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A review by elusivity
The Ark by Patrick S. Tomlinson
3.0
3 STARS
A decent mystery but a mediocre SF novel.
The society, characters, ways of life, are cut-and-paste straight from early 2000's America onto a spaceship approx. 250 years in the future. The way people talk, the assumptions they make, the social norms, the visceral emotional reactions, the day-to-day lives. No new slang of any type; no new ways to navigate living cheek-by-jowl with a lot of people in a very small space and being permanently linked to a network where some people have the privilege to invade other people's privacy within their minds; with strict limitations on food, water, air, etc. And people still quote 20th century pop culture as a way to demonstrate "cheesy humor"; when doing so would have been the equivalent of people today quoting Austen or Voltaire. Assumption of heteronormativity (granted, that might have been the clumsy attempt to conceal a red herring). A walk through the museum that contains all the representative art of mankind mentions only the western arts. A lot of loose threads, and people abruptly acquiring leaps of knowledge.
Nevertheless, a very readable book. Recommended for those who do not demand internal consistency to worldbuilding, and therefore can enjoy a zippy plot and an interesting mystery.
A decent mystery but a mediocre SF novel.
The society, characters, ways of life, are cut-and-paste straight from early 2000's America onto a spaceship approx. 250 years in the future. The way people talk, the assumptions they make, the social norms, the visceral emotional reactions, the day-to-day lives. No new slang of any type; no new ways to navigate living cheek-by-jowl with a lot of people in a very small space and being permanently linked to a network where some people have the privilege to invade other people's privacy within their minds; with strict limitations on food, water, air, etc. And people still quote 20th century pop culture as a way to demonstrate "cheesy humor"; when doing so would have been the equivalent of people today quoting Austen or Voltaire. Assumption of heteronormativity (granted, that might have been the clumsy attempt to conceal a red herring). A walk through the museum that contains all the representative art of mankind mentions only the western arts. A lot of loose threads, and people abruptly acquiring leaps of knowledge.
Spoiler
Characters are WAY too sanguine considering they just encountered a near-genocidal disaster that killed off half of humanity!!! And the ending--dropping a dual bomb shell that Tau Ceti contains intelligent life (apparently *humanoid*, for whatever nonsensical reason) AND that Earth was destroyed by aliens piloting a black hole--is way too abrupt, even in an attempt to construct a cliffhanger.Nevertheless, a very readable book. Recommended for those who do not demand internal consistency to worldbuilding, and therefore can enjoy a zippy plot and an interesting mystery.