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haddy's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
<spoilers throughout> Right okay I have so much to say about this book. Honestly feel like it could have been amazing but it just.. wasn’t?
I feel like both major storylines were enough for a book so when you have them both together it just seems like both are rushed and don’t quite fit together. when they’re talking about the games it just seems insignificant compared to this big conspiracy , but nobody seems to care about it while these fun (but also somehow super serious) games are happening?
Max seems to have either a very complicated or zero personality (sometimes she was so boring lol), it isn’t really explained how she came straight out of the academy to a higher level than everyone else, and half the time everyone is excited about how good she is at everything but then they also say she’s not ‘competition ready’ what??
The pacing also doesn’t make any sense, sometimes insignificant conversations take ages, and sometimes weeks will go by in a second.
Also the scenes that should have been really fast paced and intense just didn’t feel as exciting as they should have done, although I will say I did enjoy some of the fight scenes.
Also, they tried to make this big deal about how jinx hated max at the start and didn’t trust her, but that really didn’t come across any time they actually spoke.. And then when they inevitably became friends there wasn’t really any obvious shift in their relationship, so any character development that was supposed to occur I don’t think was shown very well.
There seemed to be little to no consistency between the importance of the games, sometimes it’s just fun with a little rivalry, sometimes it’s so important that the captain is worried that she’ll lose her job if they don’t win? But then other parts of the military don’t take them seriously at all?
The end of the games was a massive anti-climax, given that they didn’t even do the ‘big game’ in the end, it just finished with jinx’s fight.
Basically, I felt like I should have loved this book, but there wasn’t any character I particularly loved (although did like that it was so diverse, albeit there was a slight feel of tokenism at times) the fact that it was a sci-fi book without aliens was boring lol and it just dragged a bit:/
mauraplaid's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
zober's review
adventurous
lighthearted
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? Yes
4.0
Lovely queernorm world! I adore a story with good queer representation, and this book has plenty: pan/bi, lesbian, poly, ace, trans, enby, etc. Actually, the minor trans rep felt weird - a side character who was "on screen" for literally 1.5 pages was introduced as a trans woman. Why mention she's trans if it's not relevant? The character had no plot relevance, so it felt like she was just included to ~be diverse~. Hopefully she'll show up in the sequel I guess. But otherwise the representation felt natural and seamless. Great characters and world.
Could use some tighter editing, and the pacing felt sort of weird. Routinely it felt like a lot happened within a day or two and then two months pass.
The dialogue and slang felt very ... Contempory? Which seemed a bit odd for a book set in the 25th century. And technology seemed less advanced than I'd expect from jumping over 400 years into the future. But overall this was a fast read, and really enjoyable! There were multiple scenes or lines that made me laugh aloud, and multiple scenes that brought me to tears. That's not too uncommon but I still count either as a sign of a good book. I'm looking forward to the next one, and I'll likely pick up more books by Wagers.
Could use some tighter editing, and the pacing felt sort of weird. Routinely it felt like a lot happened within a day or two and then two months pass.
The dialogue and slang felt very ... Contempory? Which seemed a bit odd for a book set in the 25th century. And technology seemed less advanced than I'd expect from jumping over 400 years into the future. But overall this was a fast read, and really enjoyable! There were multiple scenes or lines that made me laugh aloud, and multiple scenes that brought me to tears. That's not too uncommon but I still count either as a sign of a good book. I'm looking forward to the next one, and I'll likely pick up more books by Wagers.
caseythecanadianlesbrarian's review
Although I'm into the found family and cozy space opera aspects of this book, I'm gonna DNF this at 50% because
- neither of the two main plots are grabbing me: I don't care about this weird Olympic-like sports competition and the author has not convinced me why it's so important in this world; the mystery is unraveling far too slowly for my liking
- Uneven pacing: the narrative seems to speed up and gloss over events that I found more interesting, and linger over scenes that aren't important
- the world-building is superficial: I appreciate that all LGBTQ+ identities are accepted full stop in the future (careful pronoun usage, lesbian, bi, ace, poly, nonbinary characters) but this science fictional world feels a bit thin. Like, there's no plausible explanation as to how this happened or why it fits in this future culture. Plus the scientists say there are no aliens?!? Boring, plus I thought this goes against contemporary scientific hypotheses?
- I know this supposedly takes place in a very different future after a collapse of humanity (very vaguely explained to my disappointment), but reading a story that is so military-focused (and implicitly, pro-military) is not something I'm willing to tolerate except under exceptional circumstances
- I accidentally spoiled myself and found out Max (asexual, biromantic?) and Jenks (bisexual/romantic) both end up with bland dudes instead of each other which makes no sense as their chemistry and emerging relationship was my favourite part of the book
- neither of the two main plots are grabbing me: I don't care about this weird Olympic-like sports competition and the author has not convinced me why it's so important in this world; the mystery is unraveling far too slowly for my liking
- Uneven pacing: the narrative seems to speed up and gloss over events that I found more interesting, and linger over scenes that aren't important
- the world-building is superficial: I appreciate that all LGBTQ+ identities are accepted full stop in the future (careful pronoun usage, lesbian, bi, ace, poly, nonbinary characters) but this science fictional world feels a bit thin. Like, there's no plausible explanation as to how this happened or why it fits in this future culture. Plus the scientists say there are no aliens?!? Boring, plus I thought this goes against contemporary scientific hypotheses?
