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A review by mar
Assassin's Orbit by John Appel
adventurous
fast-paced
2.25
Okay, first, the diversity in this book was absolutely lovely, it was the most inclusive book I've read in a while and it's clear the author put a lot of effort into it. The main cast is made up entirely of older women, which was so refreshing to see, there's lots of characters of color, LGBT characters, etc, etc. Some highlights for me included:
- the blind main character who uses a cane and assistive technology - I love to see sci-fi stories explore how technology can accommodate disabled people instead of erasing/"fixing" them :')
- multiple (though minor) characters using ze/zem pronouns (you don't see humans using neopronouns in sci-fi often, nice), and also the use of M. as a gender neutral alternative to Mr./Mrs./Ms. aka top 10 things that make you go omg can we please implement this into the real world right now immediately. Like as as a nonbinary person who doesn't really like Mx.? Totally filed that away in my brain for future reference.
- Muslim characters! (I can count the number of Muslim characters I've encountered in science fiction on one hand, so that's something that really stood out to me, though as I'm not Muslim I can't vouch for the accuracy).
Now, having said that... I'll be real. The characters sure are diverse, but they're just so flat and uninteresting, OOF. Which is at least partially due to the sheer amount of them. (And this is coming from someone who read that 19 POV Expanse book and ENJOYED it). The number of more or less important side characters you have to keep track of is excessive and more than once did I have to search for a name in the ebook to try to remember who's who. There was this one dramatic betrayal towards the end of the book where I literally went, "uhhh wait, who's that again?". And I think it's because of all those many, many side characters that the main cast suffers; I feel like if it merged or cut out most of the side/minor characters and spent all that time developing the leads instead, it could've been quite solid, but instead it just constantly felt like there was something missing.
Plot-wise, it was more action-packed thriller than the murder mystery I expected, and it was okay, but not good enough to carry a story when the characters didn't - see, I don't actually mind flat characters when the plot has me too busy losing my mind from excitement. But it just never quite gripped me [sad emoji] Though I DID love the gradual reveal of what exactly went down on Earth, I was not expecting such a chilling and ballsy backstory. THAT part slapped, 100%. The worldbuilding was really well done, too, if not super unique. Anyway, if you like fast moving sci-fi thrillers with lots of action and combat (so much combat!) and don't mind simplistic characters, you'll probably enjoy this book.
Oh, and one more thing that kinda sapped my enjoyment of the book was the, uhhh, the copaganda. Unfortunately™ I find myself unable to sympathize and root for cops even in a setting so far removed from our reality (and like. can you blame me. especially in the current political climate). I'm sorry dude I simply do not care for Toiwa and all I could think whenever it came up how virtuous and principled and stuff she is was huh! Cool copaganda you've got there! Yeah, I definitely enjoyed her chapters the least. Do I think it was intentional on the author's part? No, dude's clearly trying to be progressive and props to him for that. Was I still uncomfortable with the story being completely uncritical of the police as an institution and wanting me to constantly align with and root for cops? Yeahhh.
(Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!)
- the blind main character who uses a cane and assistive technology - I love to see sci-fi stories explore how technology can accommodate disabled people instead of erasing/"fixing" them :')
- multiple (though minor) characters using ze/zem pronouns (you don't see humans using neopronouns in sci-fi often, nice), and also the use of M. as a gender neutral alternative to Mr./Mrs./Ms. aka top 10 things that make you go omg can we please implement this into the real world right now immediately. Like as as a nonbinary person who doesn't really like Mx.? Totally filed that away in my brain for future reference.
- Muslim characters! (I can count the number of Muslim characters I've encountered in science fiction on one hand, so that's something that really stood out to me, though as I'm not Muslim I can't vouch for the accuracy).
Now, having said that... I'll be real. The characters sure are diverse, but they're just so flat and uninteresting, OOF. Which is at least partially due to the sheer amount of them. (And this is coming from someone who read that 19 POV Expanse book and ENJOYED it). The number of more or less important side characters you have to keep track of is excessive and more than once did I have to search for a name in the ebook to try to remember who's who. There was this one dramatic betrayal towards the end of the book where I literally went, "uhhh wait, who's that again?". And I think it's because of all those many, many side characters that the main cast suffers; I feel like if it merged or cut out most of the side/minor characters and spent all that time developing the leads instead, it could've been quite solid, but instead it just constantly felt like there was something missing.
Plot-wise, it was more action-packed thriller than the murder mystery I expected, and it was okay, but not good enough to carry a story when the characters didn't - see, I don't actually mind flat characters when the plot has me too busy losing my mind from excitement. But it just never quite gripped me [sad emoji] Though I DID love the gradual reveal of what exactly went down on Earth, I was not expecting such a chilling and ballsy backstory. THAT part slapped, 100%. The worldbuilding was really well done, too, if not super unique. Anyway, if you like fast moving sci-fi thrillers with lots of action and combat (so much combat!) and don't mind simplistic characters, you'll probably enjoy this book.
Oh, and one more thing that kinda sapped my enjoyment of the book was the, uhhh, the copaganda. Unfortunately™ I find myself unable to sympathize and root for cops even in a setting so far removed from our reality (and like. can you blame me. especially in the current political climate). I'm sorry dude I simply do not care for Toiwa and all I could think whenever it came up how virtuous and principled and stuff she is was huh! Cool copaganda you've got there! Yeah, I definitely enjoyed her chapters the least. Do I think it was intentional on the author's part? No, dude's clearly trying to be progressive and props to him for that. Was I still uncomfortable with the story being completely uncritical of the police as an institution and wanting me to constantly align with and root for cops? Yeahhh.
(Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Car accident, and Murder