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alexbe2ab4's review
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
octavia_cade's review
2.0
The third in the New Earth series, and it's one of those books where I say "There's nothing wrong with it, exactly..." And in all fairness, there were likable things here. I enjoyed that the focus was entirely on Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov. I really liked the idea of the Carsons, and wished that organisation had held a more central position in the narrative. But mostly this was like a sci-fi version of a western. There's illegal mining and dust storms, a fight between greed and survival, and it's just all so stretched out. There were a lot of scenes of flying shuttles in storms, or the three main characters just missing each other, or, interminably, Uhura's efforts to get a working communicator. I wonder if Graf was going for the effect of recreating Uhura's frustration in the reader, building empathy for her that way, but to me it only felt rather crushingly repetitive. And, crucially, all just a little bit dull.
bdplume's review
3.0
I honestly expected more from this installment. Once the intrigue really got going at the end, it turned out to be pretty good, but I was really hoping more would happen. Kind of a departure from any of the outside influences and all about the colony itself. Perhaps an important step in the whole picture, but I'd rather have had the internal problems as a B story in all the books than separated out into a single volume.
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