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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think that this book took a little too long to get going. I didn’t care for all the Pov’s in this book. Once you finish the book the Pov’s make sense but compared to the last book I definitely liked this book less. I’m interested to see what happens next. It sounds like it will now focus more on the conflict between Earth and Mars.
- Dang “Miller” has been with Holden for two years now!
- Basia son was one of the kids who died from Caliban's War. He is angry that Holden was able to rescue Mei but not his son. Understandable but his solution isn’t going to make things any better.
- Holden coming in to play mediator on Ilus. His discussion with “Miller”. Even though it isn’t Miller I still like him.
- Deadly Slugs and Eye Flora that makes you go blind. Sounds like a planet I want to visit!
- Holden is the lucky person to not be impacted by the blindness. All because he has had way too much radiation! Dito! Good thing he had been taking those meds
- Havelock is back! I wondered if he would show up. Him changing sides and helping Naomi back to the Roci.
- Alien/Insectoid/Robot Miller! So funny that it continues to use Miller voice. Him helping Holden turn off all the alien artifacts on the planet.
- Was a little confused exactly what happened with Miller and Elvi in the eye. It sounds like Miller is now really gone but I’m not exactly sure.
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The sci-fi western is such a suprisingly complimentary fusion of ideas, ‘The man with no name’ taming the new frontier, the firm hand of a patriach bringing order to a new home. It's a dangerous reinterpretation of history, generously dividing the colonisers into cruel and kind oppressors, defining morality depending on the situation, justifying their actions as righteous by making an argument for lesser evil. It is a manipulative, false narrative, but that does not necessarily make it a lie.
The Cowboy is a transplant bringing as much disease to the new land as he does medicine, regardless of the mask he wears while doing so. He is the shepherd, and the natives, who speak a different language, worship a different God and live under a different rule of law are in need of guidance, he 'selflessly' takes up the mantle,the saviour with the belief that his language, his body of knowledge is more robust, his God is more righteous and his law is all encompassing. He imposes his will, killing the villain and casting himself as hero, bedding the savage and leading her people into the new world of brick and mortar eerily similar to his old one. The colonizer is the eternal protagonist and the land itself antagonistic in his personal tale of triumph, the nation pillaged, raped, divided and conquered either from without or within, but conquered no matter what.
S. A. Corey adopts this European and American tradition of story telling very aware of the unresolved flaws of the text, the false moral duality and the othering, erasure of those found living on this ‘newly discovered’ land. He casts a psychopath Murtry as the neo-colonizer, swapping empire with corporation, the belters as the natives fighting for the only land they've ever called their own, and Holden as the ‘man with no name’ dealing out what he deems as justice and though genuinely hoping for the best, watching as the consequences of his and the Murtry's actions innevitably fall to the natives, the collateral, the innevitable cost of ‘civilisation’.
A brilliant study in the fragility of civilisation and what happens when we simply ignore, or worse, remake the rules that govern us to suit whatever situation we find ourselves in. Bravo.
adventurous
challenging
funny
tense
slow-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:
Complicated
Still fun to be with the characters but the protomolecule elements of the plot are in danger of verging into the ridiculous.