Warwick Stubbs > Recent Status Updates

Some good ideas, especially with the central science-fiction elements, but the writing just doesn't grab me. A certain trait of SF authors is changing the narrative viewpoint chapter by chapter, which leaves the reader never really settling into one character, and letting that character lead the story. The story of a boy being imprinted with the mind of a cosmonaut by the Russians should be absolutely central.

All of these algebraic equations make my eyes blur, but when I refocus again I enjoy reading all the words that make up the sentences afterwards....

Finally! We're getting some actual background about the war.

Shepard tends to get so enamoured by his own descriptions that he forgets there's a plot waiting to happen. This entire section following the original R&R short-story, The Good Soldier, has a completely distasteful indulgence in describing the state of women's breasts. Easy to dismiss as character development, but sadly, most of it was unnecessary and ended up giving me a distasteful look into the author's mind.

Sadly, I have not found this novel as engaging or as interesting as either Dawn or Kindred. Butler's writing doesn't evoke atmosphere or empathetic depths of her main character.