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A review by kentanapages
Endurance by Elaine Burnes
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
On her last tour of the solar system before retiring, Captain Lyn Randall and her ship are hurled 4 lightyears away, defying the known laws of physics and space travel and stranding her crew and passengers an impossible distance from home. Lyn and the crew face one crisis after another as they struggle to survive, desperate to find a planet to inhabit or a way back to Earth, and battling both the harshness of space and the heated interpersonal struggles that arise within the ship walls.
Endurance is a post-apocalyptic space opera adventure with no shortage of action. There were a lot of pleasant surprises in this book, such as the inclusion of more hard science and technology than I expected, a diverse cast, and some lovable nonhuman characters (I'm a big puddle for the “AI develops emotions and self awareness” trope). If you’re a fan of non-stop space action with a sprinkling of physics and also lesbians, this may be for you! I was hooked by this premise, and it started off strong for me.
However, the further I read, I found that there were aspects I struggled with as well. The sentence structure was a bit choppy for me, with too many really short sentences and instances where it just didn’t flow. I was hoping I would just adjust to the rhythm of the writing style but couldn’t; however this style may work better for others and is a personal preference for me!
The biggest challenge was this book felt to me like it was trying to do too much – so many things are mentioned, but not given enough time or attention. It seemed like the author had so many great ideas and wanted to fit them all into one book, but they were at times a distraction from the main storyline and didn’t add depth. To start, there are several major overarching conspiracies that never get truly resolved or integrated into the story, and there are references to an apocalypse and a Women’s Revolution on Earth (during which women took over running everything, I think?) that we never hear more about. Throughout the story there is one crisis after another, with origins often not making a lot of sense, that are quickly resolved and not important to the overall plot. I do think a lot of these ideas were fun, and if fleshed out could have made separate stories/prequels/etc! The author is clearly creative and passionate about sci-fi and tech; it was just too much crammed into one novel.
I also found that our protagonist Lyn became increasingly less likable as a character as the story wore on. She repeatedly makes the same types of mistakes and miscalculations, telling us she believes in one thing (such as trust and honesty with her crew) and acting in a completely different way. It felt a bit like watching an 80s horror movie where you want to shout at the characters not to do the really obviously dumb thing... except this character was meant to be incredibly intelligent and in possession of strong leadership skills, so it just felt like it didn’t make sense that she continued to do the dumb thing and act oblivious. I really wanted to see her grow as a leader or a person. I certainly don’t think you always need to like the main character, but in this case it led to a frustrating reading experience for me.
I really enjoyed the diversity of the characters, and the inclusion of small things like words from various languages or cultural traditions included naturally into the writing. I also believe the author was trying to be inclusive of genders by writing a character who uses ne/nir/nem pronouns and attempting to address some racial stereotypes, but I think it falls a bit short here. I do like when nonbinary characters are included in a natural way without a lot of over-explanation, but in this case it felt a bit like a token character; every other character uses traditional gender pronouns, including the ship’s AI and the android doctor, and I was left curious about how this future society includes and treats nonbinary genders. I would have liked to see this fleshed out more. There were also a few times when characters made awkward racist comments or actions, such as side-eyeing an Asian crewmate when a military competition with China is mentioned, and wondering if a crew member from Catalan knows about the mountains in Portugal; in both of these cases, there’s a weird moment where one character gives another a look or says something internally, but it’s never overtly addressed. I struggled to understand what the purpose of including these moments were if not to actually call out and address them in a responsible way.
I did enjoy some of the characters a lot more than I did Lyn. For example, Zoya is a delight! She’s 132 years old, which is old but “normal old” in this future, and she’s on the space tour celebrating her 100th wedding anniversary with her husband and her extended family. She adds wisdom and wit and spunk to the pages, and I’d probably read a whole novella on her. Petra, the ship’s AI, is also a really fun character arc; we get to see her start to develop emotions, and her early attempt at jokes had me chuckling.I was actually quite upset when the decision was made, quite callously, to erase her memories and return her to a pre-aware version of herself.
