What do you think?
Rate this book
The Man in the Tree
Rapid-fire storytelling from start to finish! Greg Bear
Humanity s last hope of survival lies in space but will a random death doom the venture?
Our planet is dying and the world s remaining nations have pooled their resources to build a seed ship that will carry colonists on a multi-generational journey to a distant planet.
Everything is set for a bright adventure and then someone is found hanging dead just weeks before the launch. Fear and paranoia spread as the death begins to look more and more like a murder. The authorities want the case settled quickly and quietly so as not to cause panic and to prevent a murderer from sabotaging the entire mission.
With The Man in the Tree, Locus Award-winning author Sage Walker has given us a thrilling hard science fiction mystery that explores the intersection of law, justice, and human nature.
Humanity s last hope of survival lies in space but will a random death doom the venture?
Our planet is dying and the world s remaining nations have pooled their resources to build a seed ship that will carry colonists on a multi-generational journey to a distant planet.
Everything is set for a bright adventure and then someone is found hanging dead just weeks before the launch. Fear and paranoia spread as the death begins to look more and more like a murder. The authorities want the case settled quickly and quietly so as not to cause panic and to prevent a murderer from sabotaging the entire mission.
With The Man in the Tree, Locus Award-winning author Sage Walker has given us a thrilling hard science fiction mystery that explores the intersection of law, justice, and human nature.
368 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 12, 2017
26 people are currently reading
387 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
August 9, 2018
Generation ships have been back in vogue lately, as three major works have appeared this year to apply contemporary social and scientific theories to the classic subgenre. Sage Walker’s The Man in the Tree is unique among them, in that it is a murder mystery set prior to the ship’s launch, rather than following the journey itself.
The story follows Helt Borresen, the Incident Analyst of the generation ship Kybele, who is assigned to investigate the suspicious death of an outside contractor named Charles Ryan. To complicate matters, Helt is already romantically pursuing the prime suspect, Biosystems researcher Elena Maury, when the body is found. Elena is the only person seen leaving the habitat shortly after Ryan’s death, and had actually lived with the man some years before. But Ryan was a shifty character, and more than one colonist had a reason to want him gone.
The mystery plot, while intriguing, is more useful as a catalyst for Walker’s examination of the scientific and philosophical questions inherent in such a project, as well as the cultural circumstances that produce it, and the political forces – internal and external – that complicate it. Though the conclusion of the story is jarringly abrupt, and a little too pat, Walker’s meditative prose and intellectual rigor, as well as her complex characters and detailed worldbuilding, meant my excursion on Kybele was time well spent.
The story follows Helt Borresen, the Incident Analyst of the generation ship Kybele, who is assigned to investigate the suspicious death of an outside contractor named Charles Ryan. To complicate matters, Helt is already romantically pursuing the prime suspect, Biosystems researcher Elena Maury, when the body is found. Elena is the only person seen leaving the habitat shortly after Ryan’s death, and had actually lived with the man some years before. But Ryan was a shifty character, and more than one colonist had a reason to want him gone.
The mystery plot, while intriguing, is more useful as a catalyst for Walker’s examination of the scientific and philosophical questions inherent in such a project, as well as the cultural circumstances that produce it, and the political forces – internal and external – that complicate it. Though the conclusion of the story is jarringly abrupt, and a little too pat, Walker’s meditative prose and intellectual rigor, as well as her complex characters and detailed worldbuilding, meant my excursion on Kybele was time well spent.
September 17, 2017
Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths.
A murder mystery wrapped in techno science fiction trappings, The Man in the Tree is an elegantly crafted tale of a future where mankind’s main hope of surviving ecological disaster is to send its people out into the universe.
The year is 2029. Earth has been decimated by world-wide ice melt; rising sea levels swallowing huge portions of the continents. The catastrophe causing huge portions of the remaining land to turn into arid wastelands. The only arable land left for farming now at the poles. World populations have naturally plunged. Wars have escalated. Borders have changed. New political unions formed. And though there is a possibility that earth might heal itself of the pollution, the remaining world powers decide to hedge their bets on humankind survival by building a seedship to send off into space.
The Kybele is the first such seedship. Likely the only one. A huge, hollow asteroid turned into a multi-generation colony ship with its own internal sun, river, forests, fields, and thirty thousand colonists ready to set out on a one way trip to a distant planet that might or might not be habitable. And the huge ship is near completion; the last work crews soon to depart, the final members of the “dreamers” about to come on board and ready for departure. Then a man is found dead! His lifeless body discovered hanging from a tree in the wilderness of Kybete. A murder investigation quickly beginning.
Helt Borresen is an Incident Analysis aboard the Kybele. He will be leaving with the rest of the dreamers soon. And while he is alone, he has recently met a woman whom he wants to have a relationship with: Elena. But, now, Helt is tasked with uncovering who this dead man is, how he died, and, if it was murder, who did it. Unfortunately, Helt’s investigation soon points toward Elena being involved!
Never having read any work penned by Sage Walker, I have to admit not being prepared for the precise, elegant, and seamless prose she exhibits in her writing. Every page of this book was as smooth as silk; every conversations portrayed in a realistic way; and the technological marvels rendered in a believable and understandable manner. If for no other reason than being introduced to the author’s fantastic writing, I am truly glad I read this novel.
In my eyes, the other real strength of this story is a fully realized world. The seedship itself a detailed, believable behemoth which felt very real the more you read. The hollowed out interior with its mechanical sun, semi-wild forests, cultivated fields, small villages, familiar restaurants and shopping areas exactly what one would expect with an ark built to keep generations of humans comfortable during a two hundred year voyage to another world. And while much of this story took place in offices, labs, and governmental-type territory, those also felt normal, not foreign, to my earthbound mind.
This narrative also successfully dealt with many complex issues, giving a reader plenty of things to think about after putting the book down. Global warming. Immigration. (Only 30,000 dreamers can go on the ship, and if you don’t fit in, you are deported back to earth.) Humanities intrinsic ability to always cause its own problems. And the concept of love and what you will do or give up to keep it. Each of these issues dealt with in an evenhanded and tactful manner.
As for my main complaint, it would have to be the pacing of this slow burn scifi murder mystery, which felt very sluggish at times. Certainly, it did keep progressing forward with different twists and turns, but the relationship between Helt and his prime suspect Elena was the main element of the plot much of the time and just did not produce enough tension or suspense to liven up a narrative which suffered from a lack of any real surprises until near the end. I suppose it all comes down to personal preference, and I openly admit that I like my mystery more fast-paced with edge of the seat tension or pulse-pounding excitement. Unfortunately, The Man in the Tree was not that type of book.
