Machine

A White Space Novel

hardcover, 496 pages

Published Oct. 6, 2020 by Gallery / Saga Press.

ISBN:
978-1-5344-0301-7
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (19 reviews)

5 editions

More better White Space

4 stars

Elizabeth Bear's second White Space novel is, in some ways, better than the first. Once again, the story is told through the eyes of a compelling and complex character. The setting of the novel—a post-scarcity interstellar polity called the Synarche—is once again central to the novel, but the this time the inner workings of the Synarche, the relationship of its various citizens to it, and its flaws are examined in greater detail and from a more internal perspective, which makes the setting more interesting.

The novel suffers from pacing that could be better at times. We get to hear a lot of what the protagonist's thoughts are, but sometimes this feels redundant, with her explaining her already previously stated feelings on the situation multiple times, which does help to establish the stakes and motivations, but past a certain point feels a bit redundant.

Once again, this is an entertaining novel …

Review of 'Machine' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

This book started out so strong with the setup of an interesting mystery on a generation ship floating through space--so much potential for a fun story.

Unfortunately, the author basically throws that setup away and just makes it a tangential part of what felt like a totally slapped together conspiracy story. It turned into a slog, and the plot became really unbelievable and borderline incoherent.

The author herself even says it in the afterword there were "seemingly infinite revisions it took to get the (hopefully entertainingly) Rube Goldbergian plot of this book to hang together correctly". Unfortunately, I'd disagree with her--the plot of this book does not hang together at all, and "Rube Goldbergian" is not a desirable trait for a novel.

avatar for whami

rated it

4 stars
avatar for Heavyboots

rated it

5 stars
avatar for Tingenek

rated it

3 stars
avatar for joeyh

rated it

3 stars
avatar for Mignon

rated it

4 stars
avatar for aimeekgunther

rated it

3 stars
avatar for freiheit

rated it

5 stars
avatar for spilliams

rated it

5 stars
avatar for recri

rated it

5 stars
avatar for daylightgambler@ramblingreaders.org

rated it

4 stars
avatar for MirahImage

rated it

5 stars
avatar for BillieCodes

rated it

5 stars