About:
'To Each This World' by Julie E. Czerneda is a science fiction novel that introduces readers to a complex world where humans interact with alien species in unexpected and original ways. The narrative follows the story of one man's quest to save humanity while exploring themes of respect for all sentient life. The book is praised for its imaginative concepts related to interstellar portals and sub-light travel, as well as its unique extrapolation of biology. However, some readers found the plot convoluted and confusing, struggling to understand the alien-human relationships presented in the story.
From The Publisher:
From an Aurora Award-winning author, a new sci-fi novel follows three intrepid humans caught up in a conflict that stretches across time and space.
Biologist Julie E. Czerneda's new standalone science fiction novel, To Each This World follows a desperate mission to reconnect with long lost sleeper ships, sent centuries earlier from Earth to settle distant worlds.
A trio of Humans must work with their mysterious alien allies to rescue any descendants they can find on those worlds. Something is out there, determined to claim the cosmos for itself, and only on Earth will Humans be safe.
Or will they?
The challenge isn't just to communicate with your own kind after generations have passed. It's to understand what isn't your kind at all.
And how far will trust take you, when the truth depends on what you are?
Ratings (2)
Loved It (2) |
Reader Stats (7):
Read It (2) | |
Want To Read (4) | |
Did Not Finish (1) |
2 comment(s)
This book grabbed me from the first page. The exposition and world-building were well-balanced, especially considering all of the background and technology that needed to be coherently introduced. It may have been easier to physically read this one with all of the unfamiliar terms and name structures (I felt the same way with
The Goblin Emperor); and one of the three narrators did a
horrible job differentiating between characters when there was heavy dialogue. (The other two narrators were
fantastic.) It was an entertaining read with just the right amount of twists to keep me guessing.
Also, I love it when an author's personal interests shine through like they did here (Czerneda is a biologist).
If someone asked me to read chapter one and then decide if I should buy this book, I'd say: "Absolutely not." It has some of the strangest sentence structuring I've ever seen in my life, and when I first read it I thought maybe I was too tired to understand what was happening, so I slept only to find it was just as confounding in the morning. It's not written in academia, that's for sure, but I feel like if there are a lot of people saying "this was confusing" or "this made me feel stupid", it's probably not good.
Even though the following chapters weren't as stunted as the first, there was almost no exposition to the world, just throws some made up words at us and expects us to pretend to understand what's happening until we can finally make a few connections later on (which is great when it comes to mysteries, but not when you're trying to paint a setting, PLEASE). Also the character Flip is completely incongruous with literally everything else, so much so that it feels shallow rather a comic relief character.
Thank goodness this was an ARC because without some heavy editing this book is impossible to read unless you have a massive amount of patience and some aspirin for the guarantied headaches.
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