Reviews

Things move at a good pace and enjoyed the longer passages and less dialogue in the first half specifically because of the writing - it' s clear, it flows, it isn't too much prose and has a solid mystery, characters, and readability. Unexpectedly turned into an alternate future-esque political thriller in the second half, which actually made it a bit more interesting, but really only started to address the title matter in the last 75 pages. The power jockeying and shady practices towards the end were a timely parallel to current real world challenges, but disappointed with what felt like an unfinished conclusion and more like a cliffhanger.

bookwormrj's review against another edition

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3.0

Meh, this one left me cold. I admittedly don’t love things that are zany or madcap. This fell into that category. I appreciated the political allusion but just found it to all be a bit heavy handed.

karliepataky's review against another edition

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fast-paced

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

3.0

zfeig's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

This is a deliciously weird book, but I'm not quite sure how to explain it in such a way that makes you want to read it. It's basically an allegory for capitalism, in which many people are abducted to an alien to a moon of Jupiter, and then live exactly the same lives that they would have lived not on Jupiter with just as many capitalist abuses despite access to potentially better technology? But not really better technology.

I liked it, and it has a wild twist for ending, but doesn't really explain itself ever.

catbooking's review against another edition

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3.0

This was light reading with poignant commentary on our current social/political situation. Like a blog-post a like-minded coworker might forward you to generate some light chuckles. So nothing groundbreaking but well worth checking out.

One thing I wanted to mention, that occurred to me post reading, is Nalini's created terms. At first glance they seem annoyingly dry and academic, both useless and unhelpful. Everyone around her just treats it as a character quirk and ignores her lectures to the best of their abilities. But, I would argue, she is doing the thing that Dwayne was trying to achieve the whole time, see the things, name the things, talk about the things. Sure her terms seem to be convoluted and unnecessary because the things she is naming are obvious to everyone, but they are not obvious until she names them and calls attention to them. So I would say that Nalini was way ahead of the curve.

thejoshdenk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny 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

3.75

mgsl's review against another edition

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2.0

Strong character development. Author had clear sense of characters, their motivations and biases. But story was weak, attempting to accomplish too much without enough targeted focus to get the job done. Promising concept but not well-delivered on execution.

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