Currently reading
See You in the Cosmos
Exploring Space: From Galileo to the Mars Rover and Beyond
The Terranauts: A Novel
A Quiet Kind of Thunder
Gumnut Babies
Progress:
42/264 pages
Highly Illogical Behaviour
Progress:
82/249 pages
Revenger
Progress:
75/425 pages
See What I Have Done
The Dog, Ray
Forgetting Foster
Love Minus Eighty
I picked up this book purely by chance, and while I don't think it is without fault, it doesn't quite fit four stars. Let's call it 4.5.I had heard nothing about this book before reading it, and sometimes it's just nice to read a book without a lot of hype behind it. Though I do think this book deserves more hype than it has currently. I don't know, maybe I'm just out of the loop.
There were a couple of things that bothered me throughout the book, such as the author's overuse of the phrase "looked to be" (a phrase that bothers me at the best of times), and in one instance used it twice within as many sentences. Luckily, by that stage, I was 182 pages in, and committed to finding out what was going to happen. I had already seen use of it about three times in the 180 pages before that.
The technology of the world takes a while to work out, as a person not living in 2133 - someone not used to this technology, but I think the author handled it in the best way possible. I'd rather be thrown into the deep end and have to work it out than be spoon fed the history, any day.
I loved the characters. At the start of the book, I just wanted to read more of Mira's chapters, which were so few and far between, but over time I grew to love Rob, Veronika, and the other people who play major parts in their lives.
No one character was the main focus of this novel, but each had their parts to play. The author didn't go out of his way to manufacture a happy existence for all of the characters, but managed to leave the reader satisfied that the events had run their course. This book reminded me so much of the real world, of a weird, messy, love dodecahedron, with things not always matching up how they do in fiction.
I also loved the allusion the author made to one of his other titles, "Soft Apocalypse", which I have not yet read, but plan on doing so in the near future.
Will McIntosh doesn't write a book that leaves you feeling all warm and gooey inside, but challenges you to think about how you would cope in these situations. He explores the idea from different points of view, which all manage to connect in some way, giving us a well rounded, compelling picture.