poojakishinani's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5
Beautiful, lyrical writing. But felt like it dragged on a bit in certain sections.
Beautiful, lyrical writing. But felt like it dragged on a bit in certain sections.
yvarg's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
An exploration in the juxtaposition of one's duty to humanity to push scientific exploration and the impact that has on those closest to you.
jenno's review against another edition
adventurous
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
yoanna7's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
leekaufman's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
elareads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
helen_t_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Leigh grew up in Rotterdam, drawn to the waterfront as an escape from her unhappy home life. Enchanted by the undersea world of her childhood, she excels in marine biology, travelling the globe to study ancient organisms. When a trench is discovered in the Atlantic Ocean, Leigh joins the exploration team, hoping to find evidence of Earth’s first life forms. What she instead finds calls into question everything we know about our own beginnings and leaves her facing an impossible choice: to remain with her family, or to embark on a journey across the breadth of the cosmos.
This is a very hard novel to review whilst avoiding spoilers, but it is important not to give anything away about the story for anyone still to read it. It is mostly told in the first person, from the perspective of Leigh. Her character is fully developed – more so than any other in the novel – you feel as if you know the character well and you are invested in what happens to her. But then something happens that tips all the perspectives you have gained on her, completely upside down, and you wonder how reliable a narrator she might be.
The prose contains lots of detail: about training, daily routines etc; and there is lots of scientific detail. Told over 5 parts the tension and a sense of doom is developed as the story unfolds, but I felt that overall the pacing was a tad uneven.
This is a literary Sci Fi novel with an ecological message about climate change and planetary destruction, focusing on themes of the circularity of ecosystems, and the inter-connectedness of life. Darwinian theory about the origins of life, and mankind’s pace in the universe is under the microscope here.
It is set in the near future and feels very timely in terms of all the destructive influences ruining ecosystems, and threatening the planet, and the ultimate irony of the book is that having destroyed planet earth, and depleted its resources with mining etc, they are planning to do the same off earth.
This is clearly based on a great deal of research and scientific reading, and it is a very clever, complex, multi-layered novel - it is almost brain bending! - but it was more readable and accessible than I thought it might prove to be initially.
I am not a lover of Sci Fi, and so I would not have read this one were I not reading the entire 2023 Booker Longlist. It is the sort of novel that needs multiple rereads to fully appreciate and unlock, and for me, reading it felt quite an intellectual exercise. You need to be alert at all times whilst reading - you have to work at it rather than relax into it and let it wash over you – but it leaves you with much to think about.
This is a very hard novel to review whilst avoiding spoilers, but it is important not to give anything away about the story for anyone still to read it. It is mostly told in the first person, from the perspective of Leigh. Her character is fully developed – more so than any other in the novel – you feel as if you know the character well and you are invested in what happens to her. But then something happens that tips all the perspectives you have gained on her, completely upside down, and you wonder how reliable a narrator she might be.
The prose contains lots of detail: about training, daily routines etc; and there is lots of scientific detail. Told over 5 parts the tension and a sense of doom is developed as the story unfolds, but I felt that overall the pacing was a tad uneven.
This is a literary Sci Fi novel with an ecological message about climate change and planetary destruction, focusing on themes of the circularity of ecosystems, and the inter-connectedness of life. Darwinian theory about the origins of life, and mankind’s pace in the universe is under the microscope here.
It is set in the near future and feels very timely in terms of all the destructive influences ruining ecosystems, and threatening the planet, and the ultimate irony of the book is that having destroyed planet earth, and depleted its resources with mining etc, they are planning to do the same off earth.
This is clearly based on a great deal of research and scientific reading, and it is a very clever, complex, multi-layered novel - it is almost brain bending! - but it was more readable and accessible than I thought it might prove to be initially.
I am not a lover of Sci Fi, and so I would not have read this one were I not reading the entire 2023 Booker Longlist. It is the sort of novel that needs multiple rereads to fully appreciate and unlock, and for me, reading it felt quite an intellectual exercise. You need to be alert at all times whilst reading - you have to work at it rather than relax into it and let it wash over you – but it leaves you with much to think about.
emilymayreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5