If you’re a space opera junkie like me, I’d say give this a try and share your thoughts! I’d also totally read some backstory on the Women’s Revolution at some point (hint hint) :)
Endurance is a post-apocalyptic space opera adventure with no shortage of action. There were a lot of pleasant surprises in this book, such as the inclusion of more hard science and technology than I expected, a diverse cast, and some lovable nonhuman characters (I'm a big puddle for the “AI develops emotions and self awareness” trope). If you’re a fan of non-stop space action with a sprinkling of physics and also lesbians, this may be for you! I was hooked by this premise, and it started off strong for me.
However, the further I read, I found that there were aspects I struggled with as well. The sentence structure was a bit choppy for me, with too many really short sentences and instances where it just didn’t flow. I was hoping I would just adjust to the rhythm of the writing style but couldn’t; however this style may work better for others and is a personal preference for me!
The biggest challenge was this book felt to me like it was trying to do too much – so many things are mentioned, but not given enough time or attention. It seemed like the author had so many great ideas and wanted to fit them all into one book, but they were at times a distraction from the main storyline and didn’t add depth. To start, there are several major overarching conspiracies that never get truly resolved or integrated into the story, and there are references to an apocalypse and a Women’s Revolution on Earth (during which women took over running everything, I think?) that we never hear more about. Throughout the story there is one crisis after another, with origins often not making a lot of sense, that are quickly resolved and not important to the overall plot. I do think a lot of these ideas were fun, and if fleshed out could have made separate stories/prequels/etc! The author is clearly creative and passionate about sci-fi and tech; it was just too much crammed into one novel.
I also found that our protagonist Lyn became increasingly less likable as a character as the story wore on. She repeatedly makes the same types of mistakes and miscalculations, telling us she believes in one thing (such as trust and honesty with her crew) and acting in a completely different way. It felt a bit like watching an 80s horror movie where you want to shout at the characters not to do the really obviously dumb thing... except this character was meant to be incredibly intelligent and in possession of strong leadership skills, so it just felt like it didn’t make sense that she continued to do the dumb thing and act oblivious. I really wanted to see her grow as a leader or a person. I certainly don’t think you always need to like the main character, but in this case it led to a frustrating reading experience for me.
I really enjoyed the diversity of the characters, and the inclusion of small things like words from various languages or cultural traditions included naturally into the writing. I also believe the author was trying to be inclusive of genders by writing a character who uses ne/nir/nem pronouns and attempting to address some racial stereotypes, but I think it falls a bit short here. I do like when nonbinary characters are included in a natural way without a lot of over-explanation, but in this case it felt a bit like a token character; every other character uses traditional gender pronouns, including the ship’s AI and the android doctor, and I was left curious about how this future society includes and treats nonbinary genders. I would have liked to see this fleshed out more. There were also a few times when characters made awkward racist comments or actions, such as side-eyeing an Asian crewmate when a military competition with China is mentioned, and wondering if a crew member from Catalan knows about the mountains in Portugal; in both of these cases, there’s a weird moment where one character gives another a look or says something internally, but it’s never overtly addressed. I struggled to understand what the purpose of including these moments were if not to actually call out and address them in a responsible way.
I did enjoy some of the characters a lot more than I did Lyn. For example, Zoya is a delight! She’s 132 years old, which is old but “normal old” in this future, and she’s on the space tour celebrating her 100th wedding anniversary with her husband and her extended family. She adds wisdom and wit and spunk to the pages, and I’d probably read a whole novella on her. Petra, the ship’s AI, is also a really fun character arc; we get to see her start to develop emotions, and her early attempt at jokes had me chuckling.
If you’re a space opera junkie like me, I’d say give this a try and share your thoughts! I’d also totally read some backstory on the Women’s Revolution at some point (hint hint) :)