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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Thought the cover looked cool but this book sucked
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I went into this book completely blind and really anjoyed it for what it was - a locked-door murder in space. Quick read, fun characters, but the mystery left some things to be desired.
To me, the reveal is an essential part of any thriller/mystery. It's meant to be what makes the whole book make sense, it's when you get to appreciate the clues the author dropped along the way. So.. when the twist involves introducting an entirely new character, from a completely new location, who has nothing directly to do with the story thus far. Well, it's just disappointing. It feels like the author didn't know how to tie up their own story, which is such a shame because their solution was a really cool idea, and opened up a very interesting discussion regarding autonomy and AI. I just think we could've explored this as a separate character, and not as the big twist.
I really liked all the characters though, they were super cool.
To me, the reveal is an essential part of any thriller/mystery. It's meant to be what makes the whole book make sense, it's when you get to appreciate the clues the author dropped along the way. So..
I really liked all the characters though, they were super cool.
A very nice slice of a story that sketches out a much bigger world I’d love to see explored. Particularly liked the idea of a post climate change rather that overlaps with humans being able to travel and settle many places in space. The result is a much more fragmented political and ideological overlay to different groups of space travelers then you see on say Star Trek.
The ideas about how AI will function in society were also very cool.
I also liked the character of Shell Campion generally and her ending particularly.
The ideas about how AI will function in society were also very cool.
I also liked the character of Shell Campion generally and her ending particularly.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Sci-fi whodunnits are a subgenre I constantly wish we had more of, although I wouldn't really call this a whodunnit. A locker-room murder mystery, yes, but not in the traditional format of having all the suspects together in the same space and trying to figure out which one of them did it.
Quite original with interesting political undertones.
Quite original with interesting political undertones.
On a routine run the starship Ragtime, transporting thousands of colonists to the Lagos system is interrupted by the ship AI. On waking Captain Campion discovers that many of the colonists are dead, much of the computing function is disabled and there’s an artificially grown wolf on the prowl.
Tade Thompson lets his deep-space writing out of the box in this riot of the book. Deepsleep, frontier worlds, robot companions, psycho AIs, the broken antenna and multi-planetary corporations are just some of the tropes Thompson sends spinning through the void.
In the afterword Thompson says that he was influenced by Poe and the locked-room mystery. Early on this gives him some difficulty getting all the pieces onto the board. But once the detectives, suspects and victims are on board and chasing each other round the starship as its orbit degrades around them Thompson’s genre mashup has a vibrant pulpy energy. His afrofuturism is perhaps not as much as to the fore in earlier work, but this is still an engaging and fresh spin on interplanetary politics, crime and capitalism.
Review copy provided by Netgalley.
Tade Thompson lets his deep-space writing out of the box in this riot of the book. Deepsleep, frontier worlds, robot companions, psycho AIs, the broken antenna and multi-planetary corporations are just some of the tropes Thompson sends spinning through the void.
In the afterword Thompson says that he was influenced by Poe and the locked-room mystery. Early on this gives him some difficulty getting all the pieces onto the board. But once the detectives, suspects and victims are on board and chasing each other round the starship as its orbit degrades around them Thompson’s genre mashup has a vibrant pulpy energy. His afrofuturism is perhaps not as much as to the fore in earlier work, but this is still an engaging and fresh spin on interplanetary politics, crime and capitalism.
Review copy provided by Netgalley.
medium-paced
Synd på ett snyggt koncept!
Dispositionen, alltså:
Thompson har mycket på gång här: intressanta karaktärer, fint (och alldeles lagom) världbygge, cool framtidsteknik blandad med uråldriga seder och konflikter, ett mysterium...
... som förstörs av dispositionen.
För mer än halvvägs in i boken, när jag börjat tveka lite på om jag kommer få klura ut något tillfredsställande svar på saker och ting, klampar avslöjandet in med buller och brak - helt frikopplat från resten av historien, och därmed med noll chans att kännas det minsta avslöjande eller tillfredsställande.
Han kör visserligen på ett tag efteråt också, där ett vanligt rymdäventyr hade tagit slut, för att liksom i efterhand tejpa ihop det hela.
Hade han bara klippt och klistrat lite bättre: introducerat vissa trådar lite tidigare, hade jag nog verkligen gillat detta.
Nu blir det avslaget, utan ordentlig poäng.
(Men jag gillade alien:sen. Och vargen, såklart.)
Dispositionen, alltså:
Thompson har mycket på gång här: intressanta karaktärer, fint (och alldeles lagom) världbygge, cool framtidsteknik blandad med uråldriga seder och konflikter, ett mysterium...
... som förstörs av dispositionen.
För mer än halvvägs in i boken, när jag börjat tveka lite på om jag kommer få klura ut något tillfredsställande svar på saker och ting, klampar avslöjandet in med buller och brak - helt frikopplat från resten av historien, och därmed med noll chans att kännas det minsta avslöjande eller tillfredsställande.
Han kör visserligen på ett tag efteråt också, där ett vanligt rymdäventyr hade tagit slut, för att liksom i efterhand tejpa ihop det hela.
Hade han bara klippt och klistrat lite bättre: introducerat vissa trådar lite tidigare, hade jag nog verkligen gillat detta.
Nu blir det avslaget, utan ordentlig poäng.
(Men jag gillade alien:sen. Och vargen, såklart.)
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes