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Frontier

Frontier

RRP: £16.99
Price: £8.495
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Description

At first, I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into. An Earth struggling after the fallout of climate disaster, a main character we know literally nothing about, a plot that at first seems completely random. But the Earth has surprisingly detailed world-building, the main character is fascinating and intelligent, and the plot works itself towards a satisfying conclusion. Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis is heartwarming novel about the power of found family, the value of kindness, who we are, and what we are running from, all wrapped up in a mystery of political intrigue. This book was such a mystery and while I definitely enjoyed it, I still can’t say for certain that I understood it. But I don’t think it was necessary to the story to always know what was going on. One character, Kipple, is non-binary (THE FIRST!! IN ALL THESE YEARS!!). They get they/them pronouns as if it's just as natural as she/her or he/him - it's not even mentioned or pointed out once. They're just allowed to exist. Similarly, several characters are lesbian, pan, or bi, and it's not even mentioned with any label. It's completely normalised. THIS is the type of inclusion we're looking for.

It did also feel like the stories could have been tightened up. Have you ever seen someone knitting and they make a beautiful scarf or sweater, but their tension isn’t right and it’s all too loose? It sort of felt like that. You know those science fiction novels in which there are four point-of-view characters, and each character gets point of view for a chapter, then we move on to the next? (I think Gibson's Cyberspace trilogy was the first time I really noticed it.) You know how you never know quite what's going on, and it's all very confusing? Well, in Floating Hotel Grace Curtis takes it to the max, and SOMEHOW, she makes it work! The Stranger finds herself adrift in a ravaged, unwelcoming landscape, full of people who hate and fear her space-born existence. Scared, alone, and armed, she embarks on a journey across the wasteland to return to her ship, her mission, and the woman she loves. Frontier is set on Earth in the future. Ravaged by climate change and abandoned by most of humanity. A small group, followers of the Gaia religion remained after the great migration of humanity to live elsewhere in the Milky Way. Earth is now a post-apocalyptic landscape. The dystopian world is Earth, populated by the religious fanatics who decided to stay on the devastated near-dead planet when everyone else was evacuated. They wanted to remain close to the Earth God Gaia, and saw space flight as a sin.What passes for justice is presided over by the High Sheriff, and carried out by his cruel and ruthless Deputy. I also liked how more and more small details was reveled throughout the story, little clues here and there to set up for the ending without revealing too much. Giving the reader some ideas for where it all might end without actually confirming anything or giving up all secrets at once.

Science fiction is a genre that I tend to struggle with, besides a few exceptions. But since I always want to get myself out of my comfort zone, I chose to request for an ARC for Floating Hotel, with its interesting premise. In Floating Hotel, we meet a diverse cast of characters who all get a chance to have a share of the limelight. The structure of this book is unusual in that each character (bar one) only gets one POV chapter. While each character only has a short time in the spotlight, we learn about all of them more as the supporting roles in each others' stories, so each one feels fully formed and fleshed out. This structure gives the book a feeling of an anthology or series of vignettes, but the major narrative takes place over a period of time of just a few weeks and is contained mainly in the setting of the hotel, which keeps the book cohesive. I was also so pleased with the prevalence of climate issues in this book. We learn that the reason people are even in this galaxy is because Earth was stripped of its resources and became uninhabitable. The Empire carries on the same practice for many of the planets in their new home galaxy, and this particularly impacts vulnerable, lower-income, and working-class populations (aka not the elite and wealthy). This felt very well-delivered and poignant!Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of these characters, a different one each time. There is just one character who gets two chapters, and by the time that happens, you will be expecting it. This is much less confusing than it sounds. Each character mentions some of the other characters, just a few in the earliest chapters. Thus when one of those characters gets a chapter of their own, you're ready for it. I never found the story hard to follow. All in all, I genuinely did like Floating Hotel and would recommend it to others despite the ending. It's a good study of how to write realistic characters that readers get invested in. If the ending bothers you, you can come up with endings for the characters that are missing yourself -- I know that I will be giving them a happy one. It's a fun story with a genuinely interesting mystery with plenty of hooks and surprises. If you like science fiction that focuses on characters and their personal stories and relationships as opposed to big action and tech-heavy novels, this book might be the one for you.



  • Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
  • EAN: 764486781913
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