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A Great Ending

Revisado: 07-13-24

The author will leave you guessing. Clearly someone dies. But who is it? Who killed them? Why did they kill them? A contemplative but quick whodunnit with a nice twist at the end.

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New Take and Old Take

Revisado: 06-18-24

The narrating is outstanding. However, the story itself is both compelling and disappointing. The plot turns the old story of technology being the downfall of humanity on its head, with technology becoming the limiting factor, the savior, and most likely reliable maintainer of humanity all at once. like humans, artificial intelligences have their own emotions and drives, very much unlike the stereotypical Terminator-style AI. This makes the story a fun one follow. That is, until one notices how female characters are handled by the author. Most of the central characters are males, even the AIs. Though this is sadly standard in male-fominated scifi, women fabs keep hoping male writers will stop sidestepping the mjaority ofnthe world population at some point. Yet, very tellingly, the only central female character wastes time freaking out and irrationally screaming when she should be saving the world from her own creation, and then dies. All other female characters are side characters which feel like tropes; the child, the money-obsessed golddigger, the pretty new love interest, and the obligatory female AI for diversity sake. So, while the overall plot and idea were quite unique and fun, I am debating whether I should read the next book I the series. Will I be distracted and disappointed by my gender being sidelined again? Did the author improve this aspect of his writing in the next one? Should I read reviews of it and then decide? Or, better yet, why are female scifi fans still being faced with these kinds of decisions at all?

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Truely the Right Book at the Right Time

Revisado: 12-03-23

Let's begin with and let this review center on the elephant-sized Kaiju in the room: that cultural identifiers are mostly unknown, gloriously absent from, and entirely irrelevant to this episode of our main character, Jamie's, life experience.

Not only are Jamie's gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and several other cultural identity markers never referenced, they're artfully, intentionally absent from any description of Jamie as a character. Even the name, "Jamie," is so intensely close to neutral, accepting that nothing is truly ever fully neutral in our world.

In KPS, Scalzi has cleverly accepted and leaned into the needs of so many us readers. We need to feel seen and included. While it's true that cultural identifiers can make us feel included by allowing us to see ourselves in the characters, those same identifiers so often leave gigantic swaths of us feeling unheard and unseen in the what is supposed to be a limitless universe in sci-fi.

By allowing Jamie to exist in this clip of their life as a relatively blank cultural slate, Scalzi has written a nearly universal main character that many of us can live through vicariously without suspending too much of ourselves. The creation and telling of this funtastic and sharp main character is timely, refreshing, and necessary during one of our most culturally contentious times as a nation.

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A Lady Star Trek Fan's Dream and Nightmare

Revisado: 10-27-23

At first, I was put off by the repeated use of "she said," or "××× said." There are also some stereotypical yeah-a-man-wrote-this moments and plot points. As with most science fiction written by white guys, the story fails the Bechdel test. Women are side characters, eat salads, and talk about men. Those points being addressed and set aside, this novel is an entertaining, quick-paced, but still deep thought experiment with time and alternate universes. There are silly Star Trek Easter eggs, puns, and jokes that both pay homage to and poke fun at the series' often-times porous plots and those of us on the more intense end of the fandom. Then, just when you think the thought experiment would come to its more stereotypical end, you get the extra bit of the story that places this book toe-to-toe with the clever insightfulness and heart of the Star Trek series itself. And we get to listen to our talented childhood crush, Wil Wheaton narrating. This is a truly delightful listen.

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Excellent Sequel

Revisado: 01-22-23

This is a fantastic follow up to the first. It centers on the choice we always have to make between falling into despair and fear after our traumatic experiences or working our way back to our whole selves by overcoming the fear and despair.

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Effective Slow-Burn Tension

Revisado: 01-22-23

At the core, it's a historical fiction about our choices between living according to others' expectations or our authentic selves situated in the intersectional nature of privilege and oppression, even when living in areas that are considered more accepting or tolerant for the time. It was fun to learn that religious purists outlawed frigging gingerbread men, too.

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A Meditation on Capitalism, Slavery, & Womanhood

Revisado: 11-29-22

A timely piece of historical fiction that reminds white, middle class women of the oppression from which we are not far removed. Harper's second novel in The Wolf Den trilogy is as much a commentary on the historical and current enslavement of women across the world as it is on the damningly insatiable desires of the money worship culture that saturates capitalism throughout the ages. Now that the main character, Amara, has been freed from the sex slave trade by a wealthy, spoiled politician, she must navigate not starving to death while also trying to have some kind of joy, love, even basic humanity in her life. Amara's story reminds us that women's suffering and our very existence in the world too often has balanced precariously on the whims of men, and that our suffering is not an old tale at all. Amara's story could just as easily have been written about a seemingly happy suburban middle class white woman in 1950s America being given brand new refrigerator by her adoring husband, right after he beats her and threatens to have her hospitalized against her will with claims of hysteria. As Harper's heroine is at the mercy of a benefactor who could easily destroy her life, we can just as easily that picture-perfect American housewife hinging all of her bets on the egos and impulses of an ill-tempered, insecure man threatening with claims of hysteria and hospitalization, beating and raping his wife, knowing she has no legitimate job that will pay survival wages for her and her child. This novel is not only a meditation on the rape and physical violence experienced by generations of women and women presently all across the globe, but also on the psychological warfare of emotional abuse. It is not enough that Amara be subjugated, she must be small and afraid. That fear fuels the insecurities of men and women who have lost their own autonomy in the past, and now desperately grasp at any semblance of control they can eek out of their constant, piteous climb toward the altar of the almighty dollar.

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A tragic and beautiful historical fiction

Revisado: 05-24-22

It kept me wanting to know what happened next. The writer delves into how each continent exerted the power of men and religion to contribute to the suffering and deaths of so many African people

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Takes Weird and Fun Turns

Revisado: 05-11-22

Loved it! The story took interesting turns. I like that the author wrote a woman who cusses as a main character. The volume difference between the male and female narrators is tricky. But, the book was a great listen.

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Incredible Continuation

Revisado: 07-02-21

Loved it. Expands on The Expanse. Very good continuation of the series. Makes me want to read more and see what happens next

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