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dogfood's review
2.0
Der US-Journalist Andrew Liptak gibt in seinem Newsletter über Science Fiction, regelmäßig einen Überblick über Neuerscheinungen des kommenden Monats. In dem Zitat einer Vorabkritik eines Buchmagazins hieß es zum Roman „Oyebanji builds intrigue upon intrigue through the novel’s first half and pays off the suspense with a series of jaw-dropping revelations. Innovative worldbuilding, a plot packed with surprises, and Oyebanji’s nuanced exploration of social and cultural shifts make this a must-read for space opera fans.“
Derart angespitzt, erwarb ich das Buch… und las… wartete … las weiter … wartete … quälte mich durch … und dann war das Buch zu Ende.
Das Set-Up klang viel versprechend. Mehrere zehntausend Menschen beschließen die von Künstlicher Intelligenz dominierte Erde zu verlassen, um in einem anderen Sonnensystem eine neue Zivilisation zu gründen. Dazu wurden drei „Generationen-Schiffe“ gebaut und gestartet. Nach sieben Generationen bzw ca. 130 Jahren, ist man fast am Zielplaneten angekommen. In ein paar Tagen steht der „Braking Day“ an, der Tag an dem die drei Schiffe um 180 Grad wenden, um ihre Triebwerke als Bremstriebwerke einzusetzen.
Hauptfigur des Romans ist Ravi Macleod, ein junger Maschinist in Ausbildung (sowas wie „dualer Student“). Während Arbeiten nahe der Außenhülle der „Archimedes“, sieht er eine Frau ohne Raumanzug im Weltraum schweben. Es wird immer deutlicher dass es sich um Visionen handelt, die auch seine Träume dominieren. Es scheint, als würde irgendwas mit ihm kommunizieren wollen…
Die besten Momente hat das Buch, wenn es sich um World Building kümmert. Wie sieht so ein Generationsschiff aus. Was macht so ein Flug über sieben Generationen mit den Menschen.
Der Plot, der dann aber daraus entsteht, entpuppt sich als zunehmend simpel gestrickt und das macht das Buch zunehmend freudloser.
Es zeigt sich zuerst an den Handlungsträger|innen im Buch. Abgesehen von der initialen Charakterbeschreibung, ist kaum klar, wie sie ticken, was sie antreibt und warum sie so geworden sind, wie sie geworden sind. Auch wenn die Figuren durchaus unterschiedlich klingen, scheinen sie alle aus der gleichen DNA-Suppe zu stammen.
Dieses fehlende „warum ist es so, wie es ist“ breitet sich dann von den Charakteren auch auf den Plot aus. Die Motivation der beiden Hauptkonflikte im Roman hat die Fallhöhe eines unterdurchschnittlichen Derrick-Krimis und ist komplett unglaubwürdig. Es ist leider noch nicht einmal „crazy“-unglaubwürdig, sondern „ich habe gerade 400 Seiten gelesen und man serviert mir diese Fürze als Auslöser für die Handlung? Srsly?“-unglaubwürdig.
Schade, schade, schade. Denn das World Building, bzw, die Ideen dahinter, waren vielversprechend, wenn auch teilweise plump rübergebracht.
Daher nur 2 von 5 Sternen.
Derart angespitzt, erwarb ich das Buch… und las… wartete … las weiter … wartete … quälte mich durch … und dann war das Buch zu Ende.
Das Set-Up klang viel versprechend. Mehrere zehntausend Menschen beschließen die von Künstlicher Intelligenz dominierte Erde zu verlassen, um in einem anderen Sonnensystem eine neue Zivilisation zu gründen. Dazu wurden drei „Generationen-Schiffe“ gebaut und gestartet. Nach sieben Generationen bzw ca. 130 Jahren, ist man fast am Zielplaneten angekommen. In ein paar Tagen steht der „Braking Day“ an, der Tag an dem die drei Schiffe um 180 Grad wenden, um ihre Triebwerke als Bremstriebwerke einzusetzen.
