Note: I finished reading this yesterday and wrote about it right away. I made a quick review and posted it to Goodreads and Amazon right away, and then edited it to put it here today. That was really efficient for me.
Caution: This review contains spoilers. Proceed with caution.
I gave this novel 4 out of 5 stars, just like the previous books. Early into it, I wanted to throw the book across the room, but I resisted because I cannot afford a new iPad (and the one that I own was a gift, which makes it a treasured possession). But I was instantly disgusted by Manéo Jung-Espinoza and his fantasies towards his first cousin. That’s just gross.
I wasn’t sad in the least when he died.
In fact, the novel started losing points from me immediately because of how the patriarchy still exists in the future. Everything is still so hetero and cis, women are still objectified, and the pornography at casinos is still violent. It’s approximately the year 2355 – how have we not moved past this?
Fortunately, we only see the violent porn angle in the casino in a single early chapter of the book. There are still instances of the male gaze throughout the story, at weird points that distracted from the character development. All of my buttons were getting pushed quickly and hard early in the novel; I almost gave up on the book because of this – once we got away from that and got to the meat of the story, I was interested.
One of the best lines in the book was spoken by Michio Pa: “Because the one thing I don’t need right now is another self-righteous male telling me how high the stakes are and that I’d better not fuck things up. I got it. Thank you.” So fucking true.
There are two other things that always bothers me in the novels. One of the things is that the Belter language is called a “slang”. It’s not a slang - it’s a full-blown language. It has syntax, grammar, development, and is passed down. It evolved, as languages do. I hope that it gets called a language in the next book, but I’m sure my air tanks will run out long before that actually happens. Cosmopolitan slang, my ass…
The other one is the lack of O’Neill Cylinders. We technically have the technology to build those now, and there is a distinct lack of them in the books, excluding the Behemoth and the station that Mao owned. They took the time to spin up Ceres (which should disorient everyone because gravity is pulling their heads in one direction while centrifugal force is pulling their feet in another direction), when it would have been much more efficient, cost-effective, and safer, to just mine the fuck out of Ceres and build O’Neill Cylinders inside where they mined.
Okay, there is a third thing - the lack of laser weapons. Granted, the moment I noticed this and complained to a friend of mine, they began converting the com laser into a laser weapon at the worst time possible, which I then complained about to said friend. At least someone there realized that energy weapons are still weapons, but when going against something that can change the laws of physics on you, it’s probably better to not throw coherent light at it. Me: “Use energy weapons. No, not like that.” (I try to be self-aware, and I’m glad to have friends who help me stay that way)
Migraines still exist? Well, fuck me.
Ah, well…
The action is interesting, seeing people from various cultures come together was great, having a queer character not die was refreshing, and now I’m interested in finding out how the UN, the MCR, and the OPA will fuck things up again. Though I wish that the marines weren’t so fucking dumb and brutal. The UNMC squad in the skiff kill themselves by trying to break the speed limit in the slow zone after (probably) being told what happens in the slow zone, and then the MCRMC squad on the station kill so many humans on accident because they open fire without provocation inside the space station and later let Holden just run out of air. Like, come on. WHAT THE FUCK.
Character progression in this book was great overall, but there were spots that just didn’t make any sense; buildups that didn’t pay off. A friend of mine said that if Amos gives you a nickname, you shouldn’t be allowed to die. I have to agree with her – fortunately, we don’t see Peaches die in this book, so there is a chance that she’ll live. A small chance, but still a chance.
I feel that Serge’s death was stupid. He was on the level the entire time, knew what was going on, and then seemed surprised when armed insurgents shot him after he had already been talking about that possibility with Bull. Like, what did you expect? It seemed out of touch.
Clarissa took much longer to switch sides and help Anna than anticipated. When she got in the turbolift, she gave Anna a knowing look before she, Ashford, Cortez, and the rest of the insurgents went to take the bridge. And then she half-heartedly helped Ashford out anyway even though she had given the implication that she was there to foul up their plans. It was very odd.
I think that this is the first time that Fred Johnson is described as being Black. His “White Savior” (“Earther Savior”, perhaps) complex is at a minimum in this book, but I think that is because he isn’t really in this book. But virtually every POC character is described in relation to some sort of food item. It is tired. The authors really need to look up “Writing with Color”.
The greatest thing about this book is when it makes one think about humanity. Being a decent human once doesn’t mean that you owe someone something. Why are we supposed to be more okay with what Clarissa did than what her dad did? Why are we supposed to be more okay with what Amos did in his past than with what Clarissa did? Is it a numbers game? The trolley problem? Circumstances? Chris told us that he was getting a medal for falling into a pressure hatch, where he lost an arm and a leg to keep seven sailors from being trapped in a compromised are of the Thomas Prince; it didn’t matter that he was unconscious at the time and didn’t know that he was doing it – if he were drunk and fell into a harvesting combine, he’d be called an idiot.
Perhaps that’s the best part of the book. Thinking about humanity. That’s what brought it back up to 4 stars for me.
Get rid of the gendered crime and male gaze, and it would have been five stars.
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