Machine by Elizabeth Bear
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Billed as a straight space opera (but not with a straight MC), this follows a lot of usual tropes. Between salvage, finding an alien artifact, and juggling a few mysteries while handling personal and interpersonal ones, this has all the hallmarks of a comfortable opera read.
Good points: the MC is a doctor and happens to be one devoted to her job no matter how complicated that makes her life. Personal pain management has a bit of a House feel, too. And then there is the Machine. I like the whole thing about the Machine, but let me be honest: it's been done before. A lot. Like, a lot, a lot. I think of just having read Paolini's new work a few months ago and I'm trying not to compare the two, but this one suffers.
Bad points: the pacing is sometimes uneven and my interest sometimes lagged. It was far from being a bad tale, but it generally fits firmly in the "comfort" SF category. Again, that's not really a bad thing. It just happens to be an issue about pushing those boundaries.
It really doesn't.
BUT, there are worse things than to be a comfort read that checks off a number of boxes. Me, I'd have preferred something a lot more courageous. The mystery was quite fun. Hacking AI consciousnesses is VERY fun. I suppose I would have gone gaga if there had been more. More mystery. More surprise.
View all my reviews
Saturday, December 12, 2020
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett My rating: 5 of 5 stars Re-Read 12/6/24: Always like coming home to a piece of bread. Mind you, thi...
-
Rum Luck by Ryan Aldred My rating: 5 of 5 stars Honestly, I can't quite decide if this is was more of a wonderful flight of a daydrea...
-
Providence by Max Barry My rating: 5 of 5 stars I've never read Max Barry before, but after reading Providence, I have become an abso...
-
Westworld Psychology: Violent Delights by Travis Langley My rating: 4 of 5 stars For what this is, it's quite good, but that begs the...
No comments:
Post a Comment