Hauptfigur des Romans ist Ravi Macleod, ein junger Maschinist in Ausbildung (sowas wie „dualer Student“). Während Arbeiten nahe der Außenhülle der „Archimedes“, sieht er eine Frau ohne Raumanzug im Weltraum schweben. Es wird immer deutlicher dass es sich um Visionen handelt, die auch seine Träume dominieren. Es scheint, als würde irgendwas mit ihm kommunizieren wollen…
Die besten Momente hat das Buch, wenn es sich um World Building kümmert. Wie sieht so ein Generationsschiff aus. Was macht so ein Flug über sieben Generationen mit den Menschen.
Der Plot, der dann aber daraus entsteht, entpuppt sich als zunehmend simpel gestrickt und das macht das Buch zunehmend freudloser.
Es zeigt sich zuerst an den Handlungsträger|innen im Buch. Abgesehen von der initialen Charakterbeschreibung, ist kaum klar, wie sie ticken, was sie antreibt und warum sie so geworden sind, wie sie geworden sind. Auch wenn die Figuren durchaus unterschiedlich klingen, scheinen sie alle aus der gleichen DNA-Suppe zu stammen.
Dieses fehlende „warum ist es so, wie es ist“ breitet sich dann von den Charakteren auch auf den Plot aus. Die Motivation der beiden Hauptkonflikte im Roman hat die Fallhöhe eines unterdurchschnittlichen Derrick-Krimis und ist komplett unglaubwürdig. Es ist leider noch nicht einmal „crazy“-unglaubwürdig, sondern „ich habe gerade 400 Seiten gelesen und man serviert mir diese Fürze als Auslöser für die Handlung? Srsly?“-unglaubwürdig.
Schade, schade, schade. Denn das World Building, bzw, die Ideen dahinter, waren vielversprechend, wenn auch teilweise plump rübergebracht.
Daher nur 2 von 5 Sternen.
branch_c's review
4.0
Despite the conceptual setup that could have made for predictable plot, this was an engaging book from beginning to end.
Ravi and Boz are a well-paired set of protagonists, different enough to constantly play one off the other, and the addition of Lisette makes a nice complement. Would have liked to see more in depth depictions of the AI characters, especially Ishbel and Kur, but it’s understandable that they’re more peripheral.
The setting is expertly drawn and almost entirely believable, with technical, environmental, and social constructs that exude realism and attention to detail. The only aspect that bothered me a bit was the concealment of critical pieces of history, but even this is all too credible, and of course it was necessary for the intrigue and mystery for the characters to work through.
A solidly enjoyable story; great pace and plenty of surprises.
Ravi and Boz are a well-paired set of protagonists, different enough to constantly play one off the other, and the addition of Lisette makes a nice complement. Would have liked to see more in depth depictions of the AI characters, especially Ishbel and Kur, but it’s understandable that they’re more peripheral.
The setting is expertly drawn and almost entirely believable, with technical, environmental, and social constructs that exude realism and attention to detail. The only aspect that bothered me a bit was the concealment of critical pieces of history, but even this is all too credible, and of course it was necessary for the intrigue and mystery for the characters to work through.
A solidly enjoyable story; great pace and plenty of surprises.
chrumczok's review
4.0
It is the first generation spaceship travel book (apparently it is a whole genera??) I have read. I liked it. Sooo much technobabble, but it was written well enough for me to buy it. Most of stuff fell into place in the end, which was very satisfying, except for his vomiting in 0g. Did it have any influence on the plot? Or even character development?
gracieknowles's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-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? Yes
4.75
danhinderliter's review
5.0
Really good alt-future space sci-fi. The world building was awesome, visualizations compelling, and action exciting. Really liked the characters, especially Boz. Probably best contemporary sci-fi I've read since Project Hail Mary.
lubena's review
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-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? No
4.25
archergal's review against another edition
4.0
Well, this was fun! I was thoroughly engaged with the story pretty much the whole time!
