SPSFC4: My Semifinalist reviews

Time of the Cat by Tansy Rayner Roberts

Score: 8

I was assigned this book as one of my original reads this contest, so much of this is the same as what I wrote before:

This is a very silly book. To me, that’s not a bad thing at all! The footnotes reminded me delightfully of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (Which is awfully high praise, as any true fan of footnotes will know!). I do wish Kindle would handle footnotes better, but that’s not really on the author. I expect most fans of British humor will find this book oddly charming.

The editing was overall good, and I really enjoyed the main character. Some of the side characters were very flat, but it worked with the tone that the author was going for, and I really cared about and enjoyed the main characters.

Some of the reveals felt unearned, and I got very lost in the middle, but some of my confusion was clearly intended by the author. In the end, it was a fun adventure that I enjoyed reading, and I’d read a sequel if there was one.

I really liked that this book was so unusual. It tried something weird, daring, and different. In my eyes, it succeeded.

Bisection by Sheila Jenné

Score: 7.5

This book was weird in all the best ways. The main character, Resa/Tria, is from a race very similar to humans… except that the connections between both halves of her brain have been greatly reduced. She has two personalities but one body, one that’s much more emotional, and one that’s much more rational.

It’s a “first contact” story, as she steals aboard an alien ship, and also a murder mystery. There’s a romance subplot? We also get good sci-fi commentary on the shortfalls of almost every culture she comes into contact with, including her original culture.

Weird, makes you think, and a good story! The only reason I’m marking this lower than Time of the Cat is because things often seemed a bit too “convenient” in a book that was meant to be more serious (“Ah! Prisoners! We should let them do work detail in the kitchen that prepares our food on their first day in jail, despite the important things taking place in the next six hours.”). Also, the major alien species Resa/Tria dealt with didn’t have nearly the depth that she herselves did, and she was interesting enough that the contrast was noticable.

On Impulse by Heather Texle

Score: 6.5

The main character panics in a bad situation, making it look like she committed a horrible crime. She compounds this error at every possible opportunity, actually committing major crimes and destroying her own future as she goes on the run across the galaxy. It got to the point where I was cheering for her to get arrested for her own good.

To be fair, the book is not titled “By Carefully Weighed Plan.”

Still, I enjoyed the whole ride, and the subterfuge/heist parts were well-written and surprisingly plausible. While the antagonists did make some conveniently stupid mistakes, and I didn’t quite buy the protagonist’s rationale for her string of terrible decisions, I still enjoyed the ride.

Proliferation by Erik A. Otto

Score: 6

This book centers around a collection of abandoned cities controlled by dormant artificial intelligences that are now waking up. Various factions have different goals for these cities.

Proliferation is written in two halves, but I struggled first half. The second half is much better, despite my discomfort with the character whose self-harm was not only “required” by a supernatural condition, but supported by the other characters (an authorial decision that made me uncomfortable).

The worldbuilding throughout both halves is excellent, and you get the sense of a rich world with many factions, differing locations, and history.

The trouble with the first half is that there are two viewpoint characters, and both have next-to-no-agency in anything that happens to them, for hundreds of pages. It made the first half quite a slog to read. In the second half, both of these characters start to attempt to take control of their destiny. I’d be curious how I would have rated the book had I started at the second half. Yes, I would have missed some important setup and worldbuilding, but I wonder if my overall impression might still have been more positive.

A Swift and Sudden Exit by Nico Vicenty

Score: 5

The main character is pulled off her job doing dangerous mining in a post-apocalyptic wasteland to work for a secret subgroup doing time control. On her initial trip, she meets a fascinating figure who claims to know her well.

This book could have used better editing throughout, but struggles most in the initial chapters, which made for a poor first impression. 

The middle of the book is the strongest, with interesting characters and plot drawing me in to the story. The time travel aspect works well in this central section, despite some serious questions about the organizing agency’s priorities.

Unfortunately, time travel books often struggle to come to a satisfying and internally consistent conclusion, and that’s an issue this book shares. The rocky beginning and bewildering ending prevented me from rating this book higher, despite a strong core.

Accidental Intelligence by Bryan Chaffin

Score: 5

This book had trouble drawing me in. The main character didn’t have many strong connections to other people and had a sense – even when doing exciting things – of “I’m just doing my job.” His lack of emotional investment in anything made it hard for me to emotionally invest. Overall, I felt the book could have used less exposition and more character interactions. The parts of the books I enjoyed most were a few brief interactions, such as one time where the main character has a heated argument with an old friend.

While the worldbuilding was good, several plot events seemed unjustified to me, and the ending felt abrupt.