theartolater's review against another edition
3.0
Honestly probably closer to a 2.5.
I loved Faith, John Love's debut novel. A great take on science fiction, it kept within the existing tropes while trying some new stuff, a great mix. Evensong also has science fictional elements, but tries more to be a political thriller or a mystery or what have you, and it ends up being kind of muddled and messy. In this case, you essentially have a United Nations mercenary squad of sorts, and it follows one of those mercs on a broader mission that never really feels complete or entirely clear, and, with the lack of a real way to engage with anyone involved, it became progressively harder for me to find a reason to care about it.
I tend to struggle with the sort of thriller books this looks to ape, which may be part of my issue here, but, on a whole, this didn't work for me and I wanted it to really badly. Maybe the next time.
I loved Faith, John Love's debut novel. A great take on science fiction, it kept within the existing tropes while trying some new stuff, a great mix. Evensong also has science fictional elements, but tries more to be a political thriller or a mystery or what have you, and it ends up being kind of muddled and messy. In this case, you essentially have a United Nations mercenary squad of sorts, and it follows one of those mercs on a broader mission that never really feels complete or entirely clear, and, with the lack of a real way to engage with anyone involved, it became progressively harder for me to find a reason to care about it.
I tend to struggle with the sort of thriller books this looks to ape, which may be part of my issue here, but, on a whole, this didn't work for me and I wanted it to really badly. Maybe the next time.
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