Aurora

author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: Wayne
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2016/06/14
date added: 2016/06/14
shelves: sword-and-laser
review:
I read 'Aurora' by Kim Stanley Robinson for my book club. I loved most of the book (enough to recommend it!), but found the ending sort of flat.

A lifeship has left Earth a few generations ago. The ship is reaching it's goal of colonizing a distant planet. It's been a long journey and things in this closed system have a way of going out of balance: too many of certain chemicals, and not enough of others, for instance. Even the populations of animals and humans have shown some changes. The trip in one direction is dangerous enough, but a return trip could prove even more perilous if things don't work out on the planet.

For most of the book we are given a most unusual narrator, which I loved. The kinds of problems faced by the characters seems well thought out as well. There are gravitational problems, and too much radiation problems, and long term ship deterioration problems and biological problems. We see the slow decay of a lot of things in a closed system, and I found that harrowing and fascinating.

Less fascinating, for me, was the long epilogue that just sort of trailed off. Also, the book's narrator is gone, but we don't know who is now telling the story. It's not confusing, and you can piece it together. I just would have liked different closure than I got. Still, I enjoyed this one quite a lot, and I do recommend it.


via Wayne's bookshelf: read http://ift.tt/25WOry9