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A review by elusivity
Light Chaser by Peter F. Hamilton, Gareth L. Powell
2.0
Really not a fan of this one. The description lead me to expect some type of mystery solving, but the story itself is utterly straight forward: MC is akin to an Amazon delivery person traveling through interstellar space, each of her rounds taking 1,000 years from start to finish, delivering generations of outer system people's memories for casual entertainment at the final world.
TWENTY-SIX THOUSAND YEARS apparently went by like no time. She doesn't gain in wisdom nor a sense of perspective either from her age alone, nor from binging on thousands of people's life-time memories. Her quotes and references are from circa 20th century earth (hanging out in a 1960s mansion recreated in her spaceship and quoting Sherlock Holmes wtf).
In fact, there is no character growth at all. She gets a bunch of messages from the equivalent of a bunch of videos and all her memories conveniently comes back. There should've been more exploration of her conflict--personal conflict: I've been duped all these years! (she is depressed for some years, but the authors went with description of external action versus more in-depth working-out of her actual mental thoughts or emotions during this time) or, I love this luxurious immortal life that the maybe-treacherous AI provides; moral conflict: should I destroy the peace of MILLENNIA on the thousands of human worlds just for some unknown evolution? What's so great about evolving, anyway? (Lots of things, actually, but the book just expected the reader to agree without providing any of its own reasoning that isn't Carloman preaching.) The idea that humans, when allowed to freely develop, DID and DO end up in wars and violence, is brushed over in one sentence.
Finally, how are those other aliens worse than MC and Carloman? who are ALSO beings from out of the time-space who introject themselves into the material universe, inhabiting human lives for their own entertainment? Is it just that those aliens want safe and stable "immersion game play" versus the freedom that MC and her dude think "humans should have"?
I spent the second half of this story expecting a twist ending: maybe MC developed a mental illness from her long life and has gang-stalking type hallucinations, and her destroying the universe will turn out to be a mistake. Maybe Carloman is actually from some End Times cult with secret nefarious purpose and she will find out too late.
But no. It is just straight up a story about reincarnating soul mates who find each other through time and space, meet in person after being parted for TWENTY-SIX THOUSAND YEARS and becomes a perfect couple instantly, united in their goals, explodes the universe, and reincarnates immediately. They are off to the good times of being human-playable-entities now that these other boring bland aliens are destroyed. Bleh.
TWO STARS for being well written and having such an interesting set-up, but I kinda hate the second half of this book for being so disappointing.
TWENTY-SIX THOUSAND YEARS apparently went by like no time. She doesn't gain in wisdom nor a sense of perspective either from her age alone, nor from binging on thousands of people's life-time memories. Her quotes and references are from circa 20th century earth (hanging out in a 1960s mansion recreated in her spaceship and quoting Sherlock Holmes wtf).
In fact, there is no character growth at all. She gets a bunch of messages from the equivalent of a bunch of videos and all her memories conveniently comes back. There should've been more exploration of her conflict--personal conflict: I've been duped all these years! (she is depressed for some years, but the authors went with description of external action versus more in-depth working-out of her actual mental thoughts or emotions during this time) or, I love this luxurious immortal life that the maybe-treacherous AI provides; moral conflict: should I destroy the peace of MILLENNIA on the thousands of human worlds just for some unknown evolution? What's so great about evolving, anyway? (Lots of things, actually, but the book just expected the reader to agree without providing any of its own reasoning that isn't Carloman preaching.) The idea that humans, when allowed to freely develop, DID and DO end up in wars and violence, is brushed over in one sentence.
Finally, how are those other aliens worse than MC and Carloman? who are ALSO beings from out of the time-space who introject themselves into the material universe, inhabiting human lives for their own entertainment? Is it just that those aliens want safe and stable "immersion game play" versus the freedom that MC and her dude think "humans should have"?
I spent the second half of this story expecting a twist ending: maybe MC developed a mental illness from her long life and has gang-stalking type hallucinations, and her destroying the universe will turn out to be a mistake. Maybe Carloman is actually from some End Times cult with secret nefarious purpose and she will find out too late.
But no. It is just straight up a story about reincarnating soul mates who find each other through time and space, meet in person after being parted for TWENTY-SIX THOUSAND YEARS and becomes a perfect couple instantly, united in their goals, explodes the universe, and reincarnates immediately. They are off to the good times of being human-playable-entities now that these other boring bland aliens are destroyed. Bleh.
TWO STARS for being well written and having such an interesting set-up, but I kinda hate the second half of this book for being so disappointing.