Tag Archives: sci-fi

Night Train to Rigel

Book Review: Night Train to Rigel (Quadrail #1), by Timothy Zahn

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I bought a paperback copy of Timothy Zahn‘s Night Train to Rigel. I promised myself I wouldn’t get to December and have books by author with names starting with I, Q, X and Z, this year. This took care of Z for my alphabet challenge.

Description from Goodreads:
It begins when a man delivers a message for former government agent Frank Compton–only to fall dead at his feet. The message is a summons from the Spiders, the exotic and mysterious creatures who run the Quadrail, an incredible transportation system connecting civilizations across the galaxy. The Spiders believe that someone or something is preparing to attack their entire network and the worlds it serves, by smuggling battleships through the Quadrail–something that should be impossible to do. Compton, with the aid of a beautiful but enigmatic agent of the Spiders, is their last hope.

Because nobody else has been able to find the elusive enemy who seeks to enslave the entire galaxy…and Earth is its next target.

Review:
I think it took me a lifetime to read this book. Ok, maybe it just felt that way because I was bored for so much of it. Honestly, it’s not a bad book. But I felt it went on longer than it needed to, considering the plot was just a guy riding a galactic train back and forwards, following handily laid out clues and reacting to things.

I might have just called a ‘meh’ read, except for one major oversight that I’m so tired of seeing. Zahn created a whole galaxy, full of several planets and a ton of different species. Do you know, there’s not a single woman among them? Not one. Not one rides the train. Not one works in any of the stations. Not one was in a restaurant or hotel. Not one passes the main character on the street.

With the exception of his sidekick, the “beautiful but enigmatic agent of the Spiders,” whose sole character trait is her lack of personality, there is not a single female of any sort in all 300+ pages of this book. AUTHORS, STOP DOING THIS.

This doesn’t happen by accident. This isn’t excusable because the book is about aliens. Not including females in your books is a choice you make and it infuriates me. I will most likely never read another Timothy Zahn book again. Because he’s not a new author, and if he hasn’t fixed this bad habit by this point in his career, he doesn’t intend to and I can’t be bothered with it.

Incarceron

Book Review of Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher

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I purchased a copy of Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher.

Description from Goodreads:
Incarceron is a prison so vast that it contains not only cells and corridors, but metal forests, dilapidated cities, and wilderness. It has been sealed for centuries, and only one man has ever escaped. Finn has always been a prisoner here. Although he has no memory of his childhood, he is sure he came from Outside. His link to the Outside, his chance to break free, is Claudia, the warden’s daughter, herself determined to escape an arranged marriage. They are up against impossible odds, but one thing looms above all: Incarceron itself is alive . . .

Review:
Soooo, what to say about Incarceron? It’s good. The writing is stellar. The idea is big and interesting. I appreciate the world-building and the characters. But I felt like I’d been reading this book for 15 years, instead of a week. A lot happens, don’t get me wrong. But it just felt really slow. I’ll read book two at some point. I want to see what happens. But I’m gonna give myself a break from it first.

 

Binti

Review of Binti, by Nnedi Okorafor

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I borrowed an audio copy of Binti, by Nnedi Okorafor, from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti’s stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself – but first she has to make it there, alive.

Review:
Really wonderful. I enjoyed this a lot. I liked the way the author created so much of a world (universe) with so little. I loved Binti and the slow(ish) trust that develops between her and her enemy. But I was a tad bothered that despite her skill as a harmonizer, her success ultimately depended on chance, on something she randomly found years earlier. And I thought the ending came about far too easily. But mostly I adored this.

Robin Miles did a wonderful job with the narration too. She had a whistle on her hard S that was painful in headphones, but that was my ONLY complaint.