Reviews

Singer Distance by Ethan Chatagnier

jess_vineberg's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

vurawnica's review

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

larry_yonce's review

4.0

Philosophical fun on the nature and meaning of distance. Not just physical and mathematical distance, but the psychological distance that can keep us from connecting to ourselves and others...even from those we love. Add in the existence of intelligent life on Mars, and the stakes become even higher. How do humans communicate across time and space with an alien culture? How to bridge the distance? And at what costs?

hanusia's review

inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

I read this book on Bobby Finger’s recommendation (the Wholigans know) and it got me in the best way. It’s not perfect, but I loved it. 
The premise is out of this world, literally and also in that it blew me away (to use another metaphor). To quote my girlfriend summarizing it back to me after I described the setup, “Mars aliens talked to us in 1890 until they realized we were idiots at math.” Who doesn’t love that!
Singer Distance reminded me of the works of both John and Hank Green, and I mean that as a value neutral statement. But, like, a mild man chases the elusive genius girl of his dreams…who’s talking math to aliens? This is a third Vlogbrother at work. Would also recommend if you love Becky Chambers, or Arrival, either the Ted Chiang story or the Amy Adams star vehicle. 
I found the first part of the book to be the most compelling, but the mystery remaining after that point kept me reading through the, plot-wise, slow middle. The ending was both emotionally fulfilling and emotionally devastating. Would recommend!

jemimaskelley's review

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No

4.5

ok the science and math went over my head a little but as a story and character study this was perfect

yogarshi's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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

3.5

gayantagonist's review

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

christophemarois's review

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

libbyhenderson's review

5.0

"Singer Distance" by Ethan Chatagnier - a slow start, but picked up nicely. My personal connection: When I was teaching 5th grade, one of my favorite prompts to give my students was speculative fiction. "Write a story in which the earth has 2 suns and 2 moons instead of one" for example. This story seems to answer the prompt - "write about the 1960s with all the true scientific discoveries such as the moon landing, etc. but with an added fictional history of Earth having contact with humanoids on Mars."
Realistic characters with eccentricities, mental illness, and love, along with space travel and exploration, and basic science, science, science. Science written like beautiful prose or poetry. Physics, technical yet understandable. Astronomy, huge in scope, yet down-to-earth. Classic connections between science, math, and music - made to feel new and expansive. This story is truly speculative fiction and science fiction combined. It grew on me from the first few chapters (where I almost DNF the whole thing) to the last chapters where I couldn't put the book down and ended up as only my second 5-star novel of 2023.

aerovero's review

1.0

one of the worst things I've ever read. mind-numbingly slow pacing, non-sensical plot, one dimensional characters that I just could not bring myself to care one iota about. truly a horrible disappointment, the concept had potential, if only it had been written by literally anyone else in literally any other way. if you think you'll like 'Contact' + 'Arrival' + 'A Beautiful Mind' but executed in the absolute worse possible way with characters you cannot care about at all, then this is the book for you. If that doesn't sound good (it isn't) skip 'Singer Distance'.