This is a science fiction mystery which many fans will love. It has a beautifully rendered world, subtle depth of meaning, and fantastic prose from Sage Walker. While I did not enjoy it as much as I hoped, I definitely will be reading more from this author in the future.
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank them for allowing me to receive this review copy and inform everyone that the review you have read is my opinion alone.
A murder mystery wrapped in techno science fiction trappings, The Man in the Tree is an elegantly crafted tale of a future where mankind’s main hope of surviving ecological disaster is to send its people out into the universe.
The year is 2029. Earth has been decimated by world-wide ice melt; rising sea levels swallowing huge portions of the continents. The catastrophe causing huge portions of the remaining land to turn into arid wastelands. The only arable land left for farming now at the poles. World populations have naturally plunged. Wars have escalated. Borders have changed. New political unions formed. And though there is a possibility that earth might heal itself of the pollution, the remaining world powers decide to hedge their bets on humankind survival by building a seedship to send off into space.
The Kybele is the first such seedship. Likely the only one. A huge, hollow asteroid turned into a multi-generation colony ship with its own internal sun, river, forests, fields, and thirty thousand colonists ready to set out on a one way trip to a distant planet that might or might not be habitable. And the huge ship is near completion; the last work crews soon to depart, the final members of the “dreamers” about to come on board and ready for departure. Then a man is found dead! His lifeless body discovered hanging from a tree in the wilderness of Kybete. A murder investigation quickly beginning.
Helt Borresen is an Incident Analysis aboard the Kybele. He will be leaving with the rest of the dreamers soon. And while he is alone, he has recently met a woman whom he wants to have a relationship with: Elena. But, now, Helt is tasked with uncovering who this dead man is, how he died, and, if it was murder, who did it. Unfortunately, Helt’s investigation soon points toward Elena being involved!
Never having read any work penned by Sage Walker, I have to admit not being prepared for the precise, elegant, and seamless prose she exhibits in her writing. Every page of this book was as smooth as silk; every conversations portrayed in a realistic way; and the technological marvels rendered in a believable and understandable manner. If for no other reason than being introduced to the author’s fantastic writing, I am truly glad I read this novel.
In my eyes, the other real strength of this story is a fully realized world. The seedship itself a detailed, believable behemoth which felt very real the more you read. The hollowed out interior with its mechanical sun, semi-wild forests, cultivated fields, small villages, familiar restaurants and shopping areas exactly what one would expect with an ark built to keep generations of humans comfortable during a two hundred year voyage to another world. And while much of this story took place in offices, labs, and governmental-type territory, those also felt normal, not foreign, to my earthbound mind.
This narrative also successfully dealt with many complex issues, giving a reader plenty of things to think about after putting the book down. Global warming. Immigration. (Only 30,000 dreamers can go on the ship, and if you don’t fit in, you are deported back to earth.) Humanities intrinsic ability to always cause its own problems. And the concept of love and what you will do or give up to keep it. Each of these issues dealt with in an evenhanded and tactful manner.
As for my main complaint, it would have to be the pacing of this slow burn scifi murder mystery, which felt very sluggish at times. Certainly, it did keep progressing forward with different twists and turns, but the relationship between Helt and his prime suspect Elena was the main element of the plot much of the time and just did not produce enough tension or suspense to liven up a narrative which suffered from a lack of any real surprises until near the end. I suppose it all comes down to personal preference, and I openly admit that I like my mystery more fast-paced with edge of the seat tension or pulse-pounding excitement. Unfortunately, The Man in the Tree was not that type of book.
This is a science fiction mystery which many fans will love. It has a beautifully rendered world, subtle depth of meaning, and fantastic prose from Sage Walker. While I did not enjoy it as much as I hoped, I definitely will be reading more from this author in the future.
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank them for allowing me to receive this review copy and inform everyone that the review you have read is my opinion alone.
December 30, 2017
Video review here: https://youtu.be/i1WU_nN4gYY
This is a science fiction novel with a murder mystery plot. The action takes place on the Kybele: a planned multigenerational seedship that will soon launch from Earth, to hopefully find another planet where humanity can take root. The ship is about to leave; the last work crews are scheduled to depart, the final members of the team and the lottery winners are coming on board... and then a man is found dead, hanging from a tree, in the park wilderness inside the ship. Who is he? How did he die? And do they have a murderer on board?
The ship doesn't have a security force or police per se, but they do have Helt Borreson, the Incident Analyst, who is now tasked with investigating this death.
The stakes are very understated: The book's description makes it sound like this one death could scuttle the ship's mission and doom humanity's great attempt, but that is not how it comes across in the story. I don't recall any character saying, for example, that they have a strict deadline. This death barely even makes the news, bizarrely enough.
Rather, it's a matter of who gets to leave and who must to stay behind. Nothing is really going to stop the Kybele leaving, it's just that they'd prefer to kick a murderer off first or avoid sabotage. And there's a good chance that innocent people who can't be alibied might also be kicked off the ship. And legal jurisdiction will change and get messy as soon as the Kybele leaves, which is not what you want in the middle of an ongoing investigation.
This is all well and good, because I think that it's a subtle and realistic situation. But, it does mean that there's a surprising lack of urgency throughout a good chunk of it. There are no high stakes immediately, and there don't seem to be many compelling personal stakes for the investigators, especially Helt. Helt's urgency is probably supposed to be that he's just fallen madly in love with the prime suspect in the case, and he really doesn't want her to be kicked off the ship. He wants to clear her, because if he can't, he'll probably decide to stay on Earth with her.
So, there are some things I want to talk about, most of which is not about the actual murder investigation. That's pretty par for the course, only complicated because all the people investigating are not trained professionals who've dealt with murder before. But I found some other elements of the story to be really interesting to analyze and think about.
First of all is the time period. This is such an interesting time to set this story, especially for a seedship. It's on this cusp: ready to leave, prepared to go, but not left yet. People on the Kybele have begun to put that mental distance between "us on Kybele" and "them on Earth", but still regularly communicate with family, friends, and colleagues on Earth. Most stories that I've read that feature long-duration spaceships take place far after the ship has left Earth. The stories are often driven by future generations, who didn't make the initial choices, trying to keep the ship self-sustaining with a finite amount of resources to reach their goal. Not so in this case. And that brings me to the state of the Kybele itself.
The Kybele is nearing the end of its initial construction, but destined to be incomplete for generations. It's created from an asteroid, and the living space inside is fantastically realistic. It has a natural looking gorge and a river running through it, a park with trees. Wilderness where one can "camp" and encounter deer at twilight. There are background people in the public spaces, eating at the restaurants and stopping at the food stalls in the agora,,, and yet there is also emptiness, because the place is built for a much larger population. There is physically potential everywhere. This is a space where things will happen, but not yet.
