Let's close out the year by ranking the standalone sci-fi books I read this year!
6. Salvation
Wow, this was one beast of a novel. Hamilton cycles through three separate storylines, each with a plentiful array of characters and futuristic lingo. The most impressive aspect of the book is undoubtedly the sheer amount of worldbuilding; Hamilton takes us through near and far futures where omnigendered people have become a norm for utopian societies, quantum-entanglement portals connect virtually all explored space to each other, and trade with humanity's first extraterrestrial contact has extended human lifespans.
Although the worldbuilding is admirable, it's ultimately bogged down by a dizzying number of characters in its cast. None of them are quite fleshed out enough to have an emotional attachment to. Some of the child soldiers fighting a shadowy alien threat in the fifth millennium come close, but they aren't given nearly enough time for proper development.
It's not that I don't enjoy sci-fi about ideas; the Three Body Problem trilogy is one of my long-time favorites. Salvation, however, drops the reader into a world with a jarring amount of new vocabulary and expects them to piece together the meanings. It's an impressive achievement of worldbuilding, but just not to my taste.
5. The Android's Dream
I became a big fan of Scalzi's work after reading the Old Man's War series and Redshirts. Old Man's War had sarcastic dialogue and a breakneck pace; Redshirts explored the classic 'fantasy meets real life' idea with wit and a unique perspective. The Android's Dream tries to execute a similar style but falls short of the charm of Old Man's War.
I frequently found myself confusing several side characters that didn't have memorable qualities or personalities. I'm still a fan of his lengthy exposition with not-so-inconspicuous snarky humor splashed in, but they were much too long and a chore to read through in this one. Some of the 'potty humor' used here made me roll my eyes.
The plot is also ridiculous, but Scalzi somehow makes it work in the end. It's entertaining enough but doesn't offer much in terms of speculation.
4. The Songs of Distant Earth
Clarke is one of the most legendary sci-fi writers of all time, so I was excited when I picked up this book. The ideas are interesting and the characters well-written, but I wish he'd developed some of the multitudes of concepts he packed into the story.
In particular, the scorp 'civilization' could've been something really intriguing. How do we define a civilization? The scorps use markers to distinguish class hierarchies and use human materials like sheets of iron they found drifting down the ocean. However, ants use pheromones to identify different classes, and urban birds have been known to incorporate human trash into their nests. Neither of them would be considered as civilizations; yet, there are certain moments in interactions between scorps and human technology that hint at something more.
The main focus of the novel, however, is on the interactions between the Thalassans and Sagan Two colonists. I found the cultural history of the last millennium of Earth to be interesting, like the different interpretations of God(Alpha, Omega) and the perfection of music through technology. The latter is a concept I've found explored in other sci-fi works, and it always makes me wonder what it'd be like to 'listen' to that kind of art. What if every sense could be utilized to create the most immersive work of music?
3. Mickey7
I've reviewed this book before, so I'll keep it brief. See my post here for the full review!
Mickey7 has an intriguing premise. Which advent would come first: self-sufficient robots or human cloning (and consciousness uploading) technology? In this world, it's the clones that are ultimately chosen to handle dangerous missions that normal people are too precious to.
Warner dropped a teaser trailer for the upcoming film adaptation this month (over a year before its release, much to the fans' disappointment). It doesn't give us much apart from confirmation of Robert Pattinson as the lead role and its distant release date.
2. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
Kira Navarez is a xenobiologist who stumbles upon an alien lifeform during an exploration mission. The lifeform calls itself the Soft Blade and binds to Kira like a form of biological armor.
The descriptions of the Soft Blade are gorgeous, and Paolini incorporates imagery of fractals to convey a being that is much more advanced and sophisticated than human comprehension. The POV narration from the Jellies - an alien species related to the Soft Blade - is beautiful and offers a glimpse into the perspective of a civilization vastly different from our own.
The 'ship mind' trope is somewhat common with colonization sci-fi, but Paolini takes it a step further by developing a ship mind character. It's a strange dive into the psyche of an overgrown brain that lives in isolation from all human senses.
The character development is also well done. Each crew member of the Wallfish has conflicts with ideas or with themselves that are ultimately resolved by the end of the book.
1. Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary is Weir at his absolute best. He keeps the entertainment of The Martian, subtracts some of the profanity (as colorful as it was), dials back on the science a notch, and adds an extraterrestrial civilization to the mix. A perfect combination of the first-contact and disaster genres, and an immediate favorite of mine. It's much more approachable than The Martian, especially for those less familiar with chemistry and astrophysics concepts.
Something I found odd with the narration was that the voices of Mark and Grace are very similar. They're similar in character, too: snarky and self-sufficient scientists trapped in space, alone on a death mission with no one to help them. I'm not complaining, though. It worked in The Martian, and it works just as well in Hail Mary, if not better.
Those are all the books I have for you this year. Let me know your favorite sci-fi novels, and I'll see you next year!
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