A review by mordshunger
Noumenon by Marina J. Lostetter

adventurous slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

We are in the prosperous future and the MC has a PhD, but doesn't know what a coming out is. Hmmm. 

The eugenics stuff was weirdly implemented and not explored in depth, but comes with the territory of the premise. The premise is definitely not explained or explored enough. They just say "this is the greatest idea" and that's it.
The sudden slavery was disgusting, unappealing, underexplored and not foreshadowed in the slightest. I found it entirely unbelievable, especially in a fictional society like this. They are all selected to be community oriented, empathetic and balanced. They are socialised to value the merit for the community above all. They are highly technical and have all possible know how. There is little reason why they wouldn't just mine themselves. Build mining bots. Spend five years after the planned retirement mining. Anything but this disgusting mess.

I wouldn't say this is hard sci Fi. It doesn't feel like it takes its premise all that seriously and wobbles between genetic determinism being real or not. Everything has to be explained to you in plain text. God help us if there was to be lively and believable dialogue without exposition! Who ever heard of such a thing... The more you think about all the assumptions here the more you'll go crazy.
Imagine earth sending space ships out. Would they just sit idly and not continue space travel and science for TWO THOUSAND years?! Why would they? One shot and that's it? Ridiculous, and never addressed.
The ending was a big fat letdown. This book is great at waving something puzzling in your face and NEVER giving you a chance to figure it out yourself. There are no satisfying answers given for anything. This feels a lot like a piece of fanfiction that just pitches a bunch of ideas to itself and then abandons all ambition to do something with them. I rage read the last fifth.
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