Ultimately, I think it is highly symbolic that this murder happened at this time, in this particular place, almost arresting the act of leaving humanity's birthplace. Will the humans of the Kybele, with all of their new laws and bright future, escape human nature? No matter where we go, will we still produce murders, psychopaths, the occasional bad egg?
Wherever humans go, we take our problems with us, and this feels like the lesson that the Kybele's leaders have to learn. They can try so hard to design a new world and a new system, and they will still not catch everything because they haven't changed us.
Sometimes I struggled with the execution of this story. The plot, the characters, the writing - they all worked, but didn't excel for me. But - Walker still made me do a LOT of thinking, with these choices she made in the story, and that I appreciated.
This is a science fiction novel with a murder mystery plot. The action takes place on the Kybele: a planned multigenerational seedship that will soon launch from Earth, to hopefully find another planet where humanity can take root. The ship is about to leave; the last work crews are scheduled to depart, the final members of the team and the lottery winners are coming on board... and then a man is found dead, hanging from a tree, in the park wilderness inside the ship. Who is he? How did he die? And do they have a murderer on board?
The ship doesn't have a security force or police per se, but they do have Helt Borreson, the Incident Analyst, who is now tasked with investigating this death.
The stakes are very understated: The book's description makes it sound like this one death could scuttle the ship's mission and doom humanity's great attempt, but that is not how it comes across in the story. I don't recall any character saying, for example, that they have a strict deadline. This death barely even makes the news, bizarrely enough.
Rather, it's a matter of who gets to leave and who must to stay behind. Nothing is really going to stop the Kybele leaving, it's just that they'd prefer to kick a murderer off first or avoid sabotage. And there's a good chance that innocent people who can't be alibied might also be kicked off the ship. And legal jurisdiction will change and get messy as soon as the Kybele leaves, which is not what you want in the middle of an ongoing investigation.
This is all well and good, because I think that it's a subtle and realistic situation. But, it does mean that there's a surprising lack of urgency throughout a good chunk of it. There are no high stakes immediately, and there don't seem to be many compelling personal stakes for the investigators, especially Helt. Helt's urgency is probably supposed to be that he's just fallen madly in love with the prime suspect in the case, and he really doesn't want her to be kicked off the ship. He wants to clear her, because if he can't, he'll probably decide to stay on Earth with her.
So, there are some things I want to talk about, most of which is not about the actual murder investigation. That's pretty par for the course, only complicated because all the people investigating are not trained professionals who've dealt with murder before. But I found some other elements of the story to be really interesting to analyze and think about.
First of all is the time period. This is such an interesting time to set this story, especially for a seedship. It's on this cusp: ready to leave, prepared to go, but not left yet. People on the Kybele have begun to put that mental distance between "us on Kybele" and "them on Earth", but still regularly communicate with family, friends, and colleagues on Earth. Most stories that I've read that feature long-duration spaceships take place far after the ship has left Earth. The stories are often driven by future generations, who didn't make the initial choices, trying to keep the ship self-sustaining with a finite amount of resources to reach their goal. Not so in this case. And that brings me to the state of the Kybele itself.
The Kybele is nearing the end of its initial construction, but destined to be incomplete for generations. It's created from an asteroid, and the living space inside is fantastically realistic. It has a natural looking gorge and a river running through it, a park with trees. Wilderness where one can "camp" and encounter deer at twilight. There are background people in the public spaces, eating at the restaurants and stopping at the food stalls in the agora,,, and yet there is also emptiness, because the place is built for a much larger population. There is physically potential everywhere. This is a space where things will happen, but not yet.
Ultimately, I think it is highly symbolic that this murder happened at this time, in this particular place, almost arresting the act of leaving humanity's birthplace. Will the humans of the Kybele, with all of their new laws and bright future, escape human nature? No matter where we go, will we still produce murders, psychopaths, the occasional bad egg?
Wherever humans go, we take our problems with us, and this feels like the lesson that the Kybele's leaders have to learn. They can try so hard to design a new world and a new system, and they will still not catch everything because they haven't changed us.
Sometimes I struggled with the execution of this story. The plot, the characters, the writing - they all worked, but didn't excel for me. But - Walker still made me do a LOT of thinking, with these choices she made in the story, and that I appreciated.
November 29, 2017
I'm currently about 25% through the book and not sure I'm going to continue. The world building is fascinating -- how the society is structured and how they know they will have to change as hundreds of years pass -- but I am unexpectedly creeped out by the main character. Other reviewers describe this as a "love story" but at this point the main POV character has spent at most an hour or two talking to his love interest. Perhaps it would be more correct to say "his obsession." He instantaneously develops a passion for this woman at first sight. He thinks about her all the time, while working to solve this murder mystery, and theorizes constantly about her state of mind and her feelings. HE DOESN'T KNOW HER AT ALL. The last scene I read they finally have a meal together. He twice thinks what a "good girl" she is for eating all the food and wine he brings her. I don't know if Walker intended us to think this is utterly creepy? That could be a character choice she's making. But even if it is, I'm not sure I want to spend more time in this guy's head.
October 11, 2018
There are three genres at work here:
A sci-fi novel envisioning what an interstellar seed ship fashioned from an asteroid might look like;
A fairly old-fashioned drawing room mystery, where the ship is the drawing room;
A mostly-cozy romance, where "cozy" is librarian jargon to describe romances lacking anatomically detailed sex scenes. A true cozy typically leaves off where the clothes start to loosen and the lights go out and picks up again with breakfast. This one has a little teensy bit more description, but you wouldn't hesitate to hand it to Gram in the nursing home.
As sci-fi, it's one of those novels where the science goes into the background (in this case, the setting) and then the characters act in mostly contemporary fashion (everybody is attached to their glorified cell phones). It's more envisioning what that society might look like than the technology; believable but not so gee-whiz that the gadgets carry the reader along.
The mystery is -- slow. There's one death in the whole book, right at the start, and it's 92 pages along before it's definitively ruled a murder, not a suicide. (And why do people saying nice things on the dust jacket have to be so wrong in their praise: "Rapid-fire storytelling from start to finish!" -- Greg Bear. No Greg, it's not. It's slow, methodical storytelling by adding layer upon layer of description. It's nothing like rapid-fire. It's the opposite of rapid-fire.) Even Miss Marple usually gets a second corpse -- generally the obvious suspect -- laid out on the parlor floor. Here the most obvious suspect gets laid, in a sleeping bag.
