Axiom's End

There's a ton of references shoe-horned in here for no good reason. Poor characters, bare-minimum plot. Cliche. Why does she call her mother that?

I initially thought, as bad as it is, and as ironic as it is that someone whose work is so dedicated to analysing bad writing for Ellis to lack so much self-awareness, well, at least it has potential, right? But then I remembered how much she loves/hates Transformers and suddenly even her potential for originality dwindles.

Maybe not everybody should be a writer.

Very readable: a pageturner book that keeps you going through a riveting plot at breakneck speed. I also enjoyed the discussion of alien-ness in the context of building relationships of all kinds. I was a little taken aback by the CIA turning out to be the good guys; the aliens in many ways being as harmful as the knee-jerk reactions against them made them out to be; the truth-seeking indie journalist being one of the bad guys; and the (spoilers) thing that Ampersand does to Cora without permission towards the end. I felt like the themes either weren't thought through as well as they might be, or were otherwise more right-wing than I typically want to enjoy. Which is a shame, because those things aside, I enjoyed the read very much.

So much dialogue!! I found myself annoyed. It started so great but by the end I found the main character annoying and her actions weird…. iykyk. I didn’t like it and I felt like it had a lot of potential. Not going to read the next one.

I enjoyed the relationship building throughout the narrative, but that was really all that carried this for me. The characters felt flat and the plot felt forced.

As far as first contact stories go, Ted Chiang, Cixin Liu, and [redacted] (the one with Rocky in it) just brought so much more depth and nuance to the table.

First contact stories are plenty in sci-fi, but this one stands out as particularly well-written, with characters that have depth.

So overall I really enjoyed the plot of this. Was Cora slightly juvenile? Yes. Were there some repetitive strange terms (lizard brain anyone?) Also yes. Does it seem like there's about to be a very incompatible (in all meanings of that word) alien/human romance in book two? Definitely. Do I care? Not one bit. It was creative and fun and I didn't want to put it down.

I really wanted to like the book but, while entertaining, it didn’t connect. Not the main character and not the plot. Key parts of the plot seem abrupt, like if a good chapter was missing in between, and other parts were dragged too long. The connection between alien and protagonist increased as my connection to the book decreased.

spoilers There are definitely page-turning moments, but they’re interspersed with making us spend time with a petulant protagonist who has an internal white saviour narrative inflating into space. Plot points vary from untidy to curiously convenient like an indulgently talky, cuddly, thousand-year-old oligarch of an alien. The aliens are altogether too fathomable, kindness is told not shown and that mote is absurdly the impetus for interspecies bonding (is trying to murder your other symphyle endearing?), and there are no innovations in the intergalactic arc nor surprise in the final secret.

I did like: the diplomatic translations.

My notes: anaulin.org/blog/book-notes-axiom-s-end/

I liked this book. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's a fun read that at times says some interesting things. I will definitely be picking up the next book when it comes out!

This is hardly a surprise considering the author, but my first thought after finishing the book was it'd make for a pretty alright movie. A sci-fi thriller that may be light on deep, profound statements, but is nonetheless entertaining, full of interesting characters and world building, and fast-moving enough that I couldn't put it down. It hits enough touchstones of the first contact genre (I was reminded at times of Childhood's End's first section, for example) while bringing its own ideas to the party.