Reviews with content warning for Murder - Fern vom Licht des Himmels

A look at the future of interstellar space travel, this novel follows the colony ship Ratime as it heads for a homestead planet, but will it get there following the first mate, Michelle Campion’s distress call?

This book was quite different to what I expected and though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, some parts of it didn’t digest as well as others. I think the dialogue felt strange in parts and we didn’t get much time to really come to invest in some characters, given the size of the cast.

However, I did love the concept and found myself rooting for everyone – including the antihero – which always shows the writer’s ability to really infuse motive into the story. Though it wasn’t as thrilling as I had expected, I did find it fresh – I don’t feel as though I’ve read anything like it.

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billyjepma's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I struggled to get into this at first and found myself bristling at how little the story prepared me for its version of space travel, alien worlds, and technology. On one hand, I admired the in media res approach, but on the other, I felt like it kept me at arm’s length from the characters and the mystery they find themselves in. And then, right around the halfway point, something in me or the book clicked into place, and I tore through the remaining 150+ pages in one sitting. All those wrinkles I initially saw as obstacles unfolded and played out in immensely satisfying, exciting ways. I still think that the first half is a little rough, and there are areas I found to be slightly underbaked, but I can’t argue with the results. Once things got going, I was all in and then some.

The very concept of a single-location murder mystery in a spaceship is enough of a hook to get me. If you’re willing to be patient, Thompson’s storytelling delivers on and exceeds the expectations of that initial conceit. I love the themes stitched into the plot, appreciate how they exist analogously to the story, and pay off in simultaneously rewarding and frustrating ways. Which is a good thing in my book because the themes Thompson introduces are too big and, in some ways, too abstract to have a proper resolution. I appreciate that he lets his characters (and, by extension, his reader) sit in that vaguely uncomfortable space. Take away the headiness, though, and you still have a simmering thriller that feels like the twisted love child of Seven, The Martian, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, with some tasteful hints of a Hercule Poirot caper mixed in for good measure.

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miraclesnow's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Weird, dream-like vibes. Not the first thing I was imaging when thinking murder mystery in space, and it was enjoyable… but not a traditional murder mystery to me, and a little too ethereal to keep me grounded enough to fall in love with it.

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cerilouisereads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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khia's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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kfergey's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

I'd like to say my main issue with this book is the narrator on the audio book so, toys may not apply to the written book as the story itself was interesting. the narrator has awful cadence so if a scene was tense it exciting, you'd never know. And he didn't use different voices so I had no idea who was talking. That being said the story was almost there. I feel like the story felt too disconjointed and not fully fleshed out. The characters were also one dimensional with lazy feeling backgrounds. The interactions also seemed odd and not justified.

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rorikae's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

'Far from the Light of Heaven' is a locked room mystery in space that incorporates some intriguing world building.
The story centers around Michelle Campion, a passenger aboard a spaceship who wakes up midflight. Campion finds that a number of the passengers have been murdered and sends out a distress signal. Rasheed Fin, an investigator, is sent to Campion's ship, Ragtime, to get to the bottom of what really happened.
My favorite aspect of this story is the worldbuilding that Thompson incorporates. There are some alien creatures with interesting abilities that I felt really fleshed out the world and drew my interest. I found the mystery engaging and the way the story wove into a larger narrative that expanded beyond the Ragtime, allowed us to learn more about the wider world.
My real issue with this book was the audiobook. It's a decent audiobook but it failed to truly capture my interest and this led me to feel like I was missing parts of the book. I would highly recommend picking up the physical copy if you have a similar experience. I would be interested to return to this story in the future as I feel that I've missed out on some crucial aspects of the story due to my issues with the audiobook.

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sarah984's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I really enjoyed this one. It's a sort of a combination of space thriller and detective story with a bit of a supernatural element. There are some great action scenes, and while the characters aren't super developed, they feel unique and do the job. The romance is pretty bland though.

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