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johnayliff's review
3.0
Murder in a dome is so rare that an entire dome-based planet has no police that can deal with it, and must call in special police from off-world. Even these police have rarely experienced a crime like the mass murder that kicks off Unexpected Rain, Jason W. LaPier's debut sci-fi mystery novel.
Life in the dome cities is easy and safe, and the effect of this coddling setting on the main characters is interesting. Both main characters (a dome-dweller, and an off-world cop brought in with the investigation) come across as child-like and out of their depth. The cop's first reaction to being called up is annoyance that his sports-watching has been interrupted, and when things start getting serious they often react with more panic than the cooler-headed heroes of other science fiction. I liked the fact that they were both ordinary people, a uniformed police officer (not a detective) and a button-pusher. During the book they must deal with being on their own, unable to rely on the support of their organisations, and this is a more interesting problem for these lowly characters than it would be for others.
Another interesting aspect of the book's clever treatment of race. People's skin colour is determined by the sunlight in their place of birth: domers, growing up under artificial light, are pale white; people born in deep space are green; and so forth. It was interesting to see racial prejudice through the lens of an invented set of races. It did feel implausible that this new skin colour system has so completely replaced modern-day racial identities, though--and it makes it more noticeable that almost all the character names are Anglo-American.
The book's main weakness for me was that, apart from this new examination of race, the setting feels like modern-day America transplanted into space. Perhaps this is meant to convey cultural stagnation, but it still leaves me lacking the sense of strangeness I would hope for in sf worldbuilding.
I admit that I'm much less of a mystery reader than an sf reader, but the mystery aspect of this novel didn't work for me. We don't really know any of the victims as individuals, so we don't have a reason to care about their justice; the victim we do care about is Jax, the life support operator who was framed for the murder, but we have no reason to think he has a personal relationship with the real culprit so the mystery is an intellectual rather than an emotional one. The characters solve the mystery by following clues based on technical details of life support systems etc., and these technical details are interesting, but they're introduced only as the characters use them so there is never a chance for the reader to work anything out before the characters do.
The scrapes that the characters get into on the way are entertaining, though, and seeing how the technically-minded protagonists behave when they have to deal with people is especially fun. There are some unexpected twists, often brought about by the actions of a spacefaring criminal gang with its own identity, so the book keeps the reader on their toes.
The writing is consistently good but rarely great. There is an unfortunate tendency for characters to explain details of the setting to one another, most jarringly in one sequence in which criminals boarding and capturing a spaceship is conveyed by having the point-of-view characters hide from the action and describe criminal boarding tactics to one another. There are a few good moments, though, in particular one character's drug-induced personal epiphany.
Overall, an enjoyable book with some good ideas.
Life in the dome cities is easy and safe, and the effect of this coddling setting on the main characters is interesting. Both main characters (a dome-dweller, and an off-world cop brought in with the investigation) come across as child-like and out of their depth. The cop's first reaction to being called up is annoyance that his sports-watching has been interrupted, and when things start getting serious they often react with more panic than the cooler-headed heroes of other science fiction. I liked the fact that they were both ordinary people, a uniformed police officer (not a detective) and a button-pusher. During the book they must deal with being on their own, unable to rely on the support of their organisations, and this is a more interesting problem for these lowly characters than it would be for others.
Another interesting aspect of the book's clever treatment of race. People's skin colour is determined by the sunlight in their place of birth: domers, growing up under artificial light, are pale white; people born in deep space are green; and so forth. It was interesting to see racial prejudice through the lens of an invented set of races. It did feel implausible that this new skin colour system has so completely replaced modern-day racial identities, though--and it makes it more noticeable that almost all the character names are Anglo-American.
The book's main weakness for me was that, apart from this new examination of race, the setting feels like modern-day America transplanted into space. Perhaps this is meant to convey cultural stagnation, but it still leaves me lacking the sense of strangeness I would hope for in sf worldbuilding.
I admit that I'm much less of a mystery reader than an sf reader, but the mystery aspect of this novel didn't work for me. We don't really know any of the victims as individuals, so we don't have a reason to care about their justice; the victim we do care about is Jax, the life support operator who was framed for the murder, but we have no reason to think he has a personal relationship with the real culprit so the mystery is an intellectual rather than an emotional one. The characters solve the mystery by following clues based on technical details of life support systems etc., and these technical details are interesting, but they're introduced only as the characters use them so there is never a chance for the reader to work anything out before the characters do.
