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A review by ryanpfw
Contribute by Kristy Acevedo
3.0
It started out strong but collapsed with a rushed, sloppy ending.
Spoilers to follow.
While I struggled with Alex as a character in Consider, the cliffhanger ending stuck with me enough to return for the conclusion. The first 60-70% of this book is slow-burn world building with new characters and the unfolding mystery of the vances. Why don’t we see ever see them? What is real? The pacing was strong and while I find Alex whiney at times, I don’t suffer from anxiety and I’m not accustomed to being in the head of someone who does. A lot of criticism was leveled against a line from Domenick after witnessing Alex having an anxiety attack. I didn’t mind it because it wouldn’t occur to someone without anxiety that it was an inappropriate statement. I do understand frustration that Alex didn’t follow up.
The final third of the book just falls apart.
There's the reveal that:
Alex, surrendering herself, finds that Sidekick has summoned a fleet of ships to attack the meritocracy leaders, who after all the intrigue and with little explanation seem to be just rogue holograms. Where did the ships come from? Did they program more holographic rebels? It again seems rushed. We apparently have a fleet now.
Acevedo does a masterful job of showing real world reaction to Solbiluna 8, with people generally just not caring about their freedoms, a political reality in 2017, but there is a reference off-screen to the people having come around to Alex's side after seeing what happened to the vances, wait, not the vances... the refugee humans. Now they're fully with Alex? They didn’t care for their own freedom but switch gears when they see other people mistreated? I don’t buy it.
Then there's a reference to the people now properly seeing Alex as "the River." Who, the other human refugees, or our people? Or both? It implies both, but seemed an odd throwaway. This all happens off screen and chucks away the careful characterization of the first two thirds of the book.
Eugene wants Alex to record a video message accepting contribution before being thrown to her death, to "convince" the meritocracy to restore full food rations. They never record the video, but upon arrival back at the hub, everyone has full stomachs and glowing wristbands back. Why did the meritocracy restore contribution and rations without her statement?
Is there a reason Nolan's grandmother couldn't have just gotten a first name?
Why is the Secretary of State having ordinary people take a vote on destroying the planet? Is it because he doubts the Umbra would follow his orders alone? If people want to stay behind, the Umbra really just blow the planet up with them on it anyway? That’s actually a line! Why won’t the planet work without the holographic tech? At the very least we have a habitable world a portal away. Forget Mars! Why destroy that? And since they bring the technology home anyway, what was the point?
I take from the ending that we’re going the way of Solbiluna 8 and Alex will speak out going forward, but blowing up the planet is entirely inconsistent with their follow up position.
I truly enjoyed Katherine, Dr. A, Domenick, Rita, even Benji. Acevedo did a nice job with the characters, but I feel like character deaths were thrown in for shock value and didn't resonate. One in particular.
I appreciate that many felt the rebel versus just-relax plot was too black and white. I didn’t mind it. The contrast was fine. I would have liked a bit more comparison between the Umbra and terrorist organizations. It’s what they essentially were.
I do see where the author was going. She sprinkled the book with great sci-fi shoutouts and quiet character moments. Not every relationship was resolved. They didn’t need to be. I just think it needed some rethinking. We should have gone with Alex through the portal, seen Earth for the first time with her, and gotten details of her assimilation back home. I know I’m hard on the ending but it’s because so much was glossed over.
Call it 4-5 stars to start and a fall to 2 by the end with the weight of the plot. Round it to 3.
Spoilers to follow.
While I struggled with Alex as a character in Consider, the cliffhanger ending stuck with me enough to return for the conclusion. The first 60-70% of this book is slow-burn world building with new characters and the unfolding mystery of the vances. Why don’t we see ever see them? What is real? The pacing was strong and while I find Alex whiney at times, I don’t suffer from anxiety and I’m not accustomed to being in the head of someone who does. A lot of criticism was leveled against a line from Domenick after witnessing Alex having an anxiety attack. I didn’t mind it because it wouldn’t occur to someone without anxiety that it was an inappropriate statement. I do understand frustration that Alex didn’t follow up.
The final third of the book just falls apart.
There's the reveal that:
Spoiler
The vances we expect to find are really just humans from a parallel Earth, visited by crazy Katherine, calling herself the Navigator because she knew from the past that she would, referencing Alex as the River, because she knew from the past that she would, with zero explanation as to how Katherine travels to the vance's alternate world, then again to the timeline of Consider to intercept Alex. I enjoyed Katherine but her departure and the bits with Sidekick seemed entirely rushed and lacked closure. For the vances, there’s a lot of confusing misdirection. Alex calls them the vances, but they’re not the vances, and the real vances are ancient holograms programmed by God knows who to run the planet indefinitely. That just falls completely flat. Who programmed them? And why? The vances have been stealing humans for a long time, it seems. Are there more settlements hidden on the planet? The plot doesn’t seem to care.Alex, surrendering herself, finds that Sidekick has summoned a fleet of ships to attack the meritocracy leaders, who after all the intrigue and with little explanation seem to be just rogue holograms. Where did the ships come from? Did they program more holographic rebels? It again seems rushed. We apparently have a fleet now.
Acevedo does a masterful job of showing real world reaction to Solbiluna 8, with people generally just not caring about their freedoms, a political reality in 2017, but there is a reference off-screen to the people having come around to Alex's side after seeing what happened to the vances, wait, not the vances... the refugee humans. Now they're fully with Alex? They didn’t care for their own freedom but switch gears when they see other people mistreated? I don’t buy it.
Then there's a reference to the people now properly seeing Alex as "the River." Who, the other human refugees, or our people? Or both? It implies both, but seemed an odd throwaway. This all happens off screen and chucks away the careful characterization of the first two thirds of the book.
Eugene wants Alex to record a video message accepting contribution before being thrown to her death, to "convince" the meritocracy to restore full food rations. They never record the video, but upon arrival back at the hub, everyone has full stomachs and glowing wristbands back. Why did the meritocracy restore contribution and rations without her statement?
Is there a reason Nolan's grandmother couldn't have just gotten a first name?
Why is the Secretary of State having ordinary people take a vote on destroying the planet? Is it because he doubts the Umbra would follow his orders alone? If people want to stay behind, the Umbra really just blow the planet up with them on it anyway? That’s actually a line! Why won’t the planet work without the holographic tech? At the very least we have a habitable world a portal away. Forget Mars! Why destroy that? And since they bring the technology home anyway, what was the point?
I take from the ending that we’re going the way of Solbiluna 8 and Alex will speak out going forward, but blowing up the planet is entirely inconsistent with their follow up position.
I truly enjoyed Katherine, Dr. A, Domenick, Rita, even Benji. Acevedo did a nice job with the characters, but I feel like character deaths were thrown in for shock value and didn't resonate. One in particular.
I appreciate that many felt the rebel versus just-relax plot was too black and white. I didn’t mind it. The contrast was fine. I would have liked a bit more comparison between the Umbra and terrorist organizations. It’s what they essentially were.
I do see where the author was going. She sprinkled the book with great sci-fi shoutouts and quiet character moments. Not every relationship was resolved. They didn’t need to be. I just think it needed some rethinking. We should have gone with Alex through the portal, seen Earth for the first time with her, and gotten details of her assimilation back home. I know I’m hard on the ending but it’s because so much was glossed over.
Call it 4-5 stars to start and a fall to 2 by the end with the weight of the plot. Round it to 3.