. The backstory elements blend well with the main story, particularly since the Epsilon Eridani system where the missing liner is thought to be, contains the planet of her birth.
I enjoyed both the story and the physics in Flight 404. My long-time followers will probably be aware that scientific plausibility is very important to me. There were no gaffes, which made me happy and which is just as well since Petrie works, when not writing speculative fiction, in computational quantum chemistry. It was also nice to see non-trivial sociological issues — Charmain's gender identity — tackled in a hard science fictional setting. (I've seen Bujold do similar, but I don't think it's otherwise very common.)
In my edition of Flight 404 (purchased as a standalone novella from the publisher), there was also a bonus (reprint) story, "Broadwings", about a family living on Titan and the difficulties of doing so. Also enjoyable.
Flight 404 was an excellent read and I highly recommend it to all fans of science fiction. I will definitely be searching out more of Petrie's work in the future.
4.5 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
The main character, Charmain, is piloting a small ship, one of many sent to investigate and search for the remains of a large, missing passenger liner. The main action of the plot deals with the search for the liner, both Charmain's and others' and the mystery surrounding its disappearance.
We are also treated to a lot of Charmain's backstory. It turns out that Charmain has more of a personal stake in the missing liner than she realised at the outset. And furthermore, her life as a trans person in a conservative society (before she left to become a pilot) wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs. The backstory elements blend well with the main story, particularly since the Epsilon Eridani system where the missing liner is thought to be, contains the planet of her birth.
I enjoyed both the story and the physics in Flight 404. My long-time followers will probably be aware that scientific plausibility is very important to me. There were no gaffes, which made me happy and which is just as well since Petrie works, when not writing speculative fiction, in computational quantum chemistry. It was also nice to see non-trivial sociological issues — Charmain's gender identity — tackled in a hard science fictional setting. (I've seen Bujold do similar, but I don't think it's otherwise very common.)
In my edition of Flight 404 (purchased as a standalone novella from the publisher), there was also a bonus (reprint) story, "Broadwings", about a family living on Titan and the difficulties of doing so. Also enjoyable.
Flight 404 was an excellent read and I highly recommend it to all fans of science fiction. I will definitely be searching out more of Petrie's work in the future.
4.5 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
More...