Reviews

What is it with tea in space? Leckie, de Bodard, others, and now Older.

Tea, and baths, and food. There are only 44 pages left for an actual story. Just as well, really, because for all the rails etc. we only see the university and a remote location that is basically a train station. The railcar is described more than most of the other settings. And hardly anything happens! We are past halfway before the [dramatic thing] happens, and before that it's all tea, interview, fret about relationship (repeat n times, learning a tiny bit each time) and we don't even know whether anything important has happened.

The vocabulary left me verklempt. Too many groks and veeblefetzers and duennas and wossnames just sprinkled like pepper. Io is Io, but Jupiter is Giant. At least they don't also drink kava, by which I am saying I know it's an authorial convention to remind us we are Elsewhere. But here it's just clunky.

Summary: mighta been good but it's just too darn cozy.

schnaucl's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I'm not really sure why this book worked so much better for me than the first one in the series, but it did, and I'm looking forward to the next one. I like the characters, and the setting.

I also liked the slow reestablishment of the relationship between the main characters. They've clearly grown since last time they were together, and they're trying to be more considerate of each other.

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