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A review by thefourthvine
Line and Orbit by Lisa Soem, Sunny Moraine
2.0
Okay, so, full disclosure: this book hits so many of my most-loathed plot elements and character aspects that it was a disaster for me. It would probably work better for -- well, almost anyone else. But I can only review based on my own experience, and wow did I have a lot of problems with it.
I should have known this book was Not For Me at the outset; it starts out with some verbiage that appears to exist solely to demonstrate the authors' mastery of adjectives (note: they have this DOWN) and then cuts to a self-centered, whiny jerk losing everything. Interesting fact about me: I don't like whiny, self-centered jerks, AND YET I also do not like watching them lose everything.
But before he can lose everything (and that is totally not a spoiler, by the way; it's in the book description), first we have to learn about his world, where everyone is Perfect, so of course they're homophobic as hell. Like, I get why the authors thought "Oh hey! Let's make the bad society homophobic, to demonstrate how bad they are, and also to give us Bonus Angst!" I just -- don't like it. It makes no sense for the actual society, given their obsession with only the RIGHT people breeding, and even then doing it in a very manipulated, assisted reproduction type way, and -- I seriously wish authors would consider what message they're sending when they write a whole different world, a far-future world, and make it homophobic. Like, this is not a thing you should do because you want Bonus Angst.
Anyway. Shortly thereafter, we meet the other half of the main pairing, who is an arrogant, easily-angered jerk. Here's the thing: Jerks in Love is not a trope that works for me at all, and Jerks Just Fucking is even less interesting to me. This book gave me both of them, and lots of them. But I wanted to read about basically anyone else, which was my bad luck, because we get to know about 15 people, total, in the entire book, and that's on both sides.
And then we learn about the other society. The good society that is the foil of the Perfect (bad) society. Annnnnnd -- I liked it right up until I realized that, sure, the Perfect society has no place at all for the disabled, but neither does the good one, really. (There's a ritual you have to complete, called the Naming; if you can't pass it, you're exiled. It's not ever made entirely clear what the ceremony is about, but it is made clear that lots of disabled people would be unable to complete it.) So, again, I wish the authors had thought slightly more about the unfortunate things their worldbuilding revealed about them, rather than just plunging into it.
And then -- oh, so many other things, major and minor. The genetics stuff, which sort of holds up until it turns into Babble Consisting of Sciency Words. The fact that I could not care about the main characters as much as the book expected me to. The gratuitous animal sacrifices. The child soldiers. The way a lot of the key scenes weren't earned. I wanted to like this book, I truly did, but it just kept on being stuff I hate.
There were good things. A trans character who I thought (though I am not an expert) was well-handled! Markers of diversity! Gay main characters! Lesbians who are at least named! A plot in addition to the romance! Just -- oh man, these good things did not come close to making up for the bad stuff. For me. For you, they very well might.
(Also, formatting note: I read this on both my kindle and iPad. Do not read this on an iPad. The formatting is messed up, so none of the line breaks that indicate a shift in scene come through. This is super disconcerting, and the authors switch scenes a lot.)
Basically: reading this book was a slog, a slow trudge through an inhospitable land. If you choose to read it, I hope it's more hospitable to you. For my part, I am bummed that I paid five bucks for this, when I've read so many better science fictiony gay romances that were free.
I should have known this book was Not For Me at the outset; it starts out with some verbiage that appears to exist solely to demonstrate the authors' mastery of adjectives (note: they have this DOWN) and then cuts to a self-centered, whiny jerk losing everything. Interesting fact about me: I don't like whiny, self-centered jerks, AND YET I also do not like watching them lose everything.
But before he can lose everything (and that is totally not a spoiler, by the way; it's in the book description), first we have to learn about his world, where everyone is Perfect, so of course they're homophobic as hell. Like, I get why the authors thought "Oh hey! Let's make the bad society homophobic, to demonstrate how bad they are, and also to give us Bonus Angst!" I just -- don't like it. It makes no sense for the actual society, given their obsession with only the RIGHT people breeding, and even then doing it in a very manipulated, assisted reproduction type way, and -- I seriously wish authors would consider what message they're sending when they write a whole different world, a far-future world, and make it homophobic. Like, this is not a thing you should do because you want Bonus Angst.
Anyway. Shortly thereafter, we meet the other half of the main pairing, who is an arrogant, easily-angered jerk. Here's the thing: Jerks in Love is not a trope that works for me at all, and Jerks Just Fucking is even less interesting to me. This book gave me both of them, and lots of them. But I wanted to read about basically anyone else, which was my bad luck, because we get to know about 15 people, total, in the entire book, and that's on both sides.
And then we learn about the other society. The good society that is the foil of the Perfect (bad) society. Annnnnnd -- I liked it right up until I realized that, sure, the Perfect society has no place at all for the disabled, but neither does the good one, really. (There's a ritual you have to complete, called the Naming; if you can't pass it, you're exiled. It's not ever made entirely clear what the ceremony is about, but it is made clear that lots of disabled people would be unable to complete it.) So, again, I wish the authors had thought slightly more about the unfortunate things their worldbuilding revealed about them, rather than just plunging into it.
And then -- oh, so many other things, major and minor. The genetics stuff, which sort of holds up until it turns into Babble Consisting of Sciency Words. The fact that I could not care about the main characters as much as the book expected me to. The gratuitous animal sacrifices. The child soldiers. The way a lot of the key scenes weren't earned. I wanted to like this book, I truly did, but it just kept on being stuff I hate.
There were good things. A trans character who I thought (though I am not an expert) was well-handled! Markers of diversity! Gay main characters! Lesbians who are at least named! A plot in addition to the romance! Just -- oh man, these good things did not come close to making up for the bad stuff. For me. For you, they very well might.
(Also, formatting note: I read this on both my kindle and iPad. Do not read this on an iPad. The formatting is messed up, so none of the line breaks that indicate a shift in scene come through. This is super disconcerting, and the authors switch scenes a lot.)
Basically: reading this book was a slog, a slow trudge through an inhospitable land. If you choose to read it, I hope it's more hospitable to you. For my part, I am bummed that I paid five bucks for this, when I've read so many better science fictiony gay romances that were free.