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A review by nancyotoole
Natural History by Justina Robson
3.0
During a fifteen year journey away from earth, Isol makes two startling discoveries: alien technology that can transport her across the galaxy in the blink of the eye, and an abandoned planet that can still support life. Isol wants this planet to be a new home for her and the other Forged, the half-human/half-machine individuals who live an oppressed existence on earth. Before they can settle, the unevolved have called upon Zephyr Duquesne, a cultural archeologist, to examine the planet and hopefully determine the truth behind the beings that once lived there.
Natural History is a title that's a bit outside of my comfort zone. Sure, I enjoy sci-fi, but Natural History is a bit harder on the science than I'm used to. To be perfectly honest some of the sections involving technology went a bit over my head. Despite my inability to fully comprehend some of the nuts and bolts of the book, I have to admit that I really enjoyed the overall world presented in this selection. The idea of the forged is something completely alien and new to me, and once I got over the concept of someone being human while also being a ship, or something equally lacking a human shape, I found it quite fascinating. I also felt that picking the all-human Zephyr as a major player was a great way of drawing readers into the novel. We may struggle to relate well to creatures who at first seem more machine than human, but Zephyr, who doesn't even have any mechanical upgrades, is a character who is easy to connect to, and through her we're able to learn quite a lot about this world, as she grows and evolves as a character.
Natural History is a very complex book, filled with tons of characters, tons of science, tons of politics, and tons of concepts that may be hard to digest at first. A few times, I found I had to place the book down to think a little more about the information I had been presented. The upside of this complexity, is that Natural History is a very rich novel. The downside is that it can be very difficult to keep up with every individual character's storyline on top of the overarching themes of the novel. This wasn't too much of a big deal for me at the beginning, or the end of the book, but wading through the big swampy the middle was occasionally dizzying to me. I often found myself wishing the author had placed a dictionary in the back so I could have a quick reference for information on the different types of forged, and other concepts presented. Perhaps the books biggest drawback is the fact that some of the characters aren't quite as interesting as others. As mentioned before, I connected well to Zephyr. I also enjoyed the characters if Isol and Abacand. Others such as Trini, seemed undeveloped, and Gritter was just annoying. Perhaps my complaint is due to the fact that I typically read more character driven fiction, and as a result wish that more time was spent on character development.
Natural History is not a beach read. It's filled with a large cast, complex worldbuilding, and concepts that are probably going to be hard for a reader to digest. It ends with many characters having to make a difficult choice. I'm not sure if that choice is a good thing, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Although it has it's faults, and can be difficult to swallow at times, there's no denying that Natural History is interesting little book that I liked.
Natural History is a title that's a bit outside of my comfort zone. Sure, I enjoy sci-fi, but Natural History is a bit harder on the science than I'm used to. To be perfectly honest some of the sections involving technology went a bit over my head. Despite my inability to fully comprehend some of the nuts and bolts of the book, I have to admit that I really enjoyed the overall world presented in this selection. The idea of the forged is something completely alien and new to me, and once I got over the concept of someone being human while also being a ship, or something equally lacking a human shape, I found it quite fascinating. I also felt that picking the all-human Zephyr as a major player was a great way of drawing readers into the novel. We may struggle to relate well to creatures who at first seem more machine than human, but Zephyr, who doesn't even have any mechanical upgrades, is a character who is easy to connect to, and through her we're able to learn quite a lot about this world, as she grows and evolves as a character.
Natural History is a very complex book, filled with tons of characters, tons of science, tons of politics, and tons of concepts that may be hard to digest at first. A few times, I found I had to place the book down to think a little more about the information I had been presented. The upside of this complexity, is that Natural History is a very rich novel. The downside is that it can be very difficult to keep up with every individual character's storyline on top of the overarching themes of the novel. This wasn't too much of a big deal for me at the beginning, or the end of the book, but wading through the big swampy the middle was occasionally dizzying to me. I often found myself wishing the author had placed a dictionary in the back so I could have a quick reference for information on the different types of forged, and other concepts presented. Perhaps the books biggest drawback is the fact that some of the characters aren't quite as interesting as others. As mentioned before, I connected well to Zephyr. I also enjoyed the characters if Isol and Abacand. Others such as Trini, seemed undeveloped, and Gritter was just annoying. Perhaps my complaint is due to the fact that I typically read more character driven fiction, and as a result wish that more time was spent on character development.
Natural History is not a beach read. It's filled with a large cast, complex worldbuilding, and concepts that are probably going to be hard for a reader to digest. It ends with many characters having to make a difficult choice. I'm not sure if that choice is a good thing, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Although it has it's faults, and can be difficult to swallow at times, there's no denying that Natural History is interesting little book that I liked.