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kaatelin 's review for:
The Vela: The Complete Season 1
by Becky Chambers, Rivers Solomon, Yoon Ha Lee, S.L. Huang
Read because I had loved Becky Chambers and wanted to give sci fi a better chance.
Note that after I finished this book, I learned that it originally started as a narrative podcast! Makes more sense about why the recording has sound effects throughout. I will say the sound effects grew on me and did make it feel more immersive - especially when alarms or sirens would go off and the sound of them would continue playing under the dialogue until the scene ended. Minus points to the AI spider sounds (meaning the AI spiders in the book, not AI generated spider sounds) which were used waaay too much and felt like nails on a chalkboard to me, and to the random loud noises out of nowhere which made me jump while I was listening to this while driving (no cars were harmed in the listening of this book).
The story overall was lackluster to me. I didn't feel a huge draw to the characters, and the plot felt convoluted and confusing. I ha a really hard time telling apart characters, and while now knowing it was a podcast explains the episodic structure, it hurt the novel that it felt episodic, like we were picking up different strands when we had different authors writing. I did love the first chapter that Becky Chambers wrote (the reason why I picked this up) mainly for its cutaways of videos from climate refugees who were talking about their experiences.
I wish this book took a deeper stance on its main theme. It had a great chance to make some commentary about the treatment of refugees, particularly climate refugees. I think the climate disaster in this universe made a lot of sense to me and was compelling, but the responses were not. We also didn't get a lot of face time with any refugees themselves! In some ways that felt kind of exploitative.
ugh I really wanted to like either Asala or Niko, but they were both too frustrating for me. Asala was somehow extremely strong, feeling almost Mary-Sue-ish at times? And Niko also could just miraculously work on any technology and more or less have it working. The end of the novel also talks a lot about their bond they've developed, but I'm not sure I believed it.Niko's "secret" motivation of being part of a society that was against his father's regime didn't do it for me, and neither did Asala's desire to save her sister who had become an indentured soldier to an opposing army. Neither of these motivations and relationships felt developed enough for me to feel truly invested.
The technology introduced at the end felt too magical mystical for a book that I hoped would be more grounded in the day to day issues of conflict, of course with some dramatic incidents.What do you mean everyone is just going to escape using a wormhole creating device? I really don't get how it was developed and why it was on the Vela?
My main gripe with this book was just that it couldn't hold my attention. I listened all the way through, but didn't retain much at all. I didn't realize it was part of a larger series until the last 10 min of the book when I thought "wait, they can't wrap it up that fast" so I'll be giving it a listen to see where they decide to lead this.
Note that after I finished this book, I learned that it originally started as a narrative podcast! Makes more sense about why the recording has sound effects throughout. I will say the sound effects grew on me and did make it feel more immersive - especially when alarms or sirens would go off and the sound of them would continue playing under the dialogue until the scene ended. Minus points to the AI spider sounds (meaning the AI spiders in the book, not AI generated spider sounds) which were used waaay too much and felt like nails on a chalkboard to me, and to the random loud noises out of nowhere which made me jump while I was listening to this while driving (no cars were harmed in the listening of this book).
The story overall was lackluster to me. I didn't feel a huge draw to the characters, and the plot felt convoluted and confusing. I ha a really hard time telling apart characters, and while now knowing it was a podcast explains the episodic structure, it hurt the novel that it felt episodic, like we were picking up different strands when we had different authors writing. I did love the first chapter that Becky Chambers wrote (the reason why I picked this up) mainly for its cutaways of videos from climate refugees who were talking about their experiences.
I wish this book took a deeper stance on its main theme. It had a great chance to make some commentary about the treatment of refugees, particularly climate refugees. I think the climate disaster in this universe made a lot of sense to me and was compelling, but the responses were not. We also didn't get a lot of face time with any refugees themselves! In some ways that felt kind of exploitative.
ugh I really wanted to like either Asala or Niko, but they were both too frustrating for me. Asala was somehow extremely strong, feeling almost Mary-Sue-ish at times? And Niko also could just miraculously work on any technology and more or less have it working. The end of the novel also talks a lot about their bond they've developed, but I'm not sure I believed it.
The technology introduced at the end felt too magical mystical for a book that I hoped would be more grounded in the day to day issues of conflict, of course with some dramatic incidents.
My main gripe with this book was just that it couldn't hold my attention. I listened all the way through, but didn't retain much at all. I didn't realize it was part of a larger series until the last 10 min of the book when I thought "wait, they can't wrap it up that fast" so I'll be giving it a listen to see where they decide to lead this.