I'll admit that I am sure part of the reason I thought it was such a let down was because one of my good friends claimed "it as one of his favorite books". And this guy is a voracious reader.

So I went in with really high expectations.

While I appreciate the recommendation (and the response!), there is no way in heck I will be reading the sequel lol.

Now you see, I would agree with you about the 'hard' science portion of the book taking a backseat to the unfolding internal character drama of the novel, but I feel that MDR spends far too much time in the novel talking pseudoscience and jargon to overlook it.

She haphazardly handles complex scientific concepts while spending way too much of the novel describing to readers how intelligent her characters are and taking so much time to demonstrate it with high falutin dialogue. I mean, she devotes 2 freaking pages discussing 'declensions' and yet expects us to accept her half-baked ideas concerning space flight. It just does not feel consistent.

Again, I think it comes back to expectations. If the book had been classified as 'fantasy/fiction' and not 'science fiction', I may have been more generous in my critique.

Yea not going to lie that part was shocking to me as well. Tonally, it felt completely unprecedented. There weren't any moments earlier in the text that would suggest that such heavy subjects would be explored in the novel.

>!I understand that you could interpret it as political commentary--as an allegory for the sexual abuse of the Catholic Church that was being uncovered around the time the book was published. But, yea, sheesh...!<