Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Solaris (2022), 608 pages
Description
"Refugee, criminal, and linguist Sean Wren is made an offer he knows he can't refuse: life in prison, 'voluntary' military service--or salvaging data in a long-dead language from an abandoned ship filled with traps and monsters, just days before it's destroyed in a supernova...In the bowels of the derelict ship, surrounded by horrors and dead men, Sean slowly uncovers the truth of what happened on the ship, in its final days and the terrible secret it's hiding"--
User reviews
LibraryThing member OpheliaAutumn
A linguist? In space? Sign me in immediately! Le’ts start with the languages since I really want to talk about this. I enjoyed the way Sean learns and uses some aspects of the Light Language during the novel. To be nit-picky, the other languages used or written are not described enough to my
The plot itself was interesting and fast-paced enough, with memories used (a bit heavily at some moments) to give enough context and backstory when necessary. I wasn’t surprised by the ending or some twists (well, not the very last one ;)) especially with the message that you can see being built by the narration, but it was done in a nice way that didn’t pull me out. Some scenes were too repetitive and there were a few plot holes, but in the last chapters (no spoilers) I was feeling the psychological stress of Sean and the patterns created before broke, in a good way.
I’m not sure what to think of Sean himself, he had this slightly annoying Han Solo / Indiana Jones vibe that made me think of him as Harrison Ford during the whole book. The backstory made him progressively less caricatural and more likeable but the vibe was still there. The other characters like Indigo and Tamara were interesting.
Overall, an enjoyable read with food for thought!
I want to thank NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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liking, so for example, I think that Ameng means American English, but you have to guess and we don’t really know what the human characters’ current languages sound like. But that’s just because I wanted more linguistics :)The plot itself was interesting and fast-paced enough, with memories used (a bit heavily at some moments) to give enough context and backstory when necessary. I wasn’t surprised by the ending or some twists (well, not the very last one ;)) especially with the message that you can see being built by the narration, but it was done in a nice way that didn’t pull me out. Some scenes were too repetitive and there were a few plot holes, but in the last chapters (no spoilers) I was feeling the psychological stress of Sean and the patterns created before broke, in a good way.
I’m not sure what to think of Sean himself, he had this slightly annoying Han Solo / Indiana Jones vibe that made me think of him as Harrison Ford during the whole book. The backstory made him progressively less caricatural and more likeable but the vibe was still there. The other characters like Indigo and Tamara were interesting.
Overall, an enjoyable read with food for thought!
I want to thank NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2022-10-11
Physical description
608 p.; 8.69 inches
ISBN
1786185121 / 9781786185129
Local notes
A search of an abandoned ship for the last vestiges of humanity's experiments for the secrets of immortality should be easy - unless it's unsanctioned and orbiting a dying star weeks away from a supernova.
GSFF Book Club, November 2022. Signed and numbered 1190 of 2000, with a digitally printed purple space dust on black page edges, purple space dust endpapers, foiled spaceship on purple boards, head and tail bands, and a yellow ribbon bookmark.
GSFF Book Club, November 2022. Signed and numbered with a digitally printed decorative page edge.
GSFF Book Club, November 2022. Signed and numbered 1190 of 2000, with a digitally printed purple space dust on black page edges, purple space dust endpapers, foiled spaceship on purple boards, head and tail bands, and a yellow ribbon bookmark.
GSFF Book Club, November 2022. Signed and numbered with a digitally printed decorative page edge.