- I know this supposedly takes place in a very different future after a collapse of humanity (very vaguely explained to my disappointment), but reading a story that is so military-focused (and implicitly, pro-military) is not something I'm willing to tolerate except under exceptional circumstances
- I accidentally spoiled myself and found out Max (asexual, biromantic?) and Jenks (bisexual/romantic) both end up with bland dudes instead of each other which makes no sense as their chemistry and emerging relationship was my favourite part of the book
ejimenez's review
4.0
This book is recommended for fans of Becky Chambers, and I can see the comparison. It's a warm, upbeat, found-family space opera with lots of queer characters. I really enjoyed the character-focused story.
Wagers isn't as deft a storyteller as Chambers - the writing was less graceful, and the actual plot felt a bit formulaic (although the characters were anything but). The main things that knocked this from 5 stars to 4 were some narrative choices that I found disconcerting and bewildering. If one of a book's A-plots centers around a huge sports competition, not getting to see the climactic moments of that competition on the page is disappointing as a reader. Similarly, some of the early adventures that the team has are completely left off the page. This felt strange, and it threw me out of the story to start thinking about why the author would make that choice. (Book too long? Not adept at writing action? Couldn't think of a way to make it interesting?) Whatever the reason, I don't think it was the right choice, and it took away from the book for me.
Wagers isn't as deft a storyteller as Chambers - the writing was less graceful, and the actual plot felt a bit formulaic (although the characters were anything but). The main things that knocked this from 5 stars to 4 were some narrative choices that I found disconcerting and bewildering. If one of a book's A-plots centers around a huge sports competition, not getting to see the climactic moments of that competition on the page is disappointing as a reader. Similarly, some of the early adventures that the team has are completely left off the page. This felt strange, and it threw me out of the story to start thinking about why the author would make that choice. (Book too long? Not adept at writing action? Couldn't think of a way to make it interesting?) Whatever the reason, I don't think it was the right choice, and it took away from the book for me.
kaliedan's review
adventurous
tense
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? It's complicated
4.0
space_and_sorcery's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
My first DNF of the year: statistically, it was bound to happen sooner or later, but still the disappointment stings… The blurb for this book promised a space opera focused on an organization, the NeoG, labeled as the space equivalent of the Coast Guard, and on the crew of one particular ship, Zuma’s Ghost, also adding that “A routine mission to retrieve a missing ship has suddenly turned dangerous, and now their lives are on the line. Someone is targeting members of Zuma’s Ghost, a mysterious opponent willing to kill to safeguard a secret that could shake society to its core . . . a secret that could lead to their deaths and kill thousands more […]”.
Quite intriguing, indeed, and the start of the novel - despite some slight info-dump concerning the characters - introduced some captivating themes, like the promotion and subsequent transfer of a beloved second in command coinciding with the arrival of a new officer, whose past history and present uncertainties would add some spice to the interpersonal mechanics aboard the ship. Given these premises I expected a lively, adventurous story peppered with some interesting character evolution, but unfortunately things did not work that way at all.
From the very start the story seems focused solely on the annual Boarding Games that pit the various branches of Earth’s military against each other, with much space given to Zuma’s Ghost’s commander and crew lamenting their defeat in the previous edition of the Games, and their preparations for the upcoming session: up to the point where I stopped reading there were only a couple of instances in which the crew faced emergencies related to their actual job, and they were solved quickly, almost off-handedly, immediately going back to talk of the impending Games. From a quick online search I discovered that the more adventurous section of the story does come into play once the “Space Olympics” are over, but I could not find the strength to go through chapter after chapter of fights and simulated battles to reach what might have been the “meat” of the story.
To be entirely truthful, I have to admit I don’t care for team sports of any kind, so that might very well have colored my reaction to this story, but still I don’t understand the importance of the competition in the economy of the novel (at least as it’s presented in the blurb): a passing reference seems to indicate that the winning faction would get the greater portion of the government’s funds destined to military operations, and since NeoG did not gather any wins they are forced to go into space with sub-standard and/or old equipment. If that’s how things are in this future vision of humanity, it’s a ludicrous way indeed to manage a space-faring civilization…
Which brings me to the background, or rather scarcity of it: there are references to a Collapse that threatened to end civilization, but since it’s now four centuries in the past no more details are given about what it entailed, or how Earth overcame it; technology seems advanced enough - ships achieving light speed, instant communications spanning great distances with no time-lag, rejuvenating treatments keeping people young well beyond human standards, and so on - but it looks like an afterthought rather than an organic part of the whole. Then you are met with weird details like swords as onboard armament because “no one yet had the lock on a reliable handheld laser weapon”. Granted, once my inner Nasty Nitpicker is awakened, it tends to sink its teeth onto these trivial details and to never let go, but to me this speaks of poor planning, or editing, or both.
When all is said and done, A Pale Light in the Black looks like the kind of book I might have read - and probably enjoyed - a few decades ago, when I began reading SF: now that I have a good number of books under my proverbial belt, and that I have hopefully honed my tastes, books like this one feel totally unsatisfying. This is not the droid… pardon me … the novel I was looking for.
Moving on….
rdhk's review
3.0
3.5 stars! This was a very fun, heart warming read, but it needed better editing. It was overly long and had too many subplots to track. I loved the characters though- they were interesting and well-developed, and the relationships were v believable. I'd be down to read the next instalment if it's shorter and better paced!