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Dark Orbit review
Feb. 27th, 2016 09:09 amI'm in the middle of the next-to-last chapter for Dark Orbit, and throughout the entire book, I just keep shaking my head in annoyance.
I love the concepts in this book, but I loathe how SLOW people are to realize the (to me) obvious. I would like to say it's because the author is trying to tell a story by little crumbs at a time so as to "bring the audience along," but most times I think it might be because she herself is not a scientist, nor of a scientific mind.
Too many times I have figured out, if not the answer directly, a simple test that they could use to prove this or that if they would just stop and think about it for a minute and stop with their seemingly endless circular, non-helpful discussions on it. My time spent as a physics major and all my studies regarding neuroscience and child development might be giving me a background that makes such a book unbearable to read (listen to).
The very first thing that happened on board the spaceship was a murder, and I had it worked out during that same chapter. They only just now figured it out, right near the end of the book, even with a supposed full scientific team of physicists on board. The character's closed minds are levels of astounding, and I find this book not near as tedious when I consider it more a study in human ability and interactions than I do a sci-fi who-done-it, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. I don't like the thought that this is what +/- 2to3 standard deviations of the human population are actually like on a regular basis. Not to mention, the main character is supposed to be a First Contact exoethnologist (sic) expert, and I doubt she would have ever even come close to passing the xenobiologist test discussed in the Ender's Game world (read: Speaker of the Dead).
I think that's why I like Doctor Who. He's smart and witty, and as he says, very, very clever. Aside from the bad science episodes, the show does a much better job keeping someone like me on her toes and entertained. This book has a character that spends quite a lot of time in pure darkness (in a cavern) and talks about how she feels like she's mentally drowning from the sensory deprivation. Hell, that's about as good an explanation I could give regarding how I feel about the sheer lack of cleverness in this book.
My final review recommendation - meh. The concepts are awesome, but if you're really smart, be prepared to be bored and annoyed by how long it takes these folks to figure anything out.
I love the concepts in this book, but I loathe how SLOW people are to realize the (to me) obvious. I would like to say it's because the author is trying to tell a story by little crumbs at a time so as to "bring the audience along," but most times I think it might be because she herself is not a scientist, nor of a scientific mind.
Too many times I have figured out, if not the answer directly, a simple test that they could use to prove this or that if they would just stop and think about it for a minute and stop with their seemingly endless circular, non-helpful discussions on it. My time spent as a physics major and all my studies regarding neuroscience and child development might be giving me a background that makes such a book unbearable to read (listen to).
The very first thing that happened on board the spaceship was a murder, and I had it worked out during that same chapter. They only just now figured it out, right near the end of the book, even with a supposed full scientific team of physicists on board. The character's closed minds are levels of astounding, and I find this book not near as tedious when I consider it more a study in human ability and interactions than I do a sci-fi who-done-it, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. I don't like the thought that this is what +/- 2to3 standard deviations of the human population are actually like on a regular basis. Not to mention, the main character is supposed to be a First Contact exoethnologist (sic) expert, and I doubt she would have ever even come close to passing the xenobiologist test discussed in the Ender's Game world (read: Speaker of the Dead).
I think that's why I like Doctor Who. He's smart and witty, and as he says, very, very clever. Aside from the bad science episodes, the show does a much better job keeping someone like me on her toes and entertained. This book has a character that spends quite a lot of time in pure darkness (in a cavern) and talks about how she feels like she's mentally drowning from the sensory deprivation. Hell, that's about as good an explanation I could give regarding how I feel about the sheer lack of cleverness in this book.
My final review recommendation - meh. The concepts are awesome, but if you're really smart, be prepared to be bored and annoyed by how long it takes these folks to figure anything out.
