sageandfern 's review for:

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

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Oddly, it's Nick and Nora Charles - and their little white dog - in space. And, oddly, it works. I love that Tesla, our hero, is physically as well as mentally disabled, and is brave and smart and saves the day. I love her service dog and the tactical way she uses his cuteness to further her goals. The mystery was well-plotted and the surprises kept coming until the end, although in retrospect it had to rely on some pretty involved contortions to make it work out (which I won't enumerate here for spoiler reasons). The unescapability of the interplanetary cruise ship - better than any country mansion in a snowstorm - was masterfully conveyed and made me wonder whether, when literary critics look back at books written in the early 2020s, they will be able to identifya kind of pandemic literature, not written about the pandemic but written under the conditions of the pandemic.