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misha_ali 's review for:
The Spare Man
by Mary Robinette Kowal
I enjoy mysteries and especially enclosed space (ha) where there is a limited cast of characters and locations. I also love characterization and I feel like if this was a sequel with the main characters being more established, I would have enjoyed them more. Coming in blind, I'm unsure about how much I appreciate Tesla basically running around being a space Karen, to the extent that even her spouse has to ask her to dial it down a bit.
Despite the explicit conversation about why Shal (who is apparently a reasonably well known detective and good at his job) chose to retire, it continues to strike me as strange that he would not just be leading the investigation once he's been cleared. His reasons for retiring are that he's too famous to do his job effectively, which is negated here because not many people recognize him, so it seems odd that he lets his partner, who is basically a robotics person, run around doing investigation that he is much more suited for, both professionally and physically.
I appreciated the disability and chronic pain representation, but got increasingly frustrated that Tesla is constantly blocked and instead of sneaking around, in most cases all she can do is try to contact her lawyer, who yells about the lawsuits that are incoming, and so on.
A reasonably enjoyable space mystery romp, but I didn't connect to the characters so did not enjoy it as much as I'd expected.
Despite the explicit conversation about why Shal (who is apparently a reasonably well known detective and good at his job) chose to retire, it continues to strike me as strange that he would not just be leading the investigation once he's been cleared. His reasons for retiring are that he's too famous to do his job effectively, which is negated here because not many people recognize him, so it seems odd that he lets his partner, who is basically a robotics person, run around doing investigation that he is much more suited for, both professionally and physically.
I appreciated the disability and chronic pain representation, but got increasingly frustrated that Tesla is constantly blocked and instead of sneaking around, in most cases all she can do is try to contact her lawyer, who yells about the lawsuits that are incoming, and so on.
A reasonably enjoyable space mystery romp, but I didn't connect to the characters so did not enjoy it as much as I'd expected.