Oliver

The book mostly consists of dialog between the characters, very little description of anything but the car/saucer repairs. While fun in the beginning, the talk about coffee for breakfast, smoked meat for lunch, some kind of stew for dinner, the 70s and 80 movie references, and the bad puns wore me down quite quickly. There is lots of Gary Stu-ing, every wish is fulfilled, and there is no risk at all for the characters in the thin plot.

The book was definitely not for me.

Mostly because of
“Redaction” by Adam R. Shannon, but also because
“Dreams of the Rocket Man” by C. Stuart Hardwick hit me emotionally.

I thoroughly enjoyed „Fermi‘s last survivor“ by John Taloni, „Catallactics on an Asteroid“ by Steve Wire, and was surpassingly emotionally touched by „The Fare to Ride the Universe“ by Amy Power Jansen (what a name!)

Thoroughly enjoyed Pip Coen‘s „Floater‘s can‘t float“. A fresh angle on time traveling. The emotional core element to the story and it‘s resolution might not have been surprising but still felt impactful.

The last few chapters inspecting (and explaining) the ideas of self and intelligent life, pushed it from a 2 to a 3.

The repetitive, yet twisting narrative was interesting but lost its momentum for me, and asked for a quicker resolution in my opinion.

Overall a worthy entry to the Children series though.