It's reasonably well-written if the pace doesn't bother you. I used it as a sleep aid. I found the ending profoundly disturbing (hence the low score).
A sci-fi novel envisioning what an interstellar seed ship fashioned from an asteroid might look like;
A fairly old-fashioned drawing room mystery, where the ship is the drawing room;
A mostly-cozy romance, where "cozy" is librarian jargon to describe romances lacking anatomically detailed sex scenes. A true cozy typically leaves off where the clothes start to loosen and the lights go out and picks up again with breakfast. This one has a little teensy bit more description, but you wouldn't hesitate to hand it to Gram in the nursing home.
As sci-fi, it's one of those novels where the science goes into the background (in this case, the setting) and then the characters act in mostly contemporary fashion (everybody is attached to their glorified cell phones). It's more envisioning what that society might look like than the technology; believable but not so gee-whiz that the gadgets carry the reader along.
The mystery is -- slow. There's one death in the whole book, right at the start, and it's 92 pages along before it's definitively ruled a murder, not a suicide. (And why do people saying nice things on the dust jacket have to be so wrong in their praise: "Rapid-fire storytelling from start to finish!" -- Greg Bear. No Greg, it's not. It's slow, methodical storytelling by adding layer upon layer of description. It's nothing like rapid-fire. It's the opposite of rapid-fire.) Even Miss Marple usually gets a second corpse -- generally the obvious suspect -- laid out on the parlor floor. Here the most obvious suspect gets laid, in a sleeping bag.
It's reasonably well-written if the pace doesn't bother you. I used it as a sleep aid. I found the ending profoundly disturbing (hence the low score).
December 16, 2017
A guy falls, lands in a tree, and is pronounced dead. Is it suicide? An accident? Murder? If it's murder, it's the first one ever on this space habitat, which is carved out of an asteroid that is intended to become a multi-generational space ship. It's an interesting and fairly plausible setting, which pushed my rating up a star, and since the story is a whodunit, I had to finish reading it to find out, well, who done it. I was tempted to give up on it many times along the way, though.
Several things put me off about this book. The choppy prose, the unnatural dialogue, the s-l-o-w pacing.... But what I really found cringe-worthy was the protagonist. This space habitat supposedly gathered the best and brightest Earth had to offer in an attempt to preserve not only the human species but also several others that evolved on Earth (which has suffered greatly from humanity's abuse). The characters portrayed don't seem all that exceptional to me, though. Neither their competence nor their professionalism is demonstrated. The guy put in charge to investigate the suspicious death is actually pretty pathetic, although I don't think the author intended him to be. He is introduced when he encounters a woman he has never met before, and he becomes instantly intrigued, fascinated, and obsessed with her, for no clear reason other than he thinks she looks hot, and his internal dialogue goes on endlessly about her hair and skin and hands and...well, you get it. He's like a hormonally overcharged adolescent in a steamy teen romance, or a brooding Ken doll from a daytime soap opera. He's certainly not likeable, but he's not quite annoying enough to hate. For the first 250 pages, I had him as my prime suspect because I figured there was something seriously wrong with this guy. Maybe he's a high-functioning sociopath who unconsciously blocks out the memories of his most dastardly deeds. Sorry if this is a spoiler, but nope, it's not him.
As a reminder, my opinion is subjective. For me, the setting was a plus but insufficient to make up for the lackluster prose and poor characters. Other readers may weigh these things differently.
Several things put me off about this book. The choppy prose, the unnatural dialogue, the s-l-o-w pacing.... But what I really found cringe-worthy was the protagonist. This space habitat supposedly gathered the best and brightest Earth had to offer in an attempt to preserve not only the human species but also several others that evolved on Earth (which has suffered greatly from humanity's abuse). The characters portrayed don't seem all that exceptional to me, though. Neither their competence nor their professionalism is demonstrated. The guy put in charge to investigate the suspicious death is actually pretty pathetic, although I don't think the author intended him to be. He is introduced when he encounters a woman he has never met before, and he becomes instantly intrigued, fascinated, and obsessed with her, for no clear reason other than he thinks she looks hot, and his internal dialogue goes on endlessly about her hair and skin and hands and...well, you get it. He's like a hormonally overcharged adolescent in a steamy teen romance, or a brooding Ken doll from a daytime soap opera. He's certainly not likeable, but he's not quite annoying enough to hate. For the first 250 pages, I had him as my prime suspect because I figured there was something seriously wrong with this guy. Maybe he's a high-functioning sociopath who unconsciously blocks out the memories of his most dastardly deeds. Sorry if this is a spoiler, but nope, it's not him.
As a reminder, my opinion is subjective. For me, the setting was a plus but insufficient to make up for the lackluster prose and poor characters. Other readers may weigh these things differently.
Read
October 5, 2017Abandoned at 21% I loved the worldbuilding but the story needed a bit of a push.
January 28, 2018
A heavy duty, non-violent and somewhat slow paced police procedural set in a generation ship about to launch. Decent characters with a bit of light romance thrown in lighten the reading. The philosophy of governing a generation ship is covered as part of the plot and this is a bit novel. If you like SF and police procedurals, you will probably enjoy this book, I like my mysteries a bit more hard-boiled.
January 25, 2018
I'm honestly puzzled what the "breathless plots" (James S. A. Corey) or "rapid-fire storytelling" (Greg Bear) from the blurbs on the cover are referring to, because this book is at best a slow burn and at worst painfully, glacially slow. I'd place it somewhere much closer to the latter than the former, but it's not all bad. The idea of a murder mystery on a generation ship is cool and what piqued my interest in the first place. But the execution was really, really slow, often painfully so. I'm also missing most of the explorations of "law, justice, and human nature" promised in the book description.
First, the good: the basic concept of the novel is pretty neat. I've been into generation ships lately, especially Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora, so the idea of a murder mystery set on one sounds neat. We get some cool details on the ship and some of the issues that arise about how to build a community that can sustain itself in relative harmony for generations. Also, Walker is a retired medical doctor and obviously knows what she's talking about when it comes to the gory details of a murder. The prose is pretty good for the most part.
Next, the bad: The weird thing, however, is that this intriguing premise takes place BEFORE the ship leaves the solar system. To me this lessened the tension a bit, since they can just send people back to Earth easily. But I guess it had to happen this way in order to create tension that the ship may not leave at all because of the murder. I understand that move for the sake of the second kind of tension, but I thought that was a less interesting way to go, or at least not what I was expecting.
The characters are alright, although the main character is verging on being weirdly obsessed with his love interest, who -mild spoiler- turns out to be a key part of the investigation. He takes an immediate, deep interest in her, which I guess can happen when you fall in love, but something seemed a bit off about it. Aside from the two main characters, the murder victim, and maybe one or two others, all the rest of the characters were basically interchangeable for me. It was hard to care much about them.
