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ruxandra_grr 's review for:
The Spare Man
by Mary Robinette Kowal
I probably would have loved this book a few years ago! It is a fun scifi whodunit, about a lady who loves cocktails, has a nice husband and the world's most adorable dog and is also a bajillionaire, so she can afford to travel in style! But the thing is my tolerance for bajillionaires has drastically dropped recently and no amount of 'giving grants' or 'charity work' (I have those in quotes because I have also become painfully aware of how a lot of charity is a tax break scam or an undue exerting of power and influence to further the bajillionaire's agenda! I can't turn off my analysis brain not even when reading a cozy mystery!)
I keep saying bajillionaire because this is the future and I have no idea how much wealth Tesla Crane, our main character and amateur detective has accrued of the hard work of working class people! Tesla is on her honeymoon and she suffers from PTSD and also has had a Deep Brain Stimulation device installed, to help her with pain management after a catastrophic accident. And her adorable Westie dog, Gimlet, is a service dog! I mention this because the PTSD + DBS + service dog is the only reason I was able to get through this book and being in Tesla's bajillionaire head for 350+ pages. It brings a real sense of stakes and viscerality to the book and the character. It makes her someone you can connect to.
Because beyond that... hoo boy! Tesla is such a product of wealth and privilege and it is so deeply baked into the book plot that the novel could not exist without her wealth and privilege. That privilege and power is *very summarily* explored in this book and honestly I think if it had been ignored, my brain would have been able to turn off easier. But no. I had to be inside her head each single time she had to *remind* herself not to yell at a lot of service people and use tip/ bribes instead to get her way. Shal, her devoted husband also has to kinda rein her in and make her aware that she is overstepping with regular, working people she has a huge amount of power over (even before they knew she was Tesla Crane!). Also, her sharky crochet-ing attorney Fantine is played for laughs in this book, but she uses the money, power and connections she has to basically help Tesla get her way. She keeps threatening lawsuits. For a good cause? I guess!
On the surface, Tesla seems to be aware of her power and privilege, but it mostly actually seems like she hasn't emotionally internalized the tools she needs to actually question it. It seems like she is more interested in projecting a right image than being kind to 'the help' and she also asks for the manager quite a lot in the book.
But the issue goes much deeper than that..
Oh, I will never forget how Tesla says to a character: 'I would offer to recommend you a lawyer, but I can't imagine a universe in which you could afford her'. Wtaf??? is this supposed to be witty banter from our main character?! 'You're poor and I'm rich nyah nyah nyah nyah'?
Beyond this, I quite liked a lot of stuff in the book, like the whole genderless society that respects the way people identify, that was ok rendered. But it also feels kinda sad, because there has been tech progress, we are 50 or so years into the future, we have gone to Mars and the Moon and have colonies there, but still there is a huge disparity in wealth that is not looked at.
The mystery worked for me if I divorce it for the unfortunate privilege framing, the device of 'communication lag' with Earth worked really well for both humor and suspense. The relationship between Tesla and Shal was... adequate. There is a very little tease there about their disparity in wealth, but it's also in the first 30 pages or so and then it's dropped.
Was I too harsh on this book? I don't know. It's probably a 2.5 stars. I really think just ignoring all of the 'trying to engage with privilege but doing it very superficially' would have made this a funner experience, because once you raise those issues, you can't unring the bell!
I keep saying bajillionaire because this is the future and I have no idea how much wealth Tesla Crane, our main character and amateur detective has accrued of the hard work of working class people! Tesla is on her honeymoon and she suffers from PTSD and also has had a Deep Brain Stimulation device installed, to help her with pain management after a catastrophic accident. And her adorable Westie dog, Gimlet, is a service dog! I mention this because the PTSD + DBS + service dog is the only reason I was able to get through this book and being in Tesla's bajillionaire head for 350+ pages. It brings a real sense of stakes and viscerality to the book and the character. It makes her someone you can connect to.
Because beyond that... hoo boy! Tesla is such a product of wealth and privilege and it is so deeply baked into the book plot that the novel could not exist without her wealth and privilege. That privilege and power is *very summarily* explored in this book and honestly I think if it had been ignored, my brain would have been able to turn off easier. But no. I had to be inside her head each single time she had to *remind* herself not to yell at a lot of service people and use tip/ bribes instead to get her way. Shal, her devoted husband also has to kinda rein her in and make her aware that she is overstepping with regular, working people she has a huge amount of power over (even before they knew she was Tesla Crane!). Also, her sharky crochet-ing attorney Fantine is played for laughs in this book, but she uses the money, power and connections she has to basically help Tesla get her way. She keeps threatening lawsuits. For a good cause? I guess!
On the surface, Tesla seems to be aware of her power and privilege, but it mostly actually seems like she hasn't emotionally internalized the tools she needs to actually question it. It seems like she is more interested in projecting a right image than being kind to 'the help' and she also asks for the manager quite a lot in the book.
But the issue goes much deeper than that.
Spoiler
The killer is an actor, not a rich person and his helpers are also working people, like the magician Nile Silver and also 'wall' security guy Bob. And of course, the chief of security on the ship, still someone with much less privilege than Tesla is and he is painted as a villain, through and through. So there is a framing here where all the rich people are innocent lambs and the people who want to relieve them of their wealth are evil. Oh, and the cocktail god mixologist, Josie, is impaled by acupuncture needles all over her body near the end, but we don't hear anything else about that, it's only relevant because Tesla's husband was almost the victim of that, and Josie doesn't really matter.Oh, I will never forget how Tesla says to a character: 'I would offer to recommend you a lawyer, but I can't imagine a universe in which you could afford her'. Wtaf??? is this supposed to be witty banter from our main character?! 'You're poor and I'm rich nyah nyah nyah nyah'?
Beyond this, I quite liked a lot of stuff in the book, like the whole genderless society that respects the way people identify, that was ok rendered. But it also feels kinda sad, because there has been tech progress, we are 50 or so years into the future, we have gone to Mars and the Moon and have colonies there, but still there is a huge disparity in wealth that is not looked at.
The mystery worked for me if I divorce it for the unfortunate privilege framing, the device of 'communication lag' with Earth worked really well for both humor and suspense. The relationship between Tesla and Shal was... adequate. There is a very little tease there about their disparity in wealth, but it's also in the first 30 pages or so and then it's dropped.
Was I too harsh on this book? I don't know. It's probably a 2.5 stars. I really think just ignoring all of the 'trying to engage with privilege but doing it very superficially' would have made this a funner experience, because once you raise those issues, you can't unring the bell!