altlovesbooks
"You ever see a movie where people went to space and things went well?"
In hindsight, this did read like a movie or a TV series or something, all the zingy lines in all the right places, all the feelings of dramatic pauses and flashbacks, all the clearly delineated character types and roles, but like, I thought it was kinda fun. It kind of reminded me of a bit more cerebral Armageddon, only instead of landing on an asteroid and mining it, they loop around it and screw up their lives.
We have a motley crew cobbled together by the greatest minds at NASA (or at least the ones paid off the most by the presidency), set to loop around Titan, take some readings For Science, and come back for some great science PR and photoshoots. Halfway through their 2-year trip, though, there's some sort of (not clearly explained) accident. But the crew make it through in one piece and return, but the lives they left behind aren't the same ones they come back to. Husbands and wives and boyfriends that were out of the picture previously are suddenly back in as if they'd never left. Jobs are different. Strained familial relations are suddenly patched up. The crew are separated, aren't allowed to compare notes, but are expected to just...drop back into these lives they suddenly aren't comfortable with. But when they start clandestinely comparing notes behind the scenes, the danger ramps up as suddenly they become expendable.
So, I thought this was fun. There's multiple POVs here amongst all the crew members, so we get little glimpses of their lives before they leave on their voyage, during the voyage, and then afterwards as well. There's a slew of diverse backgrounds here, enough that it feels a bit like they ran through a checklist of character stereotypes to cover, but at least it kept the characters from feeling the same. There's some casual Fiction Science used here by the brain of the group to explain what they think has happened, and it's...fine. Easy to understand, but it is a bit handwavey for the sake of "we need a scientific explanation for this stuff". It definitely feels like a movie.
I do wish there was more of an ending, even if additional books are planned. Ending spoilers here: The book basically ends on a cliffhanger involving an entirely new POV that wasn't used at all during the book, and nothing is really resolved, explained, or otherwise given to the reader to feel rewarded for finishing the book. I feel like this story could have used a smaller, less-pressing issue to resolve within the book, keeping the overall larger "wtf is going on" problem to span multiple books. It just didn't feel like a lot of payoff. There also wasn't much space involved in this book, so if you're here for some crazy space shenanigans, this might not be the one for you. I didn't mind it so much because it felt like the real story was the crazy life changes and not the journey, but YMMV.
Fun if you can turn your brain off and enjoy the movie. Cast some actors in the roles in your brain and have at it.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
"You ever see a movie where people went to space and things went well?"
In hindsight, this did read like a movie or a TV series or something, all the zingy lines in all the right places, all the feelings of dramatic pauses and flashbacks, all the clearly delineated character types and roles, but like, I thought it was kinda fun. It kind of reminded me of a bit more cerebral Armageddon, only instead of landing on an asteroid and mining it, they loop around it and screw up their lives.
We have a motley crew cobbled together by the greatest minds at NASA (or at least the ones paid off the most by the presidency), set to loop around Titan, take some readings For Science, and come back for some great science PR and photoshoots. Halfway through their 2-year trip, though, there's some sort of (not clearly explained) accident. But the crew make it through in one piece and return, but the lives they left behind aren't the same ones they come back to. Husbands and wives and boyfriends that were out of the picture previously are suddenly back in as if they'd never left. Jobs are different. Strained familial relations are suddenly patched up. The crew are separated, aren't allowed to compare notes, but are expected to just...drop back into these lives they suddenly aren't comfortable with. But when they start clandestinely comparing notes behind the scenes, the danger ramps up as suddenly they become expendable.
So, I thought this was fun. There's multiple POVs here amongst all the crew members, so we get little glimpses of their lives before they leave on their voyage, during the voyage, and then afterwards as well. There's a slew of diverse backgrounds here, enough that it feels a bit like they ran through a checklist of character stereotypes to cover, but at least it kept the characters from feeling the same. There's some casual Fiction Science used here by the brain of the group to explain what they think has happened, and it's...fine. Easy to understand, but it is a bit handwavey for the sake of "we need a scientific explanation for this stuff". It definitely feels like a movie.
I do wish there was more of an ending, even if additional books are planned. Ending spoilers here: The book basically ends on a cliffhanger involving an entirely new POV that wasn't used at all during the book, and nothing is really resolved, explained, or otherwise given to the reader to feel rewarded for finishing the book. I feel like this story could have used a smaller, less-pressing issue to resolve within the book, keeping the overall larger "wtf is going on" problem to span multiple books. It just didn't feel like a lot of payoff. There also wasn't much space involved in this book, so if you're here for some crazy space shenanigans, this might not be the one for you. I didn't mind it so much because it felt like the real story was the crazy life changes and not the journey, but YMMV.
Fun if you can turn your brain off and enjoy the movie. Cast some actors in the roles in your brain and have at it.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
