Scan barcode
timinbc's review
2.0
Ecch.
Gee, these student loans suck. How will we ever pay them .. Hey, let's hijack a spaceship! How could it fail? Let's start by picturing two MIT grads hijacking a current-era cruise ship. Not gonna happen. If it does, they have to sleep eventually. Ah, but Stearns has anticipated this argument in the book, so let's use her approach and trigger an abandon-ship alarm that gets all the passengers off the ship and into the ocean, where we will never think of them again. Then we'll radio the pirates and yo, dude, want a ship? Two cut throats later, the pirates have a ship.
I was glad to see from other reviews that I was not alone in finding the writing jerky, unsmooth, flowless ... I dunno, I just kept stopping and having to re-read paragraphs. I only kept reading because I wanted to document that "Say what now?" moments that kept popping up.
This book also feels as if there was a previous volume in which a lot of careful worldbuilding is revealed. Worldbuilding is hard, really hard, but when it is done well we get a setting in which we want 100 books. But worldbuilding isn't done by just making stuff up.
Lead cloud, from lead in destroyed NEU ships? Lookit, I know there's a research model that shows lead-containing particles change the properties of cirrus clouds so that these significantly influence the extent to which long-wave radiation escapes from the earth into space. But the recent battles destroyed enough NEU ships to cut off the station from all directions with a cloud of lead? And by the way, the NEU *won* the war. And who makes spaceships out of lead? OK, wait, they have nuclear engines, and let's say it's fusion, and the engines transmute radioactives into lead, yeah, transmute, that's the ticket! This also brings back an old peeve of mine about space opera : the ongoing destruction of hundreds of mile-long ships with thousands of crew, suggesting infinite budgets and a Gallipoli-like attitude to war.
Blue dust as radiation protection? NASA uses water and polyethylene bricks. Dust seems impractical in many ways, as the author admits. And I can't see hoodies as the answer.
And hey, man, let's not get too techy here; let's give Addled a magic workspace driven by psilocybin so she can, like, grok the system and be one with the AI. I wonder what they call that class at MIT? I expected her to have a didgeridoo in there, man, or a sitar.
So the engines are firing constantly to maintain gravity by spin. Why? Unless I have missed something, I figure that in space, once it's spinning it should need hardly any push to maintain the spin. I will grant that Stearns did pay some attention to the logistics of getting around a ring-plus-hub station, and I will admit that authors have to be careful not to get bogged down in that.
No one can talk to the pilots, except Si Po to an unknown extent. How convenient. Explained later, but I can't see the non-Sloane pirates buying it. Presumably the thing with the pilots is the Big Secret that's in Sloane's cabin; he must leave the documentation on his desk.
Why can't Adda ask her beloved brother WTF happened to his eyes? If they get along so well why have they made no effort to sit down for a talk? They finally do on page 280, implausibly late for lifelong close friends. Not to mention Pel being what older British fans will recognize as a Fotherington-Tomas, oh la, hello clouds, hello sky.
Nasal jacks? You have to explain how anyone ever thought this was a good idea. And why use mechanical jacks at all? These people seem to have instantaneous travel (since time dilation is never mentioned and they can talk to home base from the other side of the lead cloud), and they don't have Bluetooth?
Why are Adda and Iridian an item? How did they even meet, if Iridian was off doing whatever it is that made her the only person in the galaxy with a personal Captain America shield?
What is Sloane all about? A tribute to Zaphod Beeblebrox? And what's with the captain's catamite "Tritheist" who doesn't appear to do anything for the plot except be fey and hate Adda?
I will not be reading #2. Not even if you tell me that Sloane's an AI in an android body.
Gee, these student loans suck. How will we ever pay them .. Hey, let's hijack a spaceship! How could it fail? Let's start by picturing two MIT grads hijacking a current-era cruise ship. Not gonna happen. If it does, they have to sleep eventually. Ah, but Stearns has anticipated this argument in the book, so let's use her approach and trigger an abandon-ship alarm that gets all the passengers off the ship and into the ocean, where we will never think of them again. Then we'll radio the pirates and yo, dude, want a ship? Two cut throats later, the pirates have a ship.
I was glad to see from other reviews that I was not alone in finding the writing jerky, unsmooth, flowless ... I dunno, I just kept stopping and having to re-read paragraphs. I only kept reading because I wanted to document that "Say what now?" moments that kept popping up.
This book also feels as if there was a previous volume in which a lot of careful worldbuilding is revealed. Worldbuilding is hard, really hard, but when it is done well we get a setting in which we want 100 books. But worldbuilding isn't done by just making stuff up.
Lead cloud, from lead in destroyed NEU ships? Lookit, I know there's a research model that shows lead-containing particles change the properties of cirrus clouds so that these significantly influence the extent to which long-wave radiation escapes from the earth into space. But the recent battles destroyed enough NEU ships to cut off the station from all directions with a cloud of lead? And by the way, the NEU *won* the war. And who makes spaceships out of lead? OK, wait, they have nuclear engines, and let's say it's fusion, and the engines transmute radioactives into lead, yeah, transmute, that's the ticket! This also brings back an old peeve of mine about space opera : the ongoing destruction of hundreds of mile-long ships with thousands of crew, suggesting infinite budgets and a Gallipoli-like attitude to war.
Blue dust as radiation protection? NASA uses water and polyethylene bricks. Dust seems impractical in many ways, as the author admits. And I can't see hoodies as the answer.
And hey, man, let's not get too techy here; let's give Addled a magic workspace driven by psilocybin so she can, like, grok the system and be one with the AI. I wonder what they call that class at MIT? I expected her to have a didgeridoo in there, man, or a sitar.
