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A review by hootinglance
The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough
3.0
This book has two covers, as far as I can tell: one is a pretty cool looking piece of sci fi art, and the other is a generic white guy protagonist with a gun. This perfectly summarizes this book. Its a neat idea that brings nothing at all new to the table, executed perfectly acceptably. If i could score this a 2.5 stars for being stupendously 'meh', then I would.
Plot (spoiler free)
technologically advanced (read: magic) aliens sent a space elevator to earth. years later they unleashed a virus that turned everyone into a zombie, aside from those within a short distance from the elevator, which emits a protective aura. Now they're about to do something else, and the aura is failing. New types of zombies are emerging, and Rich Entrepreneur hires Immune Scavenger Captain to find a fix.
However most of this is forgotten about half way, and the rest the cast just puts off until it solves itself. The real plot starts about half way when a evil military launches a coup of the space stations built around the elevator. All in all its pretty dam generic. Its just another generic zombie story with a sci fi flavor.
Characters
The main character, the immune scavenger captain, is named Skyler Lukem. This is a stupid name, and the author knows it, because he pointed out that he's blatantly referencing Luke Skywalker from Star Wars. Just because you point it out, doesn't make it not dumb.
Other than that the cast is a bunch of australian-accented cliches. All the main characters are over powered (), all the military soldiers are idiots and all the scientists are pacifist workaholics. The author also has some obsession with passing the Bechdel test with flying colours. The ratio of female to males is around 50:50, but at every possible chance the women pair up and go do their own thing. They're all badass fighters, of course, tougher than any males and especially tougher than the elite soldiers. Problem is that both the women all start to act like closet lesbians. This is of course fine, and hey, if you want to have a lesbian shower make-out session, that's your prerogative. I'm just not a big fan of lazy shallow female empowerment characters.
Setting
The space elevator is a cool idea. Future Darwin city is a cool idea. Post-apocalypse human settlements are always a cool idea. Too bad we spend at least 60% of the story aboard the generic space station. And hey, if your going to set ~90% of the second half of your book in the one place, you probably shouldn't include location names as subheadings in your chapter names, as it is redundant and useless. This book also likes to tell you the date, which is also completely useless unless you go back and compare to when the last chapter started. It doesn't tell us the POV character (which i can only assume is to allow him to switch POV, which he does like once in the whole book) and he doesn't explicitly tell us how much time has passed. Some chapters end in cliff hangers that are IMMEDIATELY resolved in the first sentence of the next chapter. What was the point?
Writing
So the settings are okay but also pretty meh. The characters are meh. The story is meh. The writing is also meh. Action scenes are plentiful, but are written with such a removed perspective that its impossible to care. Descriptions and dialogue are fine. Again, everythings just written so blasé that it's impossible to care.
Verdict
I'd be very surprised if this doesn't get released as a generic, forgettable summer action blockbuster. Its a safe choice. It hits boxes, it doesn't do anything especially interesting or new. But it's fine, so if the plot sounds interesting, then go right ahead. Its not bad, just extremely meh
Plot (spoiler free)
technologically advanced (read: magic) aliens sent a space elevator to earth. years later they unleashed a virus that turned everyone into a zombie, aside from those within a short distance from the elevator, which emits a protective aura. Now they're about to do something else, and the aura is failing. New types of zombies are emerging, and Rich Entrepreneur hires Immune Scavenger Captain to find a fix.
However most of this is forgotten about half way, and the rest the cast just puts off until it solves itself. The real plot starts about half way when a evil military launches a coup of the space stations built around the elevator. All in all its pretty dam generic. Its just another generic zombie story with a sci fi flavor.
Characters
The main character, the immune scavenger captain, is named Skyler Lukem. This is a stupid name, and the author knows it, because he pointed out that he's blatantly referencing Luke Skywalker from Star Wars. Just because you point it out, doesn't make it not dumb.
Other than that the cast is a bunch of australian-accented cliches. All the main characters are over powered (
Spoiler
at the end of the book, the main villain survives an almost direct strike by orbital bombardment without so much as a tear to his environment suitSetting
The space elevator is a cool idea. Future Darwin city is a cool idea. Post-apocalypse human settlements are always a cool idea. Too bad we spend at least 60% of the story aboard the generic space station. And hey, if your going to set ~90% of the second half of your book in the one place, you probably shouldn't include location names as subheadings in your chapter names, as it is redundant and useless. This book also likes to tell you the date, which is also completely useless unless you go back and compare to when the last chapter started. It doesn't tell us the POV character (which i can only assume is to allow him to switch POV, which he does like once in the whole book) and he doesn't explicitly tell us how much time has passed. Some chapters end in cliff hangers that are IMMEDIATELY resolved in the first sentence of the next chapter. What was the point?
Writing
So the settings are okay but also pretty meh. The characters are meh. The story is meh. The writing is also meh. Action scenes are plentiful, but are written with such a removed perspective that its impossible to care. Descriptions and dialogue are fine. Again, everythings just written so blasé that it's impossible to care.
Verdict
I'd be very surprised if this doesn't get released as a generic, forgettable summer action blockbuster. Its a safe choice. It hits boxes, it doesn't do anything especially interesting or new. But it's fine, so if the plot sounds interesting, then go right ahead. Its not bad, just extremely meh