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A review by marlobo
Dark Space by Lisa Henry
4.0
3.5 Stars
I liked the book. And I'll sure read the sequel,. I liked the premise, main characters and the author's work with the rest of the cast.
My major buts are about the atmosphere. With atmosphere I refer to the "human" part of story, that it has too many contemporary elements which wind up as anachronisms in a futuristic setting..
The story happens in a considerably distant future according to certain clues:
* habitual and abundant traffic of aerospace vessels -shitboxes-,
* allusion, toward the ending of the book, to virtually extinct languages. The disappearance of a language lingers generations in crystallizing, specially if it have a writing system.
Given this context, for me it is not enough to "know" intellectually that the story is futuristic; The sense of being immersed in a futuristic tale doesn't originate so much of the mentions of outer space but of multitude of petty details of the day-to-day life: The speech is fundamental, idioms and colloquialisms brand the period; are important also the description of the station, what and how they eat, how they wash up, how it is medical attention, etc. Even the little bit that it can be seen of day-to-day life in Kopa seemed anachronic to me, the image in my mind about Kopa is related more with a scene from the Second Industrial Revolution (Victorian Age at its peak), but without nothing that "smells" to steampunk.
Nothing of the kind happens with all matters related to the Faceless : its aspect, its ship, its technology. Being a fictional construction is more easy accept it without reserves.
Otherwise, the story is absorbing, the issue here about telepathy is fascinating. And if the last chapter leaves something too opened clearly give rise to the sequel .
The way which Kai-Ren solves the communicational problem is obviously necessary to the plot, although it's somewhat silly. I bet that a so advanced technologically race would have been able to resolve it differently.
Cam is okay, although for moments he seemed a bit flat and sounded single-stringed.
And Brady, Brady eats up the book!! Brilliantly achieved, I could "feel" him, he's multidimensional and believable; you want to hug him and to protect him and to help him... and to give him an self-esteem shot.
Finally... I Love Lucy.
I liked the book. And I'll sure read the sequel,. I liked the premise, main characters and the author's work with the rest of the cast.
My major buts are about the atmosphere. With atmosphere I refer to the "human" part of story, that it has too many contemporary elements which wind up as anachronisms in a futuristic setting..
The story happens in a considerably distant future according to certain clues:
Spoiler
* at least 8 space stations with thousands of men living in each one of them during years,* habitual and abundant traffic of aerospace vessels -shitboxes-,
* allusion, toward the ending of the book, to virtually extinct languages. The disappearance of a language lingers generations in crystallizing, specially if it have a writing system.
Given this context, for me it is not enough to "know" intellectually that the story is futuristic; The sense of being immersed in a futuristic tale doesn't originate so much of the mentions of outer space but of multitude of petty details of the day-to-day life: The speech is fundamental, idioms and colloquialisms brand the period; are important also the description of the station, what and how they eat, how they wash up, how it is medical attention, etc. Even the little bit that it can be seen of day-to-day life in Kopa seemed anachronic to me, the image in my mind about Kopa is related more with a scene from the Second Industrial Revolution (Victorian Age at its peak), but without nothing that "smells" to steampunk.
Nothing of the kind happens with all matters related to the Faceless : its aspect, its ship, its technology. Being a fictional construction is more easy accept it without reserves.
Otherwise, the story is absorbing, the issue here about telepathy is fascinating. And if the last chapter leaves something too opened
Spoiler
- why Kai-Ren liberates Cam-The way which Kai-Ren solves the communicational problem is obviously necessary to the plot, although it's somewhat silly. I bet that a so advanced technologically race would have been able to resolve it differently.
Cam is okay, although for moments he seemed a bit flat and sounded single-stringed.
And Brady, Brady eats up the book!! Brilliantly achieved, I could "feel" him, he's multidimensional and believable; you want to hug him and to protect him and to help him... and to give him an self-esteem shot.
Finally... I Love Lucy.