The Stars Are Legion, by Kameron Hurley Synopsis: A fleet of Death Star-esque biological space stations are slowly dying. Their inhabitants will die with them, so they fight bloody wars over the few healthy stations remaining. Book Review: This could have been a good book if it had been given the attention it needed. The premise has promise, and the world Hurley has created is intriguing. But this feels like a first draft that was rushed out. We are often not given any description of our surroundings or the objects our hero (Zan) interacts with, which is a problem in science-fiction. I need some idea of what a space station's interior looks like, aside from "biological." When Zan goes to the hanger (how big?), looks at a "vehicle," repairs it, takes off, and gets into combat, it wasn't until she was already zipping through space that I realized it was basically a space-motorcycle that she was riding on. Until then I'd defaulted to a Star Trek-style shuttlecraft. This sort of thing is rife throughout the book. The dialog can be clunky, as if it was a placeholder for something to be fleshed out. Whenever anything with color is described it is always just one or two simple primary colors that are mentioned. I got sick of everything being either Green, Yellow, or Purple--it felt like I was watching a low-budget cartoon. Some of the action didn't quite make sense, as if Hurley wasn't really keeping track of where in the room everyone was, just jotting down fighting motions. All this led to boredom with the story. Reading a slightly-filled-in story outline doesn't make for exciting reading. When I got to the first sex scene I thought "Oh thank goodness, at least this will be interesting." But it turns out that an author rushing through a narrative can even make sex boring. Hurley also starts the novel off with an amnesiac character (already a very tricky thing to do) and then has a second POV character. Who is intimately tied up in these events, but
SF/F Review – The Stars Are Legion
SF/F Review – The Stars Are Legion
SF/F Review – The Stars Are Legion
The Stars Are Legion, by Kameron Hurley Synopsis: A fleet of Death Star-esque biological space stations are slowly dying. Their inhabitants will die with them, so they fight bloody wars over the few healthy stations remaining. Book Review: This could have been a good book if it had been given the attention it needed. The premise has promise, and the world Hurley has created is intriguing. But this feels like a first draft that was rushed out. We are often not given any description of our surroundings or the objects our hero (Zan) interacts with, which is a problem in science-fiction. I need some idea of what a space station's interior looks like, aside from "biological." When Zan goes to the hanger (how big?), looks at a "vehicle," repairs it, takes off, and gets into combat, it wasn't until she was already zipping through space that I realized it was basically a space-motorcycle that she was riding on. Until then I'd defaulted to a Star Trek-style shuttlecraft. This sort of thing is rife throughout the book. The dialog can be clunky, as if it was a placeholder for something to be fleshed out. Whenever anything with color is described it is always just one or two simple primary colors that are mentioned. I got sick of everything being either Green, Yellow, or Purple--it felt like I was watching a low-budget cartoon. Some of the action didn't quite make sense, as if Hurley wasn't really keeping track of where in the room everyone was, just jotting down fighting motions. All this led to boredom with the story. Reading a slightly-filled-in story outline doesn't make for exciting reading. When I got to the first sex scene I thought "Oh thank goodness, at least this will be interesting." But it turns out that an author rushing through a narrative can even make sex boring. Hurley also starts the novel off with an amnesiac character (already a very tricky thing to do) and then has a second POV character. Who is intimately tied up in these events, but