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A review by bishop
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Just finished the audio book. I'd give it a 6 out of 10. And now to my spoiler filled understanding of what happened in the book.
It all comes down to the line in the book towards the very end where the author says that (paraphrasing a bit here) _for cells to form the cell membrane, conditions mandate that the cell membrane must already be present_. This indicates that evolution can only happen in a circular loop. The seeding of life on earth, which is unlike everywhere else in the universe, happened because life was already present on earth. And the way the author resolves this conundrum is by using the _deus ex machina_ of a time loop.
Scientists discover the secret of the mysterious new space flight technology buried in an extremely deep hole in the ocean, use this to build the space ship, during the voyage the spaceship is transported a few billion years back in time, comes back to prehistoric earth, crashes into the lifeless planet, seeds life with the algae it was carrying and then gets buried in a deep hole, ready for its incredible technology to be discovered by humanity when the time comes.
I like the parts of the book where scientific ideas are discussed - I like to get into the weeds like this - but there are too many ideas that are mentioned and then just dropped without satisfactorily tying them to other parts of the story. The pace was also a bit monotonous, causing, on many occasions, my mind to start wandering till I realized what it was doing and pulled it back to the story. I did not like that all major events were treated as magic - no theory as to why the protagonists were experiencing the mysterious symptoms, no explanations as to what the new space drives may be, no explanations why (minor spoiler)a time loop may exist! , no thoughts on the first cause of life existing at all, or on how the technology (minor spoiler) may have been discovered the first time.!
All in all, this is a book that I enjoyed in parts but not enough that will make me want to go back and re-read any parts to understand them better.
I like the parts of the book where scientific ideas are discussed - I like to get into the weeds like this - but there are too many ideas that are mentioned and then just dropped without satisfactorily tying them to other parts of the story. The pace was also a bit monotonous, causing, on many occasions, my mind to start wandering till I realized what it was doing and pulled it back to the story. I did not like that all major events were treated as magic - no theory as to why the protagonists were experiencing the mysterious symptoms, no explanations as to what the new space drives may be, no explanations why (minor spoiler)
All in all, this is a book that I enjoyed in parts but not enough that will make me want to go back and re-read any parts to understand them better.