Dark Orbit in SpecFic Buddy Reads

Nov 13, 2016 Bradley rated it liked it

Shelves: worldbuilding-sf, sci-fi, 2016-shelf

I liked this more than I thought I would, rounding up to a 3.5 stars, but even though the big ideas were pretty interesting in themselves, it didn't quite reach the level I thought I wanted.

These big ideas came pretty fast and furious after a certain point, which I have no problems with. The novel begins with solid characterization, fairly interesting first-contact scenarios including the normal fish-out-of-water plots on both sides of the glass.

There's dark matter and interesting gravitationa ...more

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Nov 29, 2016 Justine rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016-read

I thought this one was very well written and incorporated some extremely interesting and different ideas. I loved the way dark matter and quantum entanglement were explained so clearly. I have to disagree with those who felt the ending was unsatisfactory; I was quite happy with it.

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Jul 21, 2015 Lindsay rated it really liked it

The story is that a group of scientists are on a mission to an odd solar system that looks to have a high concentration of dark matter (it's gravitationally lensing stars behind it). The main protagonist Sara is an exoethnologist with a twofold mission, to supervise the other main protagonist Thora, and to study the social structure among the other scientists. That all goes quickly out the window when Thora goes missing and the planet they're investigating turns out to be inhabited.

The setup for The story is that a group of scientists are on a mission to an odd solar system that looks to have a high concentration of dark matter (it's gravitationally lensing stars behind it). The main protagonist Sara is an exoethnologist with a twofold mission, to supervise the other main protagonist Thora, and to study the social structure among the other scientists. That all goes quickly out the window when Thora goes missing and the planet they're investigating turns out to be inhabited.

The setup for this one is deep, with a fascinating society in the Twenty Planets that the scientists are from, another fascinating society that Thora has just escaped from prior to the mission and the society of the natives of the planet who are all blind. Central to the book are different ways of perceiving and thinking about the world and the filters of our perceptions and cultures. The philosophy parable of Plato's Cave is in many ways central to the book (although referred to as "shadows on the wall", because otherwise it's all a bit too obvious as the blind people live in a cave).

The SF plot is cool, the idea of dark matter structures teases fascinating imagery if you know anything about the physics of dark matter. The characters are compelling, with Sara from a culture that is taught to mock and tear down authority wherever it's found and Thora recovering from a unwanted treatment for mental illness. The background and world building is amazing across all three worlds, with the barbaric culture of Orem that's left its scars on Thora overshadowing much of the book (a true rape culture where almost all relationships are defined in terms of predator/prey and there's even a name for something best described as intended rapist/preferred victim).

But all that being said, if this book is standalone then it woefully fails to follow through on all the promise of its premise. As the first book in a duology or trilogy I'd be a lot happier, but I can't find any indication that there's going to be another one. (A personal bugbear anyway; as a reader I don't mind reading the first book of a series if I'm aware that it's a series and set my expectations accordingly).

It's still good enough for me to recommend it, even though it's half a book. This is one of the few modern SF books that mostly embraces that FTL travel is not possible technologically and posits a believable interstellar society anyway. It's also a novel where the majority of the society is multi-racial and multi-ethic with believable cultural reactions to a society that has lived generations with invasive technology (privacy taboos, personal copyright morals, intellectual property of personal experiences). ...more

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Nov 30, 2016 Robyn rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016

4.5. I loved the characters, the science/magic, the world building. We just need - MORE! I can imagine many endings, though, which if proof to me that this was a book that got my brain going.

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Nov 21, 2016 Jorid Sørli rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobook

It was ok, but I don't buy the "a whole population goes blind because they live in the dark" explanation. I always have problems with authors messing with biological functions and evolution, if they give a good justification for the divergence I do not mind. “People living in the dark makes them blind” is not such a reason. Hundreds of millions of years of evolution is turned off by a few generations living in caves? Getting over this annoying part, I liked the concept of people becoming detache ...more

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Aug 21, 2015 Lata rated it really liked it

Shelves: x2016-read, bipoc-actor, auth-f, sf-f-h

Imagine my surprise and pleasure to find out that the main protagonists are not 16-24 year old, pale, violet-eyed, beautiful girls. Instead, Saraswati is a competent, middle-aged ethnologist who isn't particularly interested in her appearance, and Thora who is an intelligent and curious person. No teenagers amongst the spacefarers! Yay!
This was a fascinating read, full of grown-up ideas and flawed, self-interested people. ...more

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May 01, 2018 Jessica rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobooks

interesting stand alone book. I like the idea of traveling on a light beam! the story was ok for me. it wasn't boring and I actually wanted to finish to learn more but it sort of ended abruptly for me. ...more

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