The big themes that a generation ship raises (Is it fair to condemn your descendants to life on such a ship? Are we right to colonize other systems?) are pretty much ignored. The issue of how to maintain law and order on such a ship is discussed, but not in much detail, certainly not in the depth you'd expect from someone like Kim Stanley Robinson or Ursula Le Guin (RIP!). There's also a bit of the old "let's put people indistinguishable from early 21st century people in the future as if that makes sense."
The mystery itself is okay and does get resolved. The problem is that the investigation moves at a snail's pace - if that snail stopped to court his love interest and took the occasional weekend off for a leisurely romantic rendezvous. It's .... so .... slow.... I don't need action to enjoy a novel. I don't even need it to move quickly if there's enough going on for me to enjoy the ride. But this one is narrowly focused on the mystery (and the romance to a far lesser extent), so it feels like more of a slog. They take 100 pages just to decide it was a murder, and pages and pages to do anything else. This makes it all the more weird how relatively quickly it comes together at the end. I don't want to give any spoilers about the end, but I found it a bit odd and underdeveloped even though it does resolve the central mystery of the eponymous "man in the tree."
So this is not a bad novel per se, but it's not especially good, either. Maybe those who are bigger fans of slow burn murder mysteries would appreciate it more.
First, the good: the basic concept of the novel is pretty neat. I've been into generation ships lately, especially Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora, so the idea of a murder mystery set on one sounds neat. We get some cool details on the ship and some of the issues that arise about how to build a community that can sustain itself in relative harmony for generations. Also, Walker is a retired medical doctor and obviously knows what she's talking about when it comes to the gory details of a murder. The prose is pretty good for the most part.
Next, the bad: The weird thing, however, is that this intriguing premise takes place BEFORE the ship leaves the solar system. To me this lessened the tension a bit, since they can just send people back to Earth easily. But I guess it had to happen this way in order to create tension that the ship may not leave at all because of the murder. I understand that move for the sake of the second kind of tension, but I thought that was a less interesting way to go, or at least not what I was expecting.
The characters are alright, although the main character is verging on being weirdly obsessed with his love interest, who -mild spoiler- turns out to be a key part of the investigation. He takes an immediate, deep interest in her, which I guess can happen when you fall in love, but something seemed a bit off about it. Aside from the two main characters, the murder victim, and maybe one or two others, all the rest of the characters were basically interchangeable for me. It was hard to care much about them.
The big themes that a generation ship raises (Is it fair to condemn your descendants to life on such a ship? Are we right to colonize other systems?) are pretty much ignored. The issue of how to maintain law and order on such a ship is discussed, but not in much detail, certainly not in the depth you'd expect from someone like Kim Stanley Robinson or Ursula Le Guin (RIP!). There's also a bit of the old "let's put people indistinguishable from early 21st century people in the future as if that makes sense."
The mystery itself is okay and does get resolved. The problem is that the investigation moves at a snail's pace - if that snail stopped to court his love interest and took the occasional weekend off for a leisurely romantic rendezvous. It's .... so .... slow.... I don't need action to enjoy a novel. I don't even need it to move quickly if there's enough going on for me to enjoy the ride. But this one is narrowly focused on the mystery (and the romance to a far lesser extent), so it feels like more of a slog. They take 100 pages just to decide it was a murder, and pages and pages to do anything else. This makes it all the more weird how relatively quickly it comes together at the end. I don't want to give any spoilers about the end, but I found it a bit odd and underdeveloped even though it does resolve the central mystery of the eponymous "man in the tree."
So this is not a bad novel per se, but it's not especially good, either. Maybe those who are bigger fans of slow burn murder mysteries would appreciate it more.
October 27, 2017
Review originally written for my blog
I received this as an ARC as I’m a big fan of generation ship stories and just had to read it. When I saw that this was one right before it launched, I was incredibly interested as most stories in this theme are either building it or way after the launch when a lot of information has been forgotten.
This book starts not long before the ship is due to depart, however a man has just been found dead and one hour of security camera footage is missing around the time that he died. What follows is a fantastic murder mystery in a sci-fi setting.
As it’s a murder mystery, I’m going to avoid discussing the plot at all because well half the fun of the novel was trying to figure out what was happening along with the main character, Helt, and so I don’t want to give away any spoilers either intentionally or unintentionally.
The worldbuilding of this novel is fantastic, as Helt moves around the ship interviewing potential suspects and those that knew the deceased, we learn more about the ship itself and what caused it to be built. Most of this is just mentioned as background information but it really helps flesh out the novel. The ship itself, Kybele, is also described brilliantly and I loved reading about how it was built and all the planning that has gone into it.
Helt is a great character, he’s been tasked with investigating the case and he’s on a strict deadline as the ship will be departing soon and so they want to find the murderer in time to send him off the ship on the final shuttle.
I would highly recommend this novel, it was a thrilling adventure and I highly enjoyed the mystery which kept me engrossed right up until the end. It’s great for both sci-fi fans and for those that are fans of murder mysteries.
I received this as an ARC as I’m a big fan of generation ship stories and just had to read it. When I saw that this was one right before it launched, I was incredibly interested as most stories in this theme are either building it or way after the launch when a lot of information has been forgotten.
This book starts not long before the ship is due to depart, however a man has just been found dead and one hour of security camera footage is missing around the time that he died. What follows is a fantastic murder mystery in a sci-fi setting.
As it’s a murder mystery, I’m going to avoid discussing the plot at all because well half the fun of the novel was trying to figure out what was happening along with the main character, Helt, and so I don’t want to give away any spoilers either intentionally or unintentionally.
The worldbuilding of this novel is fantastic, as Helt moves around the ship interviewing potential suspects and those that knew the deceased, we learn more about the ship itself and what caused it to be built. Most of this is just mentioned as background information but it really helps flesh out the novel. The ship itself, Kybele, is also described brilliantly and I loved reading about how it was built and all the planning that has gone into it.
Helt is a great character, he’s been tasked with investigating the case and he’s on a strict deadline as the ship will be departing soon and so they want to find the murderer in time to send him off the ship on the final shuttle.
I would highly recommend this novel, it was a thrilling adventure and I highly enjoyed the mystery which kept me engrossed right up until the end. It’s great for both sci-fi fans and for those that are fans of murder mysteries.
February 1, 2018
The year 2209 on the seedship Kybele, where Helt Borresen, the Incident Analyst, must find out who, was responsible for the death of one of the ships inhabitants. Constant twists and turns, and layers upon layers of plots, will keep the reader involved until the last page.