I kept thinking it reminded me of in some ways of some of the Heinlein juveniles I read Back In The Day. There's Ravi, a plucky young cadet and his genius hacker cousin Boz. They both come from the MacLeod family. The family is notable for being rather disreputable, and maybe generally bad actors. But Ravi has made it into officer training, and MAY have a chance to move out of his relatively lowly status. That is, if the other officers let him!
Story takes place on a generation starship heading to Tau Ceti. They're getting REALLY close, and it's almost time to brake to go into orbit in the system. But there are factions in the fleet that think that MAYBE taking over a new planet might be a sort of ecological crime. And there seems to be something else out there in the space between the ships.
There's very little angst or darkness here, on the whole. It's an adventure story, and a pretty good one! I liked it a lot.
I kept thinking it reminded me of in some ways of some of the Heinlein juveniles I read Back In The Day. There's Ravi, a plucky young cadet and his genius hacker cousin Boz. They both come from the MacLeod family. The family is notable for being rather disreputable, and maybe generally bad actors. But Ravi has made it into officer training, and MAY have a chance to move out of his relatively lowly status. That is, if the other officers let him!
Story takes place on a generation starship heading to Tau Ceti. They're getting REALLY close, and it's almost time to brake to go into orbit in the system. But there are factions in the fleet that think that MAYBE taking over a new planet might be a sort of ecological crime. And there seems to be something else out there in the space between the ships.
There's very little angst or darkness here, on the whole. It's an adventure story, and a pretty good one! I liked it a lot.
jhouses's review
3.0
Para ser un libro fundamentalmente juvenil (o YA que es más técnico) con sus insultos inventados y sus protagonistas jóvenes y estudiantes, me ha resultado bastante entretenido. Tiene un universo bien construido y una trama interesante y bien desarrollada. Se hace un poco largo hacia el final pero para ser una primera obra (quizá segunda) está muy conseguido.
chromatick's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars
This was a pretty good book. It's a generation ship story that really only focuses on the last/most current generation as they are about to make planetfall.
There is some decent world-building, although nothing too spectacular. There are references to things that happened in previous generations, but not a whole lot of time is spent on that.
The main characters are interesting enough, and the twist in the third act is pretty cool.
While the book didn't wow me, I did enjoy the story and I'm happy to have read it.
This was a pretty good book. It's a generation ship story that really only focuses on the last/most current generation as they are about to make planetfall.
There is some decent world-building, although nothing too spectacular. There are references to things that happened in previous generations, but not a whole lot of time is spent on that.
The main characters are interesting enough, and the twist in the third act is pretty cool.
While the book didn't wow me, I did enjoy the story and I'm happy to have read it.
bhawargi's review
4.25
This is the first debut book that I'm rating this highly. The world is intense, rich and full. It feels methodically written - perfectly captures the essence of what life on a generational, star-bound ship would feel like. The concepts of interacting with the world around through "code" was fascinating(something I wish I could do in the real world.) It did start off to slip in the second half and the end feels kinda inconclusive.
Summary: We follow the story of Engineer trainee Ravinder, a descendant of the low standing family line of the Macleods. He imagines seeing a girl in hard vacuum without a suit. She keeps trying to warn him but he isn't able to make much of it. That is until his condition progresses. When Ravi's hallucinations become verbose, we learn of the existence of a fourth ship (Newton) that launched simultaneously with the first three (Archimedes, Bohr & Chandrashekar). This newly discovered ship belongs to an opposing faction of humanity, who have been supportive of LOKIs (AIs of a sort) but against human augmentations and hence named Human Heritage. Due to a plague which broke out shortly after launch, most of its population has been decimated and vengeful about having been damned by the other 3 ships. They are preparing for and plan on blowing up the fleet when transponders and drives go online on Braking day.
Enter the imaginary girl, Lisette Ansimov, who is from a peace loving sub-faction within the Human-heritage. She manages to hack into Ravi's cybernetic implants and communicates a plan to stop the war. The plan is convert the dragons (a fleet of 9 warships LOKIs) to elevate themselves to peacekeeper position by threatening both Newton and the 3-ship fleet. There is some minor drama about a bomb on the drives but that is averted in a chapter