lightreads (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lightreads) wrote2018-01-28 03:36 pm
lightreads) wrote2018-01-28 03:36 pm
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Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Gemina
2/5. Sequel to Illuminae. The pampered daughter of a space station commander teams up with her drug dealer when the station is invaded by a corporate commando squad bent on hushing up the atrocities from the prior book.
Yeah, no, this did not work. Which is really an accomplishment, considering Illuminae 80% worked on me and this is the exact same book. On a space station instead of a spaceship, but otherwise the structure, the emotional beats, even the characters all slot perfectly into the same mold. You can swap elements one-for-one – the plague in Illuminae is replaced here with an invasive and deadly alien predator, but they fill the exact same role of invoking terror at squishy, unstoppable biology in these close-in space habitats. The entire book is like that – like they played madlibs.
The main problem is that the epistolary structure is for a specific purpose, instead of just being a gimmick, and we know that from word one, whereas it wasn’t actually explained until the end of the first book. You’d think that’d be a good thing. But no. It just means the intense performativity of this book, and it’s obvious and clumsy emotional manipulations, become fully transparent. And my God, the attempt at stuntwriting (there’s this whole thing where a narrator is telling one story twice at the same time with slight variation for reasons). It’s embarrassing how not good it is.
2/5. Sequel to Illuminae. The pampered daughter of a space station commander teams up with her drug dealer when the station is invaded by a corporate commando squad bent on hushing up the atrocities from the prior book.
Yeah, no, this did not work. Which is really an accomplishment, considering Illuminae 80% worked on me and this is the exact same book. On a space station instead of a spaceship, but otherwise the structure, the emotional beats, even the characters all slot perfectly into the same mold. You can swap elements one-for-one – the plague in Illuminae is replaced here with an invasive and deadly alien predator, but they fill the exact same role of invoking terror at squishy, unstoppable biology in these close-in space habitats. The entire book is like that – like they played madlibs.
The main problem is that the epistolary structure is for a specific purpose, instead of just being a gimmick, and we know that from word one, whereas it wasn’t actually explained until the end of the first book. You’d think that’d be a good thing. But no. It just means the intense performativity of this book, and it’s obvious and clumsy emotional manipulations, become fully transparent. And my God, the attempt at stuntwriting (there’s this whole thing where a narrator is telling one story twice at the same time with slight variation for reasons). It’s embarrassing how not good it is.
no subject
I'm not sure whether it was the audiobook or the execution itself, but it's great! And again, usually I like one reader, but here the many voices were perfect.
So your antirec got me to give a book a try that had all the things I didn't think i'd like and I loved it!!! Thank you!!!!
(I may just read the summary for the second book then or maybe just skim it? Because I do want to know what else happens...)
no subject
I mean, I definitely don't review things for the purpose of making people not read things, so call it a success! And yes, isn't the audio production on Illuminae great? Good casting, good multi-voice work, even good use of background effects. I am not sure what I am going to do about the third book in this trilogy, due out in a few months. Structurally it will have to break out of the mold here, but only so far, I suspect, so perhaps I will also just read a summary so at least I will know how they do the stuff with the thing.
no subject
Also I've noticed that I definitely like shorter books as audiobooks, so YA often has a faster pace. (I had to give up on Games of Thrones, for example, bc it was soooo slow for me.)
But yes, I often use your reviews as recs, and i don't tell you often enough, but this one was such a pleasant surprise on all fronts!
(I might skip the second and give the third a try...here's hoping they change up the gameplay)
no subject
Yeah this is why, among other reasons, I listen to audiobooks on faster speeds. Because I do not have 17 hours in my week for your book, Francis Hardinge, even if it is amazing. But also because I would like things to happen in the time it takes me to fetch the mail and come upstairs, as opposed to still be laboring through the same paragraph.