Zenith

ReRead June 2021

Lately, I've been rereading books to catch up on series that I halted reading for awhile and that have since been completed. As such, I've been experiencing interesting moments - thankfully, mostly good ones. This book...kind of threw me for a loop the second time around. I remembered the main plot points, but I forgot just how good this book is.

I knew I liked it the first time, but my goodness, is this book fun. The emotions run hot and as much attention are given the characters (likable, flawed human beings, all) as is the time travel plot. And I love time travel plots, though my brain usually has trouble with them. This one though, while complicated, is easy to follow, lending an unneeded hand to an already very readable book. (Seriously, this book is an awesome sci-fi, but it's as easy for me to read as any romance novel.)

Side note: I'd like to add that I love the way sexuality is handled in this book. (I might be especially sensitive to this now, considering that I could mention another far future sci-fi series I've been reading - that one military based - where same gender couples are still frowned upon. DADT was probably never repealed in that universe. But, anyway...) In this book, sexual and romantic attraction seems, by and large, to be of the everyone is bi/pan variety. I noticed this in the first read through with Martin, but there are two other guys that, really, seem like gender is irrelevant to them when it comes to who they like. Nothing is ever made of who someone is attracted to. I like this. ... Very much.

All this being said, I am so looking forward to rereading the next book, because I don't remember anything about it!


Original Review

This book was kind of awesome and sort of ... almost exactly what I was looking for. It a modern sci-fi in that it starts with human's first tentative steps to other systems. (And, so far, there's no aliens.) The time travel is awesome, though I will admit, sometimes I was like ‘okay, run that by me again.' But the story is so cool, so readable, and full of action.

I really, really don't want to give away spoilers because this is a story that the less you know going into it, the better, I think. But I will say that I loved the time travel aspect, the characters were all likable, and while there is a very important M/M romance - and an almost just as important M/F/M love triangle (that, except for one brief moment, was handled surprisingly well) - this story is in no way a romance. Everyone is more focused on their job than romance. I also gotta add, I read Martin as pan - which makes me so happy!

The only small complaint I've got - is about the romances and - is that the romances all seem to go from zero to sixty in no time. It's like they meet each other and go on a date or two and ‘I'm madly in love with you!' It does work well for the story structure, though without giving away spoilers, I can't say why. And it also fits in rather well with the intense emotions of the characters. ... I lost count of how many shovel talks we get treated to!

Warning though, if you're here for the romance? This story does not give what I'd consider the main couple a HEA - or even a HFN. They're going to have to work for this. (Which is totally okay by me if the rest of the series is as fun as this book.)