On the Horizon – machine (Elizabeth Bear)

Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

Title: machine

Author: Elizabeth Bear

Publisher: Saga Press

Publication Date: Yesterday!! (hardcover/ebook)

ISBN: 978-1534403017

Source:  NetGalley

I really enjoyed the first companion book in this series, ancestral night, and was looking forward to reading this.  This book is set in the same universe as the previous novel but follows a different character.  Dr. Jens works for an intergalactic hospital as a search and rescue specialist.  Her life turns upside down when a ship with a distress call turns out to be an ancient generation ship from Earth where all the crew has been cryogenically frozen and an insane shipmind is in charge.

The positives of this book is that I loved the beginning and the setting.  I loved the idea of the space hospital and how it functioned.  I loved all the different species working together to save each other.  I thought the rescue missions were an interesting concept.  Dr. Jens was an overall cool character who happens to be in chronic pain.

Sadly, this book just didn’t completely work for me.  While I liked Dr. Jens, she spent too much of the book blaming herself for things out of her control.  The elements I liked (frozen people, ship sabotage, Helen) turned out to not be the focus.  The “conspiracy subplot” for me turned out to be a) lackluster and b) very predictable.  I wanted more about the unfrozen people and Helen adjusting to the change of waking up far in the future.  I wanted more search and rescue missions.  And the ending and resolution was lame.  I wanted answers and focus on other things.

Cool elements and ideas but ultimately rather disappointed me.

So lastly . . .

Thank you Saga Press!

Goodreads’ website has this to say about the book:

Meet Doctor Jens.

She hasn’t had a decent cup of coffee in fifteen years. Her workday begins when she jumps out of perfectly good space ships and continues with developing treatments for sick alien species she’s never seen before. She loves her life. Even without the coffee.

But Dr. Jens is about to discover an astonishing mystery: two ships, one ancient and one new, locked in a deadly embrace. The crew is suffering from an unknown ailment and the shipmind is trapped in an inadequate body, much of her memory pared away.

Unfortunately, Dr. Jens can’t resist a mystery and she begins doing some digging. She has no idea that she’s about to discover horrifying and life-changing truths.

To visit the author’s website go to:

Elizabeth Bear – Author

To buy the novel go to:

machine – Book 2

To add to Goodreads go to:

Yer Ports for Plunder List

Previous Log Entries for this Author

the stone in the skull – book 1 (On the Horizon – Fantasy eArc)

the red-stained wings – book 2 (Captain’s Log – Fantasy)

stone mad – book 2 (Captain’s Log – Fantasy Western)

range of ghosts- book 1 (Captain’s Log – Fantasy)

shattered pillars – Book 2 (Captain’s Log – Fantasy)

steles of the sky – Book 3 (Captain’s Log – Fantasy)

ancestral night – Book 1 (Captain’s Log – Sci-Fi)

the best of elizabeth bear (On the Horizon – Short Story Collection)