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A review by meiko
Half Way Home by Hugh Howey
3.0
I had a review almost finished on mobile at the hairdressers' and then I was called away for a rinse. I came back to a blank screen. Safe to say no auto-save functions on mobile.
Anyway. This might descent into a rant out of sheer frustration (this is the third review in a month where an incident similar to this has happened).
Reading this took longer than I expected, to be honest. At first it read like a teenaged, in space version of Lord of the Flies, the first third of the latter being so utterly frustrating and depressing the whole 'classic' is still in the limbo of 'having started but not yet finished and doubt it will be any time soon.'
But then they managed to escape, and that was something fascinating.
I had it pegged as science fiction, not knowing it was YA. But that was just the setting. Turns out it was more superficial existentialism, far more philosophical than I expected it to be.
But then I guess are all sci-fis are in one way or another.
The protagonist is gay. That's apparently a big deal. I keep thinking we should be at an age where one's sexuality no longer matters any more. It should be a trivia, a side note, but no longer a plot point. Sort of like he has green eyes, brown hair, olive skin.
Clearly, I was wrong.
By the way I think the above description is only possible in the case of mutation or engineering. (? do correct me if I'm wrong).
Apparently having moved on to colonising other planets, homosexuals are still cast as outsiders. Something of an anomaly. That was a 'geee, years and years of evolution and revolution and we are still labelling homosexuals and casting homosexuals out, thanks a lot humanity, you have utterly, utterly failed me' moment.
Also the fact that an AI spent time marvelling at the fact that the protagonist loved two people, a male and a female (his family, essentially) at the same time, and that they both loved him back something fierce was... I dunno. Disappointing.
Not to mention the space colonisation started off as a warring between countries instead of a joint effort of human as a species. It left me feel, dejected. I'm not sure that's the right word, but it was something of a very bleak and depressing future. As a species we haven't learned much, I guess.
Yes, I know it's fiction. But looking at the world at large, it's not surprising, just very disheartening.
So in comparison, the bugs, whether small, medium or large, weren't as jarring as they'd been for some others whose review I've read.
I guess it managed some sort of a happy ending. It was a hasty round up though, but reading the notes from the author I realise this was a NaNoWriMo thing, so it was less surprising.
Anyway. This might descent into a rant out of sheer frustration (this is the third review in a month where an incident similar to this has happened).
Reading this took longer than I expected, to be honest. At first it read like a teenaged, in space version of Lord of the Flies, the first third of the latter being so utterly frustrating and depressing the whole 'classic' is still in the limbo of 'having started but not yet finished and doubt it will be any time soon.'
But then they managed to escape, and that was something fascinating.
I had it pegged as science fiction, not knowing it was YA. But that was just the setting. Turns out it was more superficial existentialism, far more philosophical than I expected it to be.
But then I guess are all sci-fis are in one way or another.
The protagonist is gay. That's apparently a big deal. I keep thinking we should be at an age where one's sexuality no longer matters any more. It should be a trivia, a side note, but no longer a plot point. Sort of like he has green eyes, brown hair, olive skin.
Clearly, I was wrong.
By the way I think the above description is only possible in the case of mutation or engineering. (? do correct me if I'm wrong).
Apparently having moved on to colonising other planets, homosexuals are still cast as outsiders. Something of an anomaly. That was a 'geee, years and years of evolution and revolution and we are still labelling homosexuals and casting homosexuals out, thanks a lot humanity, you have utterly, utterly failed me' moment.
Also the fact that an AI spent time marvelling at the fact that the protagonist loved two people, a male and a female (his family, essentially) at the same time, and that they both loved him back something fierce was... I dunno. Disappointing.
Not to mention the space colonisation started off as a warring between countries instead of a joint effort of human as a species. It left me feel, dejected. I'm not sure that's the right word, but it was something of a very bleak and depressing future. As a species we haven't learned much, I guess.
Yes, I know it's fiction. But looking at the world at large, it's not surprising, just very disheartening.
So in comparison, the bugs, whether small, medium or large, weren't as jarring as they'd been for some others whose review I've read.
I guess it managed some sort of a happy ending. It was a hasty round up though, but reading the notes from the author I realise this was a NaNoWriMo thing, so it was less surprising.