Reviews

Anomaly by Peter Cawdron

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rob_reitz's review against another edition

3.0

For what it was, it was good. Not great writing but I imagine he didn't have the editors like a major author would. I liked the concepts.

otter_the_grouch's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

Everything about this was disappointing.

I can suspend a certain amount of disbelief for science fiction, but the leaps in logic were so wide it’s like he doesn’t even try to connect one thought to another.

The characterization is ridiculous.

The religious commentary is flat and shows a great misunderstanding of non abrahamic religions.

The romance is shoehorned in. Stiff and completely unnecessary.

The social response is unrealistic, over the top, and treats humans like animals. It’s an outdated point of view.

The writing is basic and has a monotone feel.

I cannot find a single redeeming quality.

kappafrog's review against another edition

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adventurous informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

I was curious about the anomaly, and that kept me reading. The best part about this book was the uniqueness of the anomaly. That idea was an interesting contribution to science fiction. (One thing that was left unexplained though: How could the anomaly be stationary in space, pointing to the same distant galaxy, if the Earth is constantly moving through space as it revolves around the sun?)

The rest of the book was unfortunately not very good. The science team was a militarized white man's club. The only major female character, Cathy, was introduced with two paragraphs about how she wished she was blonde. There are no female or POC scientists. We hear about what a great guy Teller is by teaching students of a variety of races (each one painstakingly specified), but the people actually working with the anomaly are all white. The book sometimes tried to be reflective about these issues (Cathy correcting the assumption the anomaly was a man, characters briefly entertaining the idea that the world protests against the USA controlling the research might have a point) but overall didn't do anything to disrupt that status quo. For example, Christopher Columbus is repeatedly cited as a great explorer, and Native peoples are present only in tired (and ultimately racist) analogies about communicating with aliens.

The romance was boring and sometimes laughably bad (all the descriptions of Cathy as "quirky" for example). Teller was a completely uninteresting main character until he finally got a bit of development at the very end of the book. The other characters were almost entirely indistinguishable. This book was recommended to me as an example of humanity puzzling with an alien anomaly, and it did mostly deliver on that, but I can't really recommend this book to others.

Content Warnings

barbtrek's review against another edition

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5.0

Interesting first contact story. I was thinking it reminded me of the book Contact by Carl Sagan & the author mentioned it was one of his inspirations.

lyleblosser's review against another edition

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4.0

Entertaining, thought-provoking, and well-developed tale of humanity, with all its insights and failings, and how it might respond when the truly alien appears.