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A review by ergative
The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
2.75
I feel really bad rating this as low as I did, because I found this book extremely easy to read, and I loved the dog. The mystery itself was fine, I guess. Red herrings, multiple suspects, etc. etc. The solution to the extra 75kg in the matter recycling system was a bit too obvious to merit the full two pages of delay in explaining it, plus the drama-enhancing end-of-chapter placement. But, fine, the mystery was fine.
It was the rest of the book that fell flat. I have great difficulty getting behind a main character who is FABULOUSLY WEALTHY and POWERFUL and INFLUENTIAL and is being WRONGED by the current security forces who keep getting in her way in her attempt to investigate murders all by herself and solves most of her problems by throwing money around. Like, 1930s era cocktails and fashion and wealth is a nice kind of set dressing, but if you're putting it in space you can't just import wholesale that kind of obscene power differential that underwrote all those elegant cigarette holders and expect it to be equally charming. The Thin Man was 1934--Great Depression, remember? And our main character is fucking named TESLA of all things . If I didn't know Kowal better, I'd feel like this was written from a place of Elon Musk hagiography--but even back in 2020 and 2021, when the book was being written, I think we all knew Musk was a douchebag, so wtf?
It's not as if Kowal isn't ideologically opposed to everything Muskish. It was right there on the page--but that, too, fell flat. All of the little additional details that Kowal does to show her progressive bona fides felt forced, rather than natural. The pronouns as part of the introductions, the careful attention to disability accommodations, the way everyone calls out gendered insults as antiquated and tiresome--the seams of the worldbuilding were so prominent that they extended their threads back into the modern world, highlighting the current state of The Culture Wars by the box-ticking exercise in showing how the future no longer contains those problems. I appreciate the attempt---truly, I do---but it didn't work here. The prominent seams just made the clothes itchy.
Also, the repeated bits of sexual innuendo between our newlyweds got very tiresome. Especially because, in multiple occurrences, they're making out in the next room while MURDER INVESTIGATORS are just waiting for them to get dressed. Like, wait for the plot to pause a bit before you start getting frisky!
To be fair, I read the book in a day. Kowal's writing is very easy to read, flows smoothly, and keeps me engaged. It just was used to tell a story I didn't particularly care for.
Great cover, though.
It was the rest of the book that fell flat. I have great difficulty getting behind a main character who is FABULOUSLY WEALTHY and POWERFUL and INFLUENTIAL and is being WRONGED by the current security forces who keep getting in her way in her attempt to investigate murders all by herself and solves most of her problems by throwing money around. Like, 1930s era cocktails and fashion and wealth is a nice kind of set dressing, but if you're putting it in space you can't just import wholesale that kind of obscene power differential that underwrote all those elegant cigarette holders and expect it to be equally charming. The Thin Man was 1934--Great Depression, remember? And our main character is fucking named TESLA of all things . If I didn't know Kowal better, I'd feel like this was written from a place of Elon Musk hagiography--but even back in 2020 and 2021, when the book was being written, I think we all knew Musk was a douchebag, so wtf?
It's not as if Kowal isn't ideologically opposed to everything Muskish. It was right there on the page--but that, too, fell flat. All of the little additional details that Kowal does to show her progressive bona fides felt forced, rather than natural. The pronouns as part of the introductions, the careful attention to disability accommodations, the way everyone calls out gendered insults as antiquated and tiresome--the seams of the worldbuilding were so prominent that they extended their threads back into the modern world, highlighting the current state of The Culture Wars by the box-ticking exercise in showing how the future no longer contains those problems. I appreciate the attempt---truly, I do---but it didn't work here. The prominent seams just made the clothes itchy.
Also, the repeated bits of sexual innuendo between our newlyweds got very tiresome. Especially because, in multiple occurrences, they're making out in the next room while MURDER INVESTIGATORS are just waiting for them to get dressed. Like, wait for the plot to pause a bit before you start getting frisky!
To be fair, I read the book in a day. Kowal's writing is very easy to read, flows smoothly, and keeps me engaged. It just was used to tell a story I didn't particularly care for.
Great cover, though.