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A review by amandasupak
Walk the Vanished Earth by Erin Swan
3.0
Rating: 3.5 stars
Number of named characters: 40 (some characters rename themselves later).
A handful of named characters didn’t get introduced until 90% of the way through the book which seemed unnecessary and felt rushed. Overall, there were about 10-15 characters too many in my opinion.
The good:
The writing was beautiful and captivating, and I finished this book quickly. It was fun to put together how everyone was related and how the generations did over the years.
The bad:
The book seems mostly scientific until it includes some supernatural elements without much explanation, which is a bit confusing. I love sci fi, and I occasionally read fantasy, but I do not like a book that has both sci-fi AND fantasy in the same universe. It makes it difficult to tell what is real and what is not. For example, there is a girl walking on mars without a space suit and breathing the “air” without dying, and doesn’t need food to not die?? I was honestly so confused about what the hell was happening. Was she genetically altered? Was Mars terraformed? There was literally no explanation for that. Another example, different family members all have the same reoccurring dream. At first, I thought it was a mental disorder or just some other weird science thing that would be explained later like “genetic memory” or [insert other weird sci-fi concept] here. Because I thought this book was straight sci-fi, I was so confused while reading and it took me a while to realize it was sci-fi with a sprinkle of fantasy.
Other plot issues (spoilers included):
-Suddenly having the ability to get to mars and colonize it with habitat domes in a very short amount of time (~20 years) with other reproductive technology. Ehhhhhhh that seems unlikely.
- If people are living in camps in the wilderness how the hell is there enough infrastructure for two girls to talk to each other when one is on mars and the other is on earth?!
- The ending is unsatisfying. It didn’t explain why everyone was having those dreams. Also it just kind of ends, nothing was really solved. A single girl stuck on mars and that’s it? Okay then
Number of named characters: 40 (some characters rename themselves later).
A handful of named characters didn’t get introduced until 90% of the way through the book which seemed unnecessary and felt rushed. Overall, there were about 10-15 characters too many in my opinion.
The good:
The writing was beautiful and captivating, and I finished this book quickly. It was fun to put together how everyone was related and how the generations did over the years.
The bad:
The book seems mostly scientific until it includes some supernatural elements without much explanation, which is a bit confusing. I love sci fi, and I occasionally read fantasy, but I do not like a book that has both sci-fi AND fantasy in the same universe. It makes it difficult to tell what is real and what is not. For example, there is a girl walking on mars without a space suit and breathing the “air” without dying, and doesn’t need food to not die?? I was honestly so confused about what the hell was happening. Was she genetically altered? Was Mars terraformed? There was literally no explanation for that. Another example, different family members all have the same reoccurring dream. At first, I thought it was a mental disorder or just some other weird science thing that would be explained later like “genetic memory” or [insert other weird sci-fi concept] here. Because I thought this book was straight sci-fi, I was so confused while reading and it took me a while to realize it was sci-fi with a sprinkle of fantasy.
Other plot issues (spoilers included):
-Suddenly having the ability to get to mars and colonize it with habitat domes in a very short amount of time (~20 years) with other reproductive technology. Ehhhhhhh that seems unlikely.
- If people are living in camps in the wilderness how the hell is there enough infrastructure for two girls to talk to each other when one is on mars and the other is on earth?!
- The ending is unsatisfying. It didn’t explain why everyone was having those dreams. Also it just kind of ends, nothing was really solved. A single girl stuck on mars and that’s it? Okay then