Book Review: Chill by Elizabeth Bear
Apr. 17th, 2015 12:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: Chill (Jacob's Ladder Book 2)
Author: Elizabeth Bear
Published: New York: Ballantine Books, 2010
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 310
Total Page Count: 156,553
Text Number: 457
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from Multnomah County Library
Review: The planetship is underway, but fragile: as its new angel and captain integrate, their integrity is threatened by a potential outside force. I miss the duo protagonists of Dust. Characterization in Chill is strong, but the narrative voice, with its distinctive quirks (especially in depicting microexpressions), remains static as it cycles through the half-dozen points of view; the effect is fluid almost to the point of sloppy, and, with a plot so similar to the first book, bizarrely redundant. But while the narrative left me cold, the world continues to be fascinating (even with this book's sudden and uneven ending). The religious slant on a generation ship, handled by an author as intentionally complex as Bear, is a spiraling nautilus, delicate and exponential and halfways-hidden, esoteric and creative, a pleasure to discover. I enjoy this series, and look forward to following it to conclusion, but as an individual book I much preferred the tighter and more effective narrative of the first.
Author: Elizabeth Bear
Published: New York: Ballantine Books, 2010
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 310
Total Page Count: 156,553
Text Number: 457
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from Multnomah County Library
Review: The planetship is underway, but fragile: as its new angel and captain integrate, their integrity is threatened by a potential outside force. I miss the duo protagonists of Dust. Characterization in Chill is strong, but the narrative voice, with its distinctive quirks (especially in depicting microexpressions), remains static as it cycles through the half-dozen points of view; the effect is fluid almost to the point of sloppy, and, with a plot so similar to the first book, bizarrely redundant. But while the narrative left me cold, the world continues to be fascinating (even with this book's sudden and uneven ending). The religious slant on a generation ship, handled by an author as intentionally complex as Bear, is a spiraling nautilus, delicate and exponential and halfways-hidden, esoteric and creative, a pleasure to discover. I enjoy this series, and look forward to following it to conclusion, but as an individual book I much preferred the tighter and more effective narrative of the first.
