Book Reviews: Ringworld, Niven; Captive Prince, Pacat; The Siren Depths, Wells; Cyteen, Cherryh

[juushika]

Title: Ringworld (Ringworld Book 1)
Author: Larry Niven
Narrator: Tom Parker
Published: Blackstone Audio, 2005 (1970)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 270,610
Text Number: 876
Read Because: personal enjoyment, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A human man is invited on an alien expedition to explore a distant superstructure. I love me a good superstructure, and was prepared to put up with a lot for a good one, going in with knowledge of the limitations of older sci-fi. And this is an engaging premise, and moderately well-realized; the hard sci-fi infodumps are graceless, but convey a large, creative world. But the rest is awful: a clutter of less successful speculative concepts, particularly the ridiculous concept of a luck gene, upon which too much of the plot rests; Niven's persistent and tedious misogyny which destroys all characterization beyond salvage. This wasn't worth my time.


Title: Captive Prince (Captive Prince Book 1)
Author: C.S. Pacat
Published: Berkley, 2015 (2013)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 265
Total Page Count: 270,875
Text Number: 877
Read Because: personal enjoyment, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: After his brother's coup, a prince is exiled into sexual slavery in a neighboring kingdom. This reads very much like fanfic, which isn't a surprise or criticism—but it's bizarre to inhabit both sets of expectations: fanfic's explorations of consent through a veil of idealization combined with the more critical lens of traditional publishing. The subject matter needs to be engaging, challenging, but not miserable, which is a balance this largely strikes, but with no particular grace. The politics that drive the plot are a productive counterbalance; the twists are profoundly predictable and the worldbuilding is just okay (Veretian society is particularly one-note), but it grounds the central romance, providing a sincere, compelling justification for the slow burn, enemies-to-lovers dynamic. I've read a few fanfic/self-published-turned-traditional-publishing novels; I like this least of the bunch—for various reasons, it was the hardest to take seriously. But it's not bad.


Title: The Siren Depths (Books of the Raksura Book 3)
Author: Martha Wells
Published: Night Shade Books, 2012
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 275
Total Page Count: 271,150
Text Number: 878
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Moon is reunited with his birth colony and discovers its unusually close ties to the Fell. This is the first book in the series which I've sincerely enjoyed, as opposed to picking favorite parts from a just-okay whole. By now I've grown invested in the cast, particularly in the intimacies that surround Moon. Raksuran social dynamics can still be tedious, like the bickering among queens and the realistic but still frustrating tendency towards poor communication—but this feels increasingly like a convincing non-human culture, particularly in its sexual politics, with its own prejudices and unwritten rules. This book also does much to complicate the Fell, and Raksuran/Fell relations and history; it's a necessary antidote to the limitations of the first book, more ambiguous, more nuanced. The plot still is just okay—Wells has a great mind for setpieces and as always depicts exhaustion particularly well, but the end is unbalanced and underexplored. But perhaps my central complaint is that I wanted to keep reading—I'm settled into the world and series, now, and didn't want the book to end.

Moon started to answer, then shook his head in frustration. He couldn't put it into words, the way the Fell became weirdly attached to their Raksuran prey. The Fell seemed as if they were having a relationship with you that they expected you to reciprocate, and then became angry when you didn't respond the way they thought you should. Maybe they were, but their complete lack of empathy prevented them from understanding the reactions and feelings of any other type of being. He just looked at Malachite and said, "She had Shade with her all that time. You know how they get."

#1) a good dynamic tho! a very compelling dynamic #2) this book does so much to the correct the flaws of the series in general & the first book in particular #not really by fixing the miscegenation plot so much as by making it substantially more complicated--creating a much-needed ambiguity #3) everyone off discovering Murderbot and I'm like 'bad voice; me no likey' and reading the Raksura books instead


Title: Cyteen
Author: C.J. Cherryh
Published: 1988
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 775
Total Page Count: 271,925
Text Number: 879
Read Because: continuing the series
Review: The murder of a Union politician and scientist has lasting repercussions—particularly on her heir, a genetic and social clone. This is the most accessible Cherryh novel I've read. The length is deceptive, ostensibly allowing for a long view—and it is long—but primarily providing room for Cherryh to untangle her trademark density. I miss her terseness, but the emotional intensity is still there and the themes of sexuality and consent benefit from more text and less subtext; it's an unsettling book with an engaging speculative premise, and Cherryh is unafraid to inhabit ambiguities—necessarily, given the content. This is something of a magnum opus, and it makes sense that it's her most awarded work; I prefer her usual style, but found this solidly enjoyable.

Comments

[thawrecka]

I've read the entirety of the series that Captive Prince starts and the politics and world-building continue to be barely sketched in and unconvincing all the way through.

[juushika]

I recently finished the second book and liked it significantly more as a work entire but, yeah, still pretty shallow world—not what I expected, given how I'd seen the series sold! I suspect the sum effort will have enough to counterbalance it for me, though.

[thawrecka]

The second is probably the most fun of the series. As a pulpy m/m romance adventure full of cheesy tropes it's fun, but I don't know why people continue to try to promote it to other people based on the politics or world-building (which is even less convincing in the third book, sorry to say, but I hope you enjoy that one anyway).