Rating: 3 stars
CBR16 Bingo: Earth Day (while this novella is set off-Earth, a lot of the plot involves conservation efforts to try to reintroduce healthy biodiversity on Earth)
Mossa is investigating the mysterious disappearance, most likely a suicide, on one of the human colonies on Jupiter. Mossa discovers that the missing man worked at the colony's university, where conveniently for her and her further investigation, Mossa's ex-girlfriend is a scholar working with others to try to recreate the ecosystems of Earth before it collapsed.
Pleiti is surprised to see Mossa, but flattered that she wants assistance. Mossa presents as very likely neuro divergent, very focused and usually rather unconcerned about the feelings and reactions of those around her. She's a dedicated and experienced investigator, but digging into the case with the help of Pleiti just keeps making things more confusing, and strange. Will Mossa be able to solve the puzzling case, and might she have a new chance with Pleiti, after breaking it off with her so many years ago?
I think there was too much sci-fi here, and not enough of the mystery to grab me. Mossa and Pleiti were fine as characters, but I was never really invested in the case they were working together on, nor did I really care about the world-building, although the colonies on Jupiter sounded pretty neat. I didn't hate this story, but considering it's a novella of less than 200 pages, it shouldn't have taken me three days to finish. I just didn't feel compelled to keep reading, because the story and characters were merely OK. To others, this might be a great read, but I really wasn't feeling it. At least it allowed me to complete my Earth Day square on the bingo card, which means I have actually completed the whole card, and the bonus square. Before I thought of this novella, which I have owned in e-book for a while now, I was probably just going to skip this square altogether. So I don't regret reading it, I just don't think I'll revisit it, or remember the plot too well a couple of months from now.
Judging a book by its cover: While the book itself left me merely whelmed, I really like the cover. The reds and oranges of the background, the tiny sci-fi details in the background and only a silhouette to give an impression of what the characters look like.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read
No comments:
Post a Comment