Frank Burns reviewed Noumenon Infinity by Marina J. Lostetter
Review of 'Noumenon Infinity' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This was an odd one. My first 3 stars of the year and whilst this may tend toward a 4 star in the final analysis, a 3 is what it is getting.
At first blush this seems like good old 'big idea' sci-fi. Something is found 'out there' a convoy of space ships (10's of thousands of people) are sent to investigate via some handwavium tech. Only issue is that it's relativistic so a few generations to them is thousands of years to Earth.
The twist? They are all clones. Yes, if your heart has now sunk to your boots, this is indeed another take on genetic determinism. The actual macguffin is largely ignored to explore this tired old (and hugely discredited) trope.
Further dragging this down is the lack of skill of the author. She does get much better as she goes but the writing in the start is, …
This was an odd one. My first 3 stars of the year and whilst this may tend toward a 4 star in the final analysis, a 3 is what it is getting.
At first blush this seems like good old 'big idea' sci-fi. Something is found 'out there' a convoy of space ships (10's of thousands of people) are sent to investigate via some handwavium tech. Only issue is that it's relativistic so a few generations to them is thousands of years to Earth.
The twist? They are all clones. Yes, if your heart has now sunk to your boots, this is indeed another take on genetic determinism. The actual macguffin is largely ignored to explore this tired old (and hugely discredited) trope.
Further dragging this down is the lack of skill of the author. She does get much better as she goes but the writing in the start is, well, juvenile. The story is told in 9 sub stories (1 per generation of clones, geddit?) and 2 parts in the middle are hugely misjudged and should have been removed by her editor.
Questions about why the clones would blithely agree to all this aside, I still finished it.
It does deserve 3 star plus because it does actually pick back up when they get 'home'. It is jut a bit of a trudge to get there. I actually bought the rest of the series as they were on offer and I will get to them, just not in a hurry.
Would struggle to recommend.
