I received this book as part of the Goodreads first-reads program, which means: free!
But hm. So this is sort of supposed to be military sci-fi, but it feels that way only in the way it hits all of the most negative of military stereotypes. The misogyny was so thick you could cut it with a knife. We had our protagonist, a woman with a military father, joining an existing all-male team (along with another pair of women) as an experiment in how women do in the military. The men all acted cringingly awful toward the women. And the women didnt help, as the inner monologue that seemed to go on was all about which features of the men were attractive.
What is Bridgeman trying to accomplish with this? Is it a statement against sexism? It really doesnt work. Even the most dated sci-fi treats women with misplaced protectionism. Not this unrealistic passive-aggressive nonsense. All we got here were characters to dislike. In the 2010s, I expect my future-facing fiction to show improvement in gender relationships. Not back-sliding.
And the length! Good grief this book is long. Finally, about four hundred pages in, the plot actually started to get interesting. But seriously, 400 pages? It was way too long.
And the physics! Let me just slam my head into the wall. We can hand wave away a lot, but when the characters themselves dont even have a reasonable grasps of things as simple as distance between planetary objects, it just falls apart.
Was it a good book? No, not really. It got interesting about two thirds of the way in, but really, thats too late. That interstingness keeps the rating at three stars, but there are a lot of parts of this one dragging it down.
3 of 5 stars.
But hm. So this is sort of supposed to be military sci-fi, but it feels that way only in the way it hits all of the most negative of military stereotypes. The misogyny was so thick you could cut it with a knife. We had our protagonist, a woman with a military father, joining an existing all-male team (along with another pair of women) as an experiment in how women do in the military. The men all acted cringingly awful toward the women. And the women didnt help, as the inner monologue that seemed to go on was all about which features of the men were attractive.
What is Bridgeman trying to accomplish with this? Is it a statement against sexism? It really doesnt work. Even the most dated sci-fi treats women with misplaced protectionism. Not this unrealistic passive-aggressive nonsense. All we got here were characters to dislike. In the 2010s, I expect my future-facing fiction to show improvement in gender relationships. Not back-sliding.
And the length! Good grief this book is long. Finally, about four hundred pages in, the plot actually started to get interesting. But seriously, 400 pages? It was way too long.
And the physics! Let me just slam my head into the wall. We can hand wave away a lot, but when the characters themselves dont even have a reasonable grasps of things as simple as distance between planetary objects, it just falls apart.
Was it a good book? No, not really. It got interesting about two thirds of the way in, but really, thats too late. That interstingness keeps the rating at three stars, but there are a lot of parts of this one dragging it down.
3 of 5 stars.
