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A review by trike
Linesman by S.K. Dunstall
1.0
Am I the only one annoyed by this book?
It's meandering, it's repetitive and redundant and repetitive (see what I did there?), and it has no ending. That last one really pissed me off. The writers (S.K. Dunstall is a pair of sisters) set up this big mystery about an alien space ship and then answer nothing about it. I'm not reading a bunch of other novels to find out about that.
When you make a promise to the readers, you need to fulfill that promise. You don't substitute something else instead and then abruptly end the book, like they did here.
All the stuff about intergalactic politics felt like it was spinning wheels. Easily half of that business could've been cut out. Reading a book like this makes me appreciate how effortless Scalzi and Niven make it look.
There was also the issue of proofreading. Things happen and then they either happen again or they seem to have been forgotten. Like Sherry Nugil in Real Genius whose ambition is to sleep with the ten smartest men in the world, there is a character named Katida who only sleeps with the highest-rated linesmen. (Also 10s.) On page 37 she propositions our hero. Then on page 70 he wonders why he hasn't met her yet. Perhaps they meant that to be him wondering why he hadn't met her in the two years he was certified, but that's not what is said. That sort of thing happens a couple of times in the book.
And on the subject of the main character, Ean Lambert, he's just a doofus. He spends all his time taking showers like a weirdo. The reason why is given late in the book, but by that time he just seems like this oddball character who has random quirks and is useless for anything else than fixing lines. I have a hard time believing a ghetto kid would have no other skills, especially common-sense survival skills, that he can call on when the shit hits the fan. He comes across more like a rich, coddled suburban kid who is ill-prepared for life.
This is compounded by little annoyances like questions which don't have question marks. I guess that's a style thing, but it constantly made me stutter and stop and reread.
All of which is a shame, because the premise so cool. Alien technology they use which they don't fully understand yet is vital to an intergalactic civilization, creating plenty of potential conflict. The notion of sentient energy (the "lines") that forms the basis of interstellar travel is cool, but all they really do with it is add to the mystery rather than give us any answers. Aggravating. I didn't care about the politics, I wanted to know about the alien spaceship. Bupkis.
It's meandering, it's repetitive and redundant and repetitive (see what I did there?), and it has no ending. That last one really pissed me off. The writers (S.K. Dunstall is a pair of sisters) set up this big mystery about an alien space ship and then answer nothing about it. I'm not reading a bunch of other novels to find out about that.
When you make a promise to the readers, you need to fulfill that promise. You don't substitute something else instead and then abruptly end the book, like they did here.
All the stuff about intergalactic politics felt like it was spinning wheels. Easily half of that business could've been cut out. Reading a book like this makes me appreciate how effortless Scalzi and Niven make it look.
There was also the issue of proofreading. Things happen and then they either happen again or they seem to have been forgotten. Like Sherry Nugil in Real Genius whose ambition is to sleep with the ten smartest men in the world, there is a character named Katida who only sleeps with the highest-rated linesmen. (Also 10s.) On page 37 she propositions our hero. Then on page 70 he wonders why he hasn't met her yet. Perhaps they meant that to be him wondering why he hadn't met her in the two years he was certified, but that's not what is said. That sort of thing happens a couple of times in the book.
And on the subject of the main character, Ean Lambert, he's just a doofus. He spends all his time taking showers like a weirdo. The reason why is given late in the book, but by that time he just seems like this oddball character who has random quirks and is useless for anything else than fixing lines. I have a hard time believing a ghetto kid would have no other skills, especially common-sense survival skills, that he can call on when the shit hits the fan. He comes across more like a rich, coddled suburban kid who is ill-prepared for life.
This is compounded by little annoyances like questions which don't have question marks. I guess that's a style thing, but it constantly made me stutter and stop and reread.
All of which is a shame, because the premise so cool. Alien technology they use which they don't fully understand yet is vital to an intergalactic civilization, creating plenty of potential conflict. The notion of sentient energy (the "lines") that forms the basis of interstellar travel is cool, but all they really do with it is add to the mystery rather than give us any answers. Aggravating. I didn't care about the politics, I wanted to know about the alien spaceship. Bupkis.