So the engines are firing constantly to maintain gravity by spin. Why? Unless I have missed something, I figure that in space, once it's spinning it should need hardly any push to maintain the spin. I will grant that Stearns did pay some attention to the logistics of getting around a ring-plus-hub station, and I will admit that authors have to be careful not to get bogged down in that.
No one can talk to the pilots, except Si Po to an unknown extent. How convenient. Explained later, but I can't see the non-Sloane pirates buying it. Presumably the thing with the pilots is the Big Secret that's in Sloane's cabin; he must leave the documentation on his desk.
Why can't Adda ask her beloved brother WTF happened to his eyes? If they get along so well why have they made no effort to sit down for a talk? They finally do on page 280, implausibly late for lifelong close friends. Not to mention Pel being what older British fans will recognize as a Fotherington-Tomas, oh la, hello clouds, hello sky.
Nasal jacks? You have to explain how anyone ever thought this was a good idea. And why use mechanical jacks at all? These people seem to have instantaneous travel (since time dilation is never mentioned and they can talk to home base from the other side of the lead cloud), and they don't have Bluetooth?
Why are Adda and Iridian an item? How did they even meet, if Iridian was off doing whatever it is that made her the only person in the galaxy with a personal Captain America shield?
What is Sloane all about? A tribute to Zaphod Beeblebrox? And what's with the captain's catamite "Tritheist" who doesn't appear to do anything for the plot except be fey and hate Adda?
I will not be reading #2. Not even if you tell me that Sloane's an AI in an android body.
stellarian's review
3.0
I liked it well enough. Plenty of action, lots of hard SF things. Could easily be a movie. Super open ending though, a bit unsatisfying. And it took me a long time to read. Maybe because I’m tired and stressed, but I didn’t find it as engaging as I wanted it to be.
whatabetty's review against another edition
Sounded so good on paper. Alas, it was not it. It dragged and felt like it was treading water. Did not follow through with the interesting things it mentioned. Disappointed af.
magicmanxp's review against another edition
3.0
An enticing premise with absolutely stunning diversity, but held back by lack of character depth, sometimes simplistic prose, and a plot that blundered past this book’s true potential.
That being said, I look forward to the next one and hope a sequel makes up for its shortcomings.
That being said, I look forward to the next one and hope a sequel makes up for its shortcomings.
rocketiza's review against another edition
1.0
One of the hazards of buying all your books online is that they don't label clearly Young Adult novels and throw them in the section of the bookstore you hope burns down. Contrived, terrible attempts at characterization, and just puketastic writing. Here's a tip, once you establish a relationship you don't have to write "her girlfriend" at least once every page to remind everyone.
If you are still thinking of reading this, read the author bio in the book. If that doesn't annoy you, then we probably have completely opposite taste and may god have mercy on your soul.
If you are still thinking of reading this, read the author bio in the book. If that doesn't annoy you, then we probably have completely opposite taste and may god have mercy on your soul.
torihbu's review against another edition
1.0
DNF
- lots of lore that was boring to read about & difficult to keep track of
- got ~10% of the way through it before decided i had enough
- a prime example of too much detail!!
- as someone who loves sci-fi, i honestly just couldn't get through this, even though the summary seemed interesting
- lots of lore that was boring to read about & difficult to keep track of
- got ~10% of the way through it before decided i had enough
- a prime example of too much detail!!
- as someone who loves sci-fi, i honestly just couldn't get through this, even though the summary seemed interesting
qalminator's review against another edition
DNF @ 27%.
So ... there's probably a decent story buried somewhere in here. The quality of prose was decent, but there was so much disjointed jumping around from idea to idea and event to event that I just finally gave up.
In the last chapter that I read, Iridian is wondering how to stop Natani and her group from harassing her and Adda. She talks to another crew member about it, then plans to have a talk with Natani, which gets interrupted by an emergency. Iridian's assigned to work with yet another of Natani's group, and does not say a word about this issue to him, despite getting on well with him. Really? Really?!?? That was pretty much the last straw for me.
Additionally, there is constant repetition of things already stated in previous chapters, with nothing new to make it worthwhile to repeat them.
The book is in serious need of a story editor to fix unnecessary repetitions, as well as consistency issues.
ETA: This feels like an "exploration draft", where ideas were written down as they occurred to the writer. There must have been an edit for grammar, but not for consistency and conciseness.
So ... there's probably a decent story buried somewhere in here. The quality of prose was decent, but there was so much disjointed jumping around from idea to idea and event to event that I just finally gave up.
In the last chapter that I read, Iridian is wondering how to stop Natani and her group from harassing her and Adda. She talks to another crew member about it, then plans to have a talk with Natani, which gets interrupted by an emergency. Iridian's assigned to work with yet another of Natani's group, and does not say a word about this issue to him, despite getting on well with him. Really? Really?!?? That was pretty much the last straw for me.
Additionally, there is constant repetition of things already stated in previous chapters, with nothing new to make it worthwhile to repeat them.
The book is in serious need of a story editor to fix unnecessary repetitions, as well as consistency issues.
ETA: This feels like an "exploration draft", where ideas were written down as they occurred to the writer. There must have been an edit for grammar, but not for consistency and conciseness.
wckedmara's review against another edition
2.0
Oh no. This book was quite a mess. I feel like she tried to make boring scenes interesting by adding sloppy urgency. The premise of this book, and the fact that it had a cast of diverse genders and races and everything, is why it's getting two stars instead of one. I had high hopes ...