The scrapes that the characters get into on the way are entertaining, though, and seeing how the technically-minded protagonists behave when they have to deal with people is especially fun. There are some unexpected twists, often brought about by the actions of a spacefaring criminal gang with its own identity, so the book keeps the reader on their toes.
The writing is consistently good but rarely great. There is an unfortunate tendency for characters to explain details of the setting to one another, most jarringly in one sequence in which criminals boarding and capturing a spaceship is conveyed by having the point-of-view characters hide from the action and describe criminal boarding tactics to one another. There are a few good moments, though, in particular one character's drug-induced personal epiphany.
Overall, an enjoyable book with some good ideas.
ibustama's review
5.0
This book was amazingly entertaining. There’s a bit of everything for everyone, especially for those who are technically minded and enjoy a bit of geeky programming. In UNEXPECTED RAIN you will follow Runstom and Jax in a quest in which they will decipher clues using their technical expertise. The characters are a bit clueless in the beginning, just regular folks, but they make the best to detangle the mystery. Runstom and Jax develop an unlikely friendship that makes me wonder what book 2 will have in store. My favorite parts were the ones involving Space Waste. There’s a scene between Jax and Johnny Eyeball that had me rolling laughing. I hope we will see more of them in the future. LaPier does a great job painting his Sci-Fi world in the reader’s mind and creating a sense of boundless adventure. This was a fun read .
snowcrash's review
2.0
I came across this book on a hunt of new things at the local bookstore during the summer. That is the kind of trip where I wander for a couple hours, picking up only authors I have never heard of before. This book looked interesting, combining sci-fi and a detective novel into one. Add a point for the author being local to Portland.
But it never really worked. The characters were flat, the mystery just moving along from point to point. All of the characters have a hidden history of one bad memory, mainly around the loss of a mom. It is used to justify where we find them at the beginning of the book and their actions from then on. The characters that we are following never really evolve.
The initial layout of the future seemed interesting. Then it fell apart once the focus leaves the microcosm of the sub-dome in question. Just why are people living a dull existence on a rock when the planet over there are lots of rich people? Or how does the local economy support huge (as in major city huge) cruise ships for the ultra-rich? Or even build such marvels of engineering?
The author attempts to make social commentary about how people are prejudice against skin colors. The science explanation of why people are different skin colors (due to radiation filters) doesn’t make sense. It does keep the story away from a singlar ethnic group, instead categorizing people on where they were born (ie skin color). But the author doesn’t do much with it. The end result feels like a way to make characters react to slurs about their skin, but then it is tossed aside, never to return until the hackles need to be raised again.
The author’s IT background bleeds through, but the technology isn’t all that interesting. The programming examples look like Basic. No one has a phone or personal device, forcing everyone to use terminals. Automation is bad, as it depresses the humans. There is high technology in the background, such as artificial gravity and FTL travel. But the idea of how radio transmissions in space would work don’t make sense.
But it never really worked. The characters were flat, the mystery just moving along from point to point. All of the characters have a hidden history of one bad memory, mainly around the loss of a mom. It is used to justify where we find them at the beginning of the book and their actions from then on. The characters that we are following never really evolve.
The initial layout of the future seemed interesting. Then it fell apart once the focus leaves the microcosm of the sub-dome in question. Just why are people living a dull existence on a rock when the planet over there are lots of rich people? Or how does the local economy support huge (as in major city huge) cruise ships for the ultra-rich? Or even build such marvels of engineering?
The author attempts to make social commentary about how people are prejudice against skin colors. The science explanation of why people are different skin colors (due to radiation filters) doesn’t make sense. It does keep the story away from a singlar ethnic group, instead categorizing people on where they were born (ie skin color). But the author doesn’t do much with it. The end result feels like a way to make characters react to slurs about their skin, but then it is tossed aside, never to return until the hackles need to be raised again.
The author’s IT background bleeds through, but the technology isn’t all that interesting. The programming examples look like Basic. No one has a phone or personal device, forcing everyone to use terminals. Automation is bad, as it depresses the humans. There is high technology in the background, such as artificial gravity and FTL travel. But the idea of how radio transmissions in space would work don’t make sense.
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