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A review by spellvexit7
Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.75
The premise for this story was interesting and the opening was relatively strong, but the further I got into this novel, the more unfocused it felt. While Mallory was a reasonably interesting character, midway through the book her narrative was smothered by the introduction of a raft of new characters and the subsequent chapters from their point of view. I actually started wondering who the main character was after a while.
I'm not the most attentive reader, so maybe I'm to blame, but around the 80% mark I got increasingly baffled as to what the goals of the various people were, what the plan was, or even... what was going on. It felt like people were acting out of character, and the newcomer humans seemed amazingly nonplussed at the insane situation they found themselves in.
Despite Mallory's reputation as a whiz kid when it comes to solving crimes, the resolution at the end was not all that satisfying. For the most part, she seemed to have little agency, instead being dragged along in the undertow of events, and the other characters discovered and supplied information to her. Very little seems to have been resolved via her purported powers of deductive reasoning.
There were some interesting ideas in all of this, but the world-building of it all just didn't click with me. I think this may have further contributed to my confusion near the end, as I lacked the foundations that underpinned the interactions of the characters.
I'm not the most attentive reader, so maybe I'm to blame, but around the 80% mark I got increasingly baffled as to what the goals of the various people were, what the plan was, or even... what was going on. It felt like people were acting out of character, and the newcomer humans seemed amazingly nonplussed at the insane situation they found themselves in.
Despite Mallory's reputation as a whiz kid when it comes to solving crimes, the resolution at the end was not all that satisfying. For the most part, she seemed to have little agency, instead being dragged along in the undertow of events, and the other characters discovered and supplied information to her. Very little seems to have been resolved via her purported powers of deductive reasoning.
There were some interesting ideas in all of this, but the world-building of it all just didn't click with me. I think this may have further contributed to my confusion near the end, as I lacked the foundations that underpinned the interactions of the characters.