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ekfmef's review
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
I really love this book for its exquisite world building but I hate it for its mediocre plot. And yet I give it four stars because the setting was so nicely compellingly written.
Read this if you want to immerse yourself in a beautiful dystopian setting, that reminds me of New Weird.
Read this if you want to immerse yourself in a beautiful dystopian setting, that reminds me of New Weird.
wyrmbergmalcolm's review
2.0
This is one of those 'What if?' stories which takes a different look at the Fermi Paradox (If the probably that alien life is out there is so high, why haven't we seen them?). However, it largely ignores that premise until right at the end. Instead, it's more of a social commentary dealing with segregation and how humans are viewed as 3th class citizens, or vermin. I liked the more 'alien' aspect of the aliens in that they're not another anthropomorphic stick-a-weird-head-on-a-human-body-and-make-it-wear-a-suit type that a lot of science fiction is guilty of doing. They live in alien structures doing incomprehensible things while the humans live in reservation areas eking out a living. I also like how the humans have a natural alien slant to the way they talk, having adopted the aliens' sub textural click language into their own. Rather than just a slightly irritating gimmick of having each spoken sentence prefixed with a click signifying intent and personal feeling, it does have a plot significance too, which slightly makes up for having to put up with it.
The story itself takes a little while to get going with the first chunk of the book mostly spent learning the local lingo and tech names and uses. We follow a human called Dodge who gives humans illegal identities so they can move about with more freedom than they ordinarily would. He gives the wrong identity to someone and events sort of take the story forward, but not as much as a thing that's going on anyway that's far more significant and... never addressed again. As a character, he's okay, mostly reacting to stuff that happens. There's a big reveal that turns him into a jerk for a bit, but then all is forgiven and that's all right then. The other characters also had potential interest, until they either are revealed to be 'Plot Device' or 'something really awesome - but not going to give further details'. I have questions!
It then turns into a 'the search for the rumoured safe place' story with the usual doubters and trust-in-a-dream tropes. It does have the advantage of showing us a bit more of this Earth, but then decides to not show anything.
The grand finale I would say falls heavily into the Doctor Who trap of pseudo-science mumbo-jumbo with a heavy dose of WTF? and an ending that's ... ‘and then they went home.’
Now it does finally give an interesting answer to the Fermi Paradox but it felt more like a punchline to a long, rambling joke you'd already forgotten the point to.
In all this felt like a really interesting and complex world, but with the lens on Dodger, everything else was out of focus. Far too much happened that wasn't explained or resolved or addressed. It didn't happen, but suppose a meteor crashed down and obliterated a huge chunk of the city, we'd get detail of all that happening, and then what Dodge had for breakfast followed him by making goo-goo eyes at some girl and then possibly going on some errand. There is no further mention of the huge crater or any attempt to rebuild or anything. The book is full of stuff like that, there's an oncoming threat that does last for a significant portion of the book, and then... - nope not going to mention that again, even though it's clearly not finished doing whatever it was doing.
A lot of great ideas, but very little follow-through.
The story itself takes a little while to get going with the first chunk of the book mostly spent learning the local lingo and tech names and uses. We follow a human called Dodge who gives humans illegal identities so they can move about with more freedom than they ordinarily would. He gives the wrong identity to someone and events sort of take the story forward, but not as much as a thing that's going on anyway that's far more significant and... never addressed again. As a character, he's okay, mostly reacting to stuff that happens. There's a big reveal that turns him into a jerk for a bit, but then all is forgiven and that's all right then. The other characters also had potential interest, until they either are revealed to be 'Plot Device' or 'something really awesome - but not going to give further details'. I have questions!
It then turns into a 'the search for the rumoured safe place' story with the usual doubters and trust-in-a-dream tropes. It does have the advantage of showing us a bit more of this Earth, but then decides to not show anything.
The grand finale I would say falls heavily into the Doctor Who trap of pseudo-science mumbo-jumbo with a heavy dose of WTF? and an ending that's ... ‘and then they went home.’
Now it does finally give an interesting answer to the Fermi Paradox but it felt more like a punchline to a long, rambling joke you'd already forgotten the point to.
In all this felt like a really interesting and complex world, but with the lens on Dodger, everything else was out of focus. Far too much happened that wasn't explained or resolved or addressed. It didn't happen, but suppose a meteor crashed down and obliterated a huge chunk of the city, we'd get detail of all that happening, and then what Dodge had for breakfast followed him by making goo-goo eyes at some girl and then possibly going on some errand. There is no further mention of the huge crater or any attempt to rebuild or anything. The book is full of stuff like that, there's an oncoming threat that does last for a significant portion of the book, and then... - nope not going to mention that again, even though it's clearly not finished doing whatever it was doing.
A lot of great ideas, but very little follow-through.
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