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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
I have made multiple attempts to get back into this book since I set it aside weeks ago. I found it tough going when I originally started it, and don’t feel motivated enough to finish the book now. Not that the book is bad, I just don’t think it’s working for me.
Vagabonds is science fiction about Mars & Earth; but as very properly called it to my friends “thinky” sci-fi. This feels a lot about concepts and culture, versus plot at points.
It’s about the differences in Terran and Martian ways of life-individualism vs collectivism. The main character spends part of her life on Earth before coming back to Mars; and what I think made this so, so interesting was how the author approaches the culture and revolution-specifically because it comes from a Chinese author’s perspective when I am used to reading American ones.
She really talks about how capitalism exploits while also bringing up why sometimes collectivism feels limiting, and how the next generation always wants to rebel against the ideas of the parents, while talking about the cost of that revolution, and how people always want more. I was left with a lot to think about here. I think we often, specifically now, think in binary values of good/bad without thinking through all the gray areas in the middle and all the ways that change can be slow and can take a long time, and the give & take of si many things. I don’t know; I will be thinking about this one for a while, and I am glad I read it when I did.
It’s about the differences in Terran and Martian ways of life-individualism vs collectivism. The main character spends part of her life on Earth before coming back to Mars; and what I think made this so, so interesting was how the author approaches the culture and revolution-specifically because it comes from a Chinese author’s perspective when I am used to reading American ones.
She really talks about how capitalism exploits while also bringing up why sometimes collectivism feels limiting, and how the next generation always wants to rebel against the ideas of the parents, while talking about the cost of that revolution, and how people always want more. I was left with a lot to think about here. I think we often, specifically now, think in binary values of good/bad without thinking through all the gray areas in the middle and all the ways that change can be slow and can take a long time, and the give & take of si many things. I don’t know; I will be thinking about this one for a while, and I am glad I read it when I did.
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
3.8
It dragged a bit along the way, but it gave me Ursula K Le Guin vibes with a tad more existential dread. I was into it.
It dragged a bit along the way, but it gave me Ursula K Le Guin vibes with a tad more existential dread. I was into it.
A very different kind of sci-fi, reminds me of Jules Verne. A sociopolitical space drama that takes place on Mars. Interesting and insightful.
Audiobook.
Mars was merely the backdrop for this observational piece on the erasure of each generation by the one succeeding, and the contrasts of "not China" and the "not Western world".
Mars was merely the backdrop for this observational piece on the erasure of each generation by the one succeeding, and the contrasts of "not China" and the "not Western world".
Pretty good Chinese character-driven sci-fi that takes place on a collectivist Mars where everyone has UBI, jobs, and houses and has a shaky peace with Earth who is even more hardcore capitalist and everyone makes their money on intellectual property. I always love reading about different political systems and the author's POV was unique. But it was no KSR Red Mars which, in my headcanon, is the "real" mars. Very good translation too, I enjoyed it more than the other Chinese SF I read, the Three Body Problem.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The middle of the book lagged a bit, but the ending hit me hard, full-body sobs and all. A beautiful exploration of discovery and growth, both for the self and a fledgling society.
grrr all the women are emotional artists and all the men are stoic engineers ... this book had some nice elements of political tension but I can't get past sci-fi that has no imagination about how the social order might change after enormous changes in lived experience.