Norwescon discussion

Have you read Bone Silence? What did you think?

A satisfying end to the Revenger trilogy. Not all questions answered, but those most central to the main adventure are. If the “high seas adventure in space” conceit works for you, it’s a good series.

This was the best of the three, though I'm not sure if I'd find this one or the first one (which was also a P.K. Dick Award nominee) as more deserving of award nomination status. The first did the lion's share of the worldbuilding, but this one pulled the strings together...if not in a nice, neat bow, then at least well enough to not feel let down at the ending.

Mostly, my thoughts on this one mirror those from when I read the first book: "...while I recognize the conceit of 'adventure on the high seas IN SPACE' as an attractive one for many, it's simply never particularly caught my interest. I'm not sure if that's because I'm not much into 'adventure on the high seas IN WATER' tales and the switch to '…IN SPACE' isn't enough to make it work for me, or if I just find the conceit itself a little…well, silly. Not that solar sails and the like aren't scientifically sound, but the overly-literal application of the idea always feels a bit far-fetched."

One of my main points of confusion: I was never entirely able to build a very clear picture of the layout of the ships, in part because gravity or the lack thereof was usually only mentioned when there was a need for a character or object to float in or out of a room, characters would do things like kick their feet up onto a desk (which just doesn't seem like a terribly easy or natural maneuver in no- or low-G), and though the ships often "felt" more or less like traditional SF ships (oriented horizontally), the only way for there to be any normal-ish gravity based on the thrust from their sails would require them to be oriented vertically.

Still: The adventure was fun, the Ness sisters are an enjoyable pair and each of them has their own arc over the course of the trilogy, and the series was a good read.