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A review by trike
The Dire Earth by Jason M. Hough
3.0
A novella prequel to Hough's [b:The Darwin Elevator|16127235|The Darwin Elevator (Dire Earth Cycle, #1)|Jason M. Hough|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1383580448s/16127235.jpg|21951477]. It's appended to the novel [b:Zero World|23995290|Zero World|Jason M. Hough|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1428086189s/23995290.jpg|43596017].
I actually liked this slightly better than Darwin Elevator simply because I have lesser expectations of novellas. In shorter works these days you don't really expect everything to be answered and tidied up. Gone are the days when authors would create an entire world, complete characters and an interesting plot in a story with a proper beginning, middle and end. Now they're more tone pieces or character sketches or slice of life tales.
Like most prequels, this doesn't really need to exist. It's not all that important to know how everyone got to Darwin or how they met each other. However, the fact that this information exists here means that it's probably never answered in the Dire Earth trilogy. (Unless Hough is pulling a Star Wars prequel on us.)
It's fine, I just feel the total is somehow less than the sum of the parts.
For some reason I want to just read more about Skyler's purloined air force cargo jet, the Melville rather than anything else. Maybe I'm missing Firefly too much.
I actually liked this slightly better than Darwin Elevator simply because I have lesser expectations of novellas. In shorter works these days you don't really expect everything to be answered and tidied up. Gone are the days when authors would create an entire world, complete characters and an interesting plot in a story with a proper beginning, middle and end. Now they're more tone pieces or character sketches or slice of life tales.
Like most prequels, this doesn't really need to exist. It's not all that important to know how everyone got to Darwin or how they met each other. However, the fact that this information exists here means that it's probably never answered in the Dire Earth trilogy. (Unless Hough is pulling a Star Wars prequel on us.)
It's fine, I just feel the total is somehow less than the sum of the parts.
For some reason I want to just read more about Skyler's purloined air force cargo jet, the Melville rather than anything else. Maybe I'm missing Firefly too much.