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A review by teenagelightning
Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
2.0
After tearing through lots of KSR, this is the first of his that I didn't enjoy.
The premise was interesting enough. An historical fiction with a sci-fi subplot sounds like a blast. But I found that for the "historical" side of the story, in Galileo's time, the writing was flat. Dry. The endless exposition feels like an attempt to do the work of an historian, rather than focus on keeping the story tight and interesting - which KSR is certainly capable of.
The sci-fi stuff was fun. It kept me reading a book I would have otherwise abandoned. But even then, I was never convinced by the reasons Galileo needed to be involved in the Jovian storyline at all. Cool ideas with half-baked execution.
I love KSR and learned a lot about Galileo with this book. But ultimately, it was a slog.
The premise was interesting enough. An historical fiction with a sci-fi subplot sounds like a blast. But I found that for the "historical" side of the story, in Galileo's time, the writing was flat. Dry. The endless exposition feels like an attempt to do the work of an historian, rather than focus on keeping the story tight and interesting - which KSR is certainly capable of.
The sci-fi stuff was fun. It kept me reading a book I would have otherwise abandoned. But even then, I was never convinced by the reasons Galileo needed to be involved in the Jovian storyline at all. Cool ideas with half-baked execution.
I love KSR and learned a lot about Galileo with this book. But ultimately, it was a slog.