February 3, 2018
Omg, so draggy.
Read
October 19, 2018I could not get into this one. Did not finish.
January 22, 2018
Oh my God! This was a tedious read. A murder investigation set on a generation ship getting ready to leave orbit. One of the most boring procedurals I’ve ever read. Why I even bothered to finish it, I’ll never know! I kept on waiting for something exciting or interesting to happen. Nothing! Avoid!!
March 20, 2018
"The Man in the Tree" is a murder mystery in space! Really, there's a bunch of futurism, advanced tech, and a generation ship preparing to leave earth, but the story is really as simple as "well-intentioned but amateur detective investigates a small-town murder." There are many parts of the novel that make it enjoyable as Helt tries to find out who murdered a man that was due to be shipped off the colony ship within a few days, but the ending was a little dissatisfying. During the course of the novel, Helt was a little too fixated on a female character in ways that could have easily crossed the line into creepy and it was unclear why it just worked out for the two of them. The technology was mostly integrated seamlessly into the story line until the very end when Helt gets a new eye, and then it seemed out of place despite the seeds being planted in advance. Mind you, the new eye doesn't really change the plot/story, but it helps accelerate the story a little after it dragged on a little too long, almost as though the author decided to fill 120k words and stretched the middle then realized she needed a short ending. Maybe I was more enamored with the idea of the book than the book itself? No, that's not true. It was a nice story placed in a nice, not too hard-sci-fi generation ship, that didn't focus too much on the ancillary world building outside the actual story of the investigation of a murder.
March 5, 2018
This book was not what I expected. It is set on seed ship that is nearly ready to leave Earth forever. However, a death sends the leaders of the ship in a bit of a spiral to figure out why/how it happened before the ship leaves. I was expecting more science fiction, but this book ended up being more of a whodunit style book. There is also a weird romance that is part of the whole plot. And the ending? Meh. What it does do well is show how cultures and societies are built and that human nature will always be around to mess things up.
March 4, 2018
I only read 30 pages. I was bored so I stopped.
December 31, 2021
It was the old language of the King James Bible, part of the history of the West.
"A time to be born, a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal...a time to weep, and a time to laugh, and a time to mourn..."
A time to kill . That was in the text. Helt listened to the stately rhythm of the old words.
"...A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."
Wesley Doughan straightened his erect shoulders a fraction more and took a deep breath. Archer Pelham kept his sharp gaze on Doughan's face. Mena's eyes were bright with the shine of tears. Her face was stern. Calloway and Martin looked neutral and attentive.
"In the midst of life we are in death," Doughan said. "Privileged as we are are to witness and cherish the miracles of birth and death, with humility we commit the body of Charles 'Cash Ryan' to our ground; from our Earth to this new earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Part of the air, part of the soil, he will be part of Kybele forever."
~~Finding a picture that fits my mental image of Kybele is impossible--the book is science fiction after all. Kybele is described as a large asteroid which has had caves with connecting tunnels for living space carved inside it over 20+ years, in preparation for being a living, steerable space craft, while it orbits around Earth. Shown in this picture is a Apophis, an asteroid that came close to Earth in 2004.
First two sentences: The sun in the hollow center of Kybele is supported by six Eiffel Towers. In daylight, the clusters of petals near the top of the towers, closed, look like bulbous minarets.
My two cents: I hate handing out 1 star reviews, especially as this is likely to be my last review of the year--unless I speed read through the final 250 pages of Now, Then, and Everywhen. Unfortunately, reading this novel felt like a punishment, and I came very close to a DNF. My stubbornness held out though, and I finished. I'm puzzled by the reviewers who praise the prose, the dialogue, the story arc, or the world building. Of the three, the world building is closest to competent. I enjoyed Walker's take on a space ship large enough to be home to 20,000 humans fleeing a dying Earth, hoping for a better future for their children's children. The year is 2209, which felt about right for the difference in technology as compared to present day.
So what are my gripes? First the prose/dialogue. Here is where my pain and sense of punishment came in. Bad prose will make a 380 page book feel like it's never going to end. The protagonist wasn't especially likable, and his internal thoughts were often awkward at best, but slanted towards disturbing. I'm unsure whether Walker intended him to come across this way, or if she is just bad at writing romance. My second gripe is the story arc. A murder mystery set in this unusual place has lots of potential. But instead it devolved into the chief investigator (Helt) bumbling around, trying to clear his new found love interest from suspicion. Very little actually happens until the last 50-100 pages, when things get wrapped up so rapidly that my head spun a little. Given a rating of 1 star or "Bad". Recommended only as a library check out if the book you actually wanted in this genre isn't available.
"A time to be born, a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal...a time to weep, and a time to laugh, and a time to mourn..."
A time to kill . That was in the text. Helt listened to the stately rhythm of the old words.
"...A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."
Wesley Doughan straightened his erect shoulders a fraction more and took a deep breath. Archer Pelham kept his sharp gaze on Doughan's face. Mena's eyes were bright with the shine of tears. Her face was stern. Calloway and Martin looked neutral and attentive.
"In the midst of life we are in death," Doughan said. "Privileged as we are are to witness and cherish the miracles of birth and death, with humility we commit the body of Charles 'Cash Ryan' to our ground; from our Earth to this new earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Part of the air, part of the soil, he will be part of Kybele forever."
~~Finding a picture that fits my mental image of Kybele is impossible--the book is science fiction after all. Kybele is described as a large asteroid which has had caves with connecting tunnels for living space carved inside it over 20+ years, in preparation for being a living, steerable space craft, while it orbits around Earth. Shown in this picture is a Apophis, an asteroid that came close to Earth in 2004.
First two sentences: The sun in the hollow center of Kybele is supported by six Eiffel Towers. In daylight, the clusters of petals near the top of the towers, closed, look like bulbous minarets.
My two cents: I hate handing out 1 star reviews, especially as this is likely to be my last review of the year--unless I speed read through the final 250 pages of Now, Then, and Everywhen. Unfortunately, reading this novel felt like a punishment, and I came very close to a DNF. My stubbornness held out though, and I finished. I'm puzzled by the reviewers who praise the prose, the dialogue, the story arc, or the world building. Of the three, the world building is closest to competent. I enjoyed Walker's take on a space ship large enough to be home to 20,000 humans fleeing a dying Earth, hoping for a better future for their children's children. The year is 2209, which felt about right for the difference in technology as compared to present day.
