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A review by apaulsen13
Light Years from Home by Mike Chen
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Well I certainly had fun complaining, which is also the only reason I finished.
Yes. It is a family drama with the backdrop of a sci-fi adventure. I found the sci-fi plot compelling but, unfortunately, lacking depth. Most holes are explained away with “it’s some sci fi thing” and glossed over.
The way the the mother’s Alzheimer’s gets ‘cured’ by the space tech to magically go away again was deeply upsetting. Of course the way it is handled throughout the book is not great so I guess what did I actually expect.
Really, this wants to be a family epic. I want to see the family grow up and apart from each other, understand their tension and frustrations, and therefore really feel their motivations and conflicting emotions. Instead, we are only told how they feel and sometimes shown flashbacks that emphasize what the character just thought.
For being about the characters and their relationships, they barely talk and they grow even less, though it takes more than 75% of the book to get to either.
Yes. It is a family drama with the backdrop of a sci-fi adventure. I found the sci-fi plot compelling but, unfortunately, lacking depth. Most holes are explained away with “it’s some sci fi thing” and glossed over.
Really, this wants to be a family epic. I want to see the family grow up and apart from each other, understand their tension and frustrations, and therefore really feel their motivations and conflicting emotions. Instead, we are only told how they feel and sometimes shown flashbacks that emphasize what the character just thought.
For being about the characters and their relationships, they barely talk and they grow even less, though it takes more than 75% of the book to get to either.