The Rat's Attic reviewed Bee Speaker by Adrian Tchaikovsky (duplicate)
Not the bees!
4 stars
ARC provided by NetGalley.
When getting this book to review, two parts of my life came to mind: buying second hand books from the store near my school, and my first experiences of volunteer work.
An odd way to start the review, fair, but they both heavily influenced how I felt about the book.
When I was younger, my main source of books was a second hand book store, leaving options limited and eclectic, and I would often pick up the second or third book in a series as my first foray in a setting. Bee Speaker being the 3rd in a series of books and my first Tchaikovsky book gave the read the feeling of there being a bigger world that I was not fully aware of, which was surprisingly refreshing. It made a story which has only three locations feel much wider and part of a real world. …
ARC provided by NetGalley.
When getting this book to review, two parts of my life came to mind: buying second hand books from the store near my school, and my first experiences of volunteer work.
An odd way to start the review, fair, but they both heavily influenced how I felt about the book.
When I was younger, my main source of books was a second hand book store, leaving options limited and eclectic, and I would often pick up the second or third book in a series as my first foray in a setting. Bee Speaker being the 3rd in a series of books and my first Tchaikovsky book gave the read the feeling of there being a bigger world that I was not fully aware of, which was surprisingly refreshing. It made a story which has only three locations feel much wider and part of a real world. I also appreciated that despite that feeling of there being a larger world, everything was made clear quickly and succinctly, never leaving me feel lost in what was happening or who we were talking about.
The other part of my life which came to mind as I was reading was, as mentioned above, my first experiences of volunteer work. The story of Bee Speaker is as follows: a team of people from the human colony of Mars return to Earth to try and help after receiving a distress call, and in trying to help, make everything hit the fan at record speed. People setting out to change the world often go into it with visions of a changed world, only to be confronted with the realities of how hard the world is to change, and that seems to be a big part of the idea behind the story. Add in an interesting take on AI, genetically engineered dogs, reptiles and transhumanist Martians in a world destroyed by unbridled capitalism and post-ai dependence on unsustainable tech, and you've got a setting with some fun chaos to offer.
Tchaikovsky writes extremely well, with a voice which stands distinctly apart from other authors, and feels erudite, thoughtful and down to earth all at the same time, and allows for the book to almost feel like someone telling you an anecdote from their own lives. Throughout beekeeper there is a large cast of POVs, giving us an understanding of events from all sides of the discussion, often switching between characters who are antagonistic towards each other as they are interacting, and letting us get a full 360 shot of quite a few scenes.
A great time, a great and quick read, Tchaikovsky has jumped up higher on my TBR.