Machine

A White Space Novel

hardcover, 496 pages

Published Oct. 6, 2020 by Gallery / Saga Press.

ISBN:
978-1-5344-0301-7
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (4 reviews)

4 editions

More better White Space

4 stars

Elizabeth Bear's second White Space novel is, in some ways, better than the first. Once again, the story is told through the eyes of a compelling and complex character. The setting of the novel—a post-scarcity interstellar polity called the Synarche—is once again central to the novel, but the this time the inner workings of the Synarche, the relationship of its various citizens to it, and its flaws are examined in greater detail and from a more internal perspective, which makes the setting more interesting.

The novel suffers from pacing that could be better at times. We get to hear a lot of what the protagonist's thoughts are, but sometimes this feels redundant, with her explaining her already previously stated feelings on the situation multiple times, which does help to establish the stakes and motivations, but past a certain point feels a bit redundant.

Once again, this is an entertaining novel …

Review of 'Machine' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This was a really solid tale of rescue, care and recovery. A very different beast from the first book in this sequence with very few overlapping characters.
The common thread is the worldbuilding. There is a touch of anthromorphisation in the aliens but that is a necessary evil to story telling, I suppose. The society envisioned here is, at first glance, a utopia but this is a tale of the ragged edges of it. Corruption at the heart of the biggest multispecies hospital in the galaxy is the plot engine but the interest in the tale is how it is exposed and how it is dealt with.
Recommended.

avatar for roytoo

rated it

5 stars
avatar for daylightgambler

rated it

4 stars