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A review by midrel
The Light Years by R.W.W. Greene
2.0
So. The Light Years. Honestly, from the moment I first read the premise of this book I was a little enthralled. The idea it wanted to explore were ones I had not as of yet encountered in my admittedly limited scifi reading. Specially the time dilation aspect, and the human relations aspect tied to it.
Unfortunately, The Light Years proved to be a slow-burn book that never really got past the slow part. It never really burned bright, or wholly took into the sky with rushing heat, but sometimes it felt like it was awfully close to, and even when it didnt, it behaved like a cosy enough ship you could not help but laze in.
Two things work against The Light Years. The first is an almost complete lack of gravitas in the way the story progresses. Most of the chapters feel like slice of life episodes from some scifi anime. They are almost all rather dull, disconnected, and what happens in one is for the most part irrelevant to the others. At nearly no point is there any manner of suspense in our tale. Everything is related in a somewhat disappointing matter of fact tone.
The second thing has a lot to do with the first, but is related more to the characters themselves. Over and over we see glimpses of Hisako or Adem's life, but these glimpses never seem to drive at anything that contributes to the central plot. Sure, we learn things about them, but mostly we trapsize about the characters for what feels like no other point but to get past the chapter.
The few really exciting points, like the exploration of the derelict ship, Hisako's trip to La Mer, among others, are defused by the author in what feel like very anticlimactic ways that not only rob the story of potential excitement but also sort of invalidates the characters experiences.
I kind of feel like maybe the book just needed more space to spread its wings, so to speak. It seemed like the author wanted to explore a lot of things, but either just wasn't afforded the space to do so, or didn't have the self confidence to do it fully, either of which might account for the compressed feeling of the narrative.
It's a shame, because I really wanted to like the story, but as it is, it hardly feels like I read the story promised by thr book's blurb.
Unfortunately, The Light Years proved to be a slow-burn book that never really got past the slow part. It never really burned bright, or wholly took into the sky with rushing heat, but sometimes it felt like it was awfully close to, and even when it didnt, it behaved like a cosy enough ship you could not help but laze in.
Two things work against The Light Years. The first is an almost complete lack of gravitas in the way the story progresses. Most of the chapters feel like slice of life episodes from some scifi anime. They are almost all rather dull, disconnected, and what happens in one is for the most part irrelevant to the others. At nearly no point is there any manner of suspense in our tale. Everything is related in a somewhat disappointing matter of fact tone.
The second thing has a lot to do with the first, but is related more to the characters themselves. Over and over we see glimpses of Hisako or Adem's life, but these glimpses never seem to drive at anything that contributes to the central plot. Sure, we learn things about them, but mostly we trapsize about the characters for what feels like no other point but to get past the chapter.
The few really exciting points, like the exploration of the derelict ship, Hisako's trip to La Mer, among others, are defused by the author in what feel like very anticlimactic ways that not only rob the story of potential excitement but also sort of invalidates the characters experiences.
I kind of feel like maybe the book just needed more space to spread its wings, so to speak. It seemed like the author wanted to explore a lot of things, but either just wasn't afforded the space to do so, or didn't have the self confidence to do it fully, either of which might account for the compressed feeling of the narrative.
It's a shame, because I really wanted to like the story, but as it is, it hardly feels like I read the story promised by thr book's blurb.