A book club pick :)

My friends, I have just immersed myself in a Star Trek episode that was almost 500 pages long.

(With maybe a bit of Firefly thrown in, but I only ever saw two episodes, so I am not an expert.)

The above is not a bad thing in itself, Star Trek being Star Trek :)

“It’s like the ship is being hammered by some kind of anomalous subspace energy.” Well, of course it is!

“I’m a mathematical genius, not a fucking magician.” (That was the best line in this book!)

I thought I was going to have fun. The story was not very original, but interesting enough to keep me turning the pages. And I did have fun (all these fortunate coincidences ;) ), but only for a while.

The writing keeps you going from chapter to chapter. This is not the kind of writing that goes right to your heart, and that’s usually ok for this kind of book. It kept giving me an unpleasant aftertaste, though. Also, there were way too many long, long, long info dump conversations that tried my patience. All of them should have been cut in half (at least).

The Felen and the Voiced are very obviously “inspired by” Ann Leckie’s universe – the Presger and the Presger Translators. I rolled my eyes at that. All the books out there influence each other in some way, but there is borrowing and then there is borrowing. Borrowing done badly is just annoying.

The characters were not done well. I don’t mind flat characters in a “Star Trek book”, the problem was that this book wanted them to have some depth and tragic (oh, so traaaaaaaagic) backstories. It didn’t work.
That feeling of overwhelming second-hand embarrassment when you are watching a badly acted mediocre play? That was me for about two thirds of the book. “Oh, no, I can’t believe the author made character X say this.” The characters broke down in tears a lot, too, falling sobbing to the ground. I looked away, embarrassed. Cringe, cringe, cringe. I don’t think that was the reaction I was supposed to have ;) Oh, and the romance was achingly bad.

While I was still having fun, I thought it was going to be three star read – an entertaining and undemanding book with some flaws to facepalm at. But the bad characterization and ambitions that really have no place in a book of this kind made me so annoyed and impatient to finish that I am giving this two stars. Somebody give me better sci-fi, please! ( )

Lost in space: the crew of two ships try to save themselves and human civilisation while snared immobile in a cosmic rift. (Gee, I wonder if they succeed....?!) One is a science research vessel with a VIP passenger, the other a rag-bag of good-at-heart ruffians. It's a solid, pacy sci-fi adventure despite a few too many 'fortunate' coincidences - a promising debut for Ren Hutchings. ( )

DNF p. 159. Geez, it's difficult to find good sci-fi these days. I really tried to hang in with this, but despite the interesting premise, the execution of both the storyline and the characters were not engaging enough to keep me interested. A whole lot of people seem not only to have enjoyed it, but thought it was fantastic. I'm disappointed not to have been one of those people. ( )

Considering that this is a first novel, it's a perfectly acceptable slice of modern space opera. Basically, it's a "Beach Read." If there is one thing that I thought was notable, it's that Hutchings, in the context of a time-loop story, uses flashback interludes very effectively. ( )

2022 book #45. 2022. A deep space research ship gets caught in a subspace rift with a fabled ship from the past, the ship and crew that negotiated the end to a war with an alien race some 150 years before. Somehow they have to get free to save history. Good yarn if a little slow. ( )