So what are my gripes? First the prose/dialogue. Here is where my pain and sense of punishment came in. Bad prose will make a 380 page book feel like it's never going to end. The protagonist wasn't especially likable, and his internal thoughts were often awkward at best, but slanted towards disturbing. I'm unsure whether Walker intended him to come across this way, or if she is just bad at writing romance. My second gripe is the story arc. A murder mystery set in this unusual place has lots of potential. But instead it devolved into the chief investigator (Helt) bumbling around, trying to clear his new found love interest from suspicion. Very little actually happens until the last 50-100 pages, when things get wrapped up so rapidly that my head spun a little. Given a rating of 1 star or "Bad". Recommended only as a library check out if the book you actually wanted in this genre isn't available.
February 23, 2018
While the story has its negatives the overall writing was excellent. I like stories about relationships and that's what this entire story was about. The protagonist's job is discovering potential conflicts between groups and resolving them.
This is a murder mystery that is very similar to Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express Instead of a train stuck in the snow we are inside a hollowed out asteroid being prepared for use as a starship.
The murder mystery aspect was very well done other than I was disappointed with the ending where others show the investigator why, how, and where the murder was carried out and what people's roles were. In that sense, the investigator did not "solve" the mystery.
The science fiction aspects were unrelated to the murder mystery story line. For example, this book's murder mystery story line could have been set on a contemporary cruise ship without any changes.
The book is a puzzle because much of it is about the starship and how it will be governed and managed during its 200 year voyage. While it is well written, and the world is somewhat well thought out, this aspect has nothing to do with the murder mystery. The author did a lot of world building but did not use it; Why?
There's also a creepy romance thrown in with the protagonist fantasizing about a woman, objectifying her sexually, and stalking her. One good aspect is the author spends time daydreaming about what an ideal relationship would be like versus the usual reality.
When the big reveal was done at the end of this story I was thinking a better title would have been "Intelligent people do stupid things."
This is a murder mystery that is very similar to Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express Instead of a train stuck in the snow we are inside a hollowed out asteroid being prepared for use as a starship.
The murder mystery aspect was very well done other than I was disappointed with the ending where others show the investigator why, how, and where the murder was carried out and what people's roles were. In that sense, the investigator did not "solve" the mystery.
The science fiction aspects were unrelated to the murder mystery story line. For example, this book's murder mystery story line could have been set on a contemporary cruise ship without any changes.
The book is a puzzle because much of it is about the starship and how it will be governed and managed during its 200 year voyage. While it is well written, and the world is somewhat well thought out, this aspect has nothing to do with the murder mystery. The author did a lot of world building but did not use it; Why?
There's also a creepy romance thrown in with the protagonist fantasizing about a woman, objectifying her sexually, and stalking her. One good aspect is the author spends time daydreaming about what an ideal relationship would be like versus the usual reality.
When the big reveal was done at the end of this story I was thinking a better title would have been "Intelligent people do stupid things."
June 12, 2019
The Man in the Tree
by Sage Walker
Sage Walker created an adult real life mystery. Her idea of a future when man plans to reach out into the universe, in a utopia society of exploration and intelligence. The participants of the venture have spent years developing and changing their new home to be habitable. They sponsor the best, create lotteries to enable the best to get a chance to leave a dying earth. But all their fore thought, all their planning could be disrupted by the death of a man in a tree. It is the mystery, how did he die, why did he die, who was this man that would make it important enough to kill him when he was to return to Earth. He had no permanence, he had no future. This mystery shows the adult nature of hope. The ideal that if you are good enough if you are well enough, you can achieve your dreams. Yet reality is that mankind is not perfect, not everyone can be truthful. The heart breaking reality of the investigation shows our remarkable nature to hold ideals as greater than desire, or even love. Helt is a detective changed with finding the murderer, and solving the mystery. The book searches the beauty, and depredation of the human condition. Sage Walker has a way of creating the deep longing, and understanding of what is modern love and how the choices we make will create a world where what we want most may conflict with everything we hold dear.
Its an amazing concept, and look into the human condition
by Sage Walker
Sage Walker created an adult real life mystery. Her idea of a future when man plans to reach out into the universe, in a utopia society of exploration and intelligence. The participants of the venture have spent years developing and changing their new home to be habitable. They sponsor the best, create lotteries to enable the best to get a chance to leave a dying earth. But all their fore thought, all their planning could be disrupted by the death of a man in a tree. It is the mystery, how did he die, why did he die, who was this man that would make it important enough to kill him when he was to return to Earth. He had no permanence, he had no future. This mystery shows the adult nature of hope. The ideal that if you are good enough if you are well enough, you can achieve your dreams. Yet reality is that mankind is not perfect, not everyone can be truthful. The heart breaking reality of the investigation shows our remarkable nature to hold ideals as greater than desire, or even love. Helt is a detective changed with finding the murderer, and solving the mystery. The book searches the beauty, and depredation of the human condition. Sage Walker has a way of creating the deep longing, and understanding of what is modern love and how the choices we make will create a world where what we want most may conflict with everything we hold dear.
Its an amazing concept, and look into the human condition
January 14, 2018
This novel kept me reading until 4 AM. As I said in my last post, science fiction can be almost any type of story. This one is a murder mystery, a romance, a generation ship story, a psychological thriller, hard science fiction, and much more.
The seed ship Kybele is almost ready to leave Earth after years of building and preparation, when a man is found dead in a tree. Helt Borrensen, the ship’s incident analyst is assigned the job of special investigator to determine if the death is suicide or murder and if murder, who is the killer. The investigation is complicated by the discovery that several of the colonists have apparently received large sums of money from an organization that opposes the seed ship leaving Earth orbit. The love story in the novel involves Helt’s attraction for the chief murder suspect.
Sounds like a romance novel, doesn’t it? But this is only a part woven into a complicated plot that explores the birth of a new world, human behavior and interactions, politics, multiple sciences, the controversy of surveillance, new ways to govern, creativity…the list goes on.
Sage Walker is an excellent storyteller.
The seed ship Kybele is almost ready to leave Earth after years of building and preparation, when a man is found dead in a tree. Helt Borrensen, the ship’s incident analyst is assigned the job of special investigator to determine if the death is suicide or murder and if murder, who is the killer. The investigation is complicated by the discovery that several of the colonists have apparently received large sums of money from an organization that opposes the seed ship leaving Earth orbit. The love story in the novel involves Helt’s attraction for the chief murder suspect.
Sounds like a romance novel, doesn’t it? But this is only a part woven into a complicated plot that explores the birth of a new world, human behavior and interactions, politics, multiple sciences, the controversy of surveillance, new ways to govern, creativity…the list goes on.
Sage Walker is an excellent storyteller.
August 9, 2025
What is there to even say? This is only getting 2 stars because I haven’t read enough books to know if this is truly bottom of the barrel and deserves 1 or is just bad.
