Frustrating. Fascinating.
I liked this A LOT, and enjoyed reading it, but I think 3-stars is fair. Because I felt that the generation starship plot was short-changed, and allowed to be no more than the catchy middle-eight. And because I felt that the dystopian journey of the delightful Ottoline Barragão-- while clever and inventive, and putting every trick in your near-future dystopia toybox to good use -- was the set up for a nice plot twist, but didn't really come to much of anything more. It's a testimony to Robert's skill as a writer, and knowledge of SF and pop culture, that shuffling Otty around what laughingly passes as the criminal justice system of a country in meltdown is frightening, plausible, and even funny. But it doesn't really turn into a plot.
I liked this A LOT, and enjoyed reading it, but I think 3-stars is fair. Because I felt that the generation starship plot was short-changed, and allowed to be no more than the catchy middle-eight. And because I felt that the dystopian journey of the delightful Ottoline Barragão-- while clever and inventive, and putting every trick in your near-future dystopia toybox to good use -- was the set up for a nice plot twist, but didn't really come to much of anything more. It's a testimony to Robert's skill as a writer, and knowledge of SF and pop culture, that shuffling Otty around what laughingly passes as the criminal justice system of a country in meltdown is frightening, plausible, and even funny. But it doesn't really turn into a plot.
