frozen characters

Archangelsk by Elizabeth H. Bonesteel

Rating: 2.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: science fiction

Review: How do you take the remnants of a generation ship and keep humanity alive on a frozen, inhospitable planet?  It turns out to involve not just a fair amount of technological ingenuity, but also a healthy dose of myth-making and autocratic government (think, iron fist in velvet glove).  And then, how do you hold the society you've made together 200 years later, when your far-distant cousins from Earth show up and basically say "hey, we didn't actually destroy ourselves like you thought!"?  For the governor of Novayarkha, it turns out the answer is, not very well.

Which is all all well and good for plot purposes.  Every book has to have dramatic conflict and all that.  However, every good book also needs well-rounded characters who have realistic reactions to the conflict.  Both of those were lacking here.  Across the board, characters behaved in ways that weren't understandable based on the information given to the reader.  It's hard to relate to characters when you don't understand why they're acting the way they are.  It's a shame that this book was sunk by poor character development, because the premise was quite interesting.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

hear me roar

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Rating: 4.75 (out of 5)

Genre: historical fiction

Review: Being a chemist is not an easy thing for a woman to be in the '50s and '60s, and is maybe not all that easy now, although I imagine it would be easier if there really had been a woman like Elizabeth Zott to look the world straight in the eye, ask "Why not?" and refuse to take no for an answer.  Elizabeth is a chemist, and refuses to be treated like anything other than the serious scientist she is.

However, until Elizabeth can remake the world in her vision of gender equality, she must go on doing her television cooking show so that she can support herself and her daughter.  On Supper at Six, though, the cooking is a mere byproduct of the chemistry she's really teaching, and both cooking and chemistry are ancillary to the confidence she gives to the women across the country who tune in faithfully every weekday.

If this book has a flaw, it's that Elizabeth has one too many diatribes about the unfairness, nay, illogic, of keeping women out of the sciences.  Fortunately, Garmus has given Elizabeth such an authentic voice, and made her such a sympathetic character, that this reader, at least, was more than willing to make allowances.  And it's not just Elizabeth; Elizabeth has a support network par excellence, and each one contributes their unique voice to make this book a pleasure to read.

Garmus's debut effort is truly a wonderful book, and one that I'll be recommending for a long time.  I'm excited to see what she writes next.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

ouroboros book

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: science fiction

Review:  This book is a great example of when you should read the blurb first.  It's not always the case, of course, that reading the blurb first is important, or even advisable, but for this book, the blurb gave me just enough information to understand the relevance of the first sections of the book, without giving away any major plot points.

So the blurb tells us that we're dealing with people in multiple time periods, and that someone is tasked with figuring out what links the different people together.  However, the blurb gives away nothing in terms of the intricacy of the plot, the loveliness of the writing, or the depth of the characters, even those of whom we see very little.

What makes this book even more enchanting is that it's very self-referential, and also refers to Mandel's previous book, The Glass Castle, putting the reader in mind of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.  Readers who pay close attention to the details will be rewarded with seeing those details take on extra importance and meaning in other scenes, allowing the whole picture to come together seamlessly.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.