It took 100 pages to figure out the suicide was actually a murder, and another 170 to figure out the autopsy was wrong and he died differently than originally thought. Maybe worse than anything else, it took another 30-40 pages after that for them to realize the camera downtime was 70 minutes, rather than 60. No one bothered to check? No one bothered to do the absolute basics of an investigation for 300-310 pages?!
Finally, 381 pages later we’re left with absolutely no good wrap up, other than learning that three of the main characters knew what happened the entire time, hid it and just watched Helt run around in circles for fun. After which, Helt just said ya’ll are forgiven, not being kicked off the ship, we’ll do a vote of confidence later so you might lose your executive roles. Zero consequences! Zero purpose behind 381 pages of text, with so little being said in so many words the entire time. I don’t need to hear that the walls of the canyon are amber and shadowed for the 80th time! What a slog.
It took 100 pages to figure out the suicide was actually a murder, and another 170 to figure out the autopsy was wrong and he died differently than originally thought. Maybe worse than anything else, it took another 30-40 pages after that for them to realize the camera downtime was 70 minutes, rather than 60. No one bothered to check? No one bothered to do the absolute basics of an investigation for 300-310 pages?!
Finally, 381 pages later we’re left with absolutely no good wrap up, other than learning that three of the main characters knew what happened the entire time, hid it and just watched Helt run around in circles for fun. After which, Helt just said ya’ll are forgiven, not being kicked off the ship, we’ll do a vote of confidence later so you might lose your executive roles. Zero consequences! Zero purpose behind 381 pages of text, with so little being said in so many words the entire time. I don’t need to hear that the walls of the canyon are amber and shadowed for the 80th time! What a slog.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 16, 2017
If you enjoy an extremely well-crafted mystery, this is a book for you. If you enjoy techno SyFy, this is a book you will REALLY enjoy. World population has been decimated by global melt with habitable land only viable in what used to be the polar regions. In hopes of surviving as a species, man has terraformed a large hollowed out nickel-iron asteroid to serve as a multi-generation colony ship. Days before departure, the man in the tree, initially diagnosed as a suicide, presents authorities with a puzzle that must be solved. Time is short. If murder and not suicide, the guilty must be identified and sent earth-side so they cannot further contaminate the 30,000, specially selected or lottery winning outbound colonists.
December 24, 2018
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound and is it murder?"
A man is found dead in a tree and no one saw or heard what happened is it suicide or murder?
A slow burn, too slow, run of the mill murder mystery. This was not a scifi book but a who dunnit, not a very good one.
Nothing exceptional or original except the murder happened inside an asteroid.
Yes an asteroid.
Took way too long to get to the end with a disappointing conclusion.
100 pages shorter would have made it a better read.
An asteroid? Nevermind just find another spaceship.
A man is found dead in a tree and no one saw or heard what happened is it suicide or murder?
A slow burn, too slow, run of the mill murder mystery. This was not a scifi book but a who dunnit, not a very good one.
Nothing exceptional or original except the murder happened inside an asteroid.
Yes an asteroid.
Took way too long to get to the end with a disappointing conclusion.
100 pages shorter would have made it a better read.
An asteroid? Nevermind just find another spaceship.
Read
June 27, 2019DNF'd at about 30%, so no rating. The story was slow and dull, and writing mediocre at best. And maybe the main character was meant to be a total sleaze, but it was awful being in his head. There was no way I could have done it for a whole novel.
I had a lot of thoughts about what kind of horrible society was eventually going to develop on the colony ship with men like the MC in charge, but I didn't finish the book and as far as I know the ending was rocks fall, everyone dies (which would be the best ending for this book, honestly).
I had a lot of thoughts about what kind of horrible society was eventually going to develop on the colony ship with men like the MC in charge, but I didn't finish the book and as far as I know the ending was rocks fall, everyone dies (which would be the best ending for this book, honestly).
February 2, 2020
Not bad.
I'm not much of a fan or connoisseur of whodunnits, but it felt capably executed. I loved the backdrop and setting. And that, much more so than the murder mystery kept me reading. The overlong and oft-repeated descriptions of the protagonist's love interest/murder suspect got boring and trite really quickly though. That, and the fact that 80% of the book is red herring, strands the book at a barely passable grade.
Shame, because it feels competently written. I should look up something else by Walker and see if it strikes my fancy a bit more.
I'm not much of a fan or connoisseur of whodunnits, but it felt capably executed. I loved the backdrop and setting. And that, much more so than the murder mystery kept me reading. The overlong and oft-repeated descriptions of the protagonist's love interest/murder suspect got boring and trite really quickly though. That, and the fact that 80% of the book is red herring, strands the book at a barely passable grade.
Shame, because it feels competently written. I should look up something else by Walker and see if it strikes my fancy a bit more.
October 12, 2017
I can't say enough good things about this book. It's terrifically well-written, the science is fascinating, the whodunit is compelling, and the plot is propulsive.
The protagonist is sympathetic, forceful but confused. The love interest is well-done, and there's a looming sense of doom for the couple. You'll have to read it it find how it all plays out.
I wish this author had written 20 novels. I'd read them all.
The protagonist is sympathetic, forceful but confused. The love interest is well-done, and there's a looming sense of doom for the couple. You'll have to read it it find how it all plays out.
I wish this author had written 20 novels. I'd read them all.
May 1, 2020
Science fiction murder mystery. As a generation ship prepares to set off from Earth, one of the crew is murdered. The setting is fascinating and well-depicted, but the mystery itself lags, especially when the author shoehorns in an unconvincing romance subplot that complicates life for our hero and his investigation. After a brisk opening, the story gradually decelerates to finally end in a sudden rush that resolves all with little excitement. Disappointing, after such a strong start.
June 7, 2020
I got this book from a subscription box service and it ended up being a great fit. The Man in The Tree is listed as sci-fi, but it rolls in a murder mystery, political intrigue, and a little romance. The only part I could have done without was the constant description of Helt’s feelings about Elena.
The story wrapped up pretty nicely, but I’d like more closure on a couple things that seem thrown together and the concept of asteroid turned habitat is one I’d like to read more about.
The story wrapped up pretty nicely, but I’d like more closure on a couple things that seem thrown together and the concept of asteroid turned habitat is one I’d like to read more about.
October 6, 2017
This book had a lot of great, imaginative world-building, but the plot unfolded too slowly for my taste and I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style. I think this makes for a serviceable science fiction novel but could use a little "sprucing up" in the pacing department.
[NOTE: I received an ARC of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]
[NOTE: I received an ARC of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews