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A review by woxbirdie
Hero by Belinda Crawford
4.0
My usual attitude to sci-fi is "I want to like it, but I can't," so this book was really refreshing. It has pretty much everything I want my sci-fi to include - new planets, floating cities, cool computers - but somehow also manages to avoid all the pitfalls in sci-fi, like the assumption of an ongoing sexism and heternormativity, and an overwhelmingly negative prediction for the future.
I really like this book, in short. I like the characters, I like the setting, I like the lack of an unnecessary and stilted romance arc, I like the plot. It's not the most gripping novel I've ever read, but I'm notoriously a rereader rather than a reader, so I have a feeling I'll enjoy it a lot more the second time around. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the sequel.
I'd also like to note how well some of the minor revelations were pulled off, the really small ones that make a reader go "huh" but are simply a normalised part of the universe. It was those that made me start to relax and enjoy the story, becoming more confident that it wasn't going to betray me and drag me into tired tropes.
I really like this book, in short. I like the characters, I like the setting, I like the lack of an unnecessary and stilted romance arc, I like the plot. It's not the most gripping novel I've ever read, but I'm notoriously a rereader rather than a reader, so I have a feeling I'll enjoy it a lot more the second time around. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the sequel.
I'd also like to note how well some of the minor revelations were pulled off, the really small ones that make a reader go "huh" but are simply a normalised part of the universe. It was those that made me start to relax and enjoy the story, becoming more confident that it wasn't going to betray me and drag me into tired tropes.