Jupiter-based researcher Pleiti is roped into solving a mystery when ex-girlfriend, Mossa, unexpectedly needs her help.
I enjoyed the world-building, but the characters and plot weren't really my thing. It was a little too cosy, and the romance felt bland. The use of somewhat unusual (or archaic) words added to the world-building when uttered by the characters, but I found it annoying when characters “expostulated” or “said precipitously” etc. All in all, it was fine, but I doubt I'll read the sequels.
The world building here doesn't fundamentally make sense, there's no universe in which building 200,000 mile rails to colonize Jupiter is more feasible in terms of knowhow or resources that fixing Earth or even colonizing the Moon or Mars. However, you owe it to the author to suspend disbelief on the central premise and go for the ride. The worldbuilding about all the heat and light coming from gas flames was so good it felt like it was the initial idea that the setting formed around.
The strengths were the worldbuilding and the formal language that made everything feel retro-futuristic.
The primary weakness, in my view, was that a good mystery often involves a unique or creative "perfect crime". In order to write a perfect crime, you have to work within the rules of the real world. If your perfect crime involves a creative interpretation of a fictional world, the …
The world building here doesn't fundamentally make sense, there's no universe in which building 200,000 mile rails to colonize Jupiter is more feasible in terms of knowhow or resources that fixing Earth or even colonizing the Moon or Mars. However, you owe it to the author to suspend disbelief on the central premise and go for the ride. The worldbuilding about all the heat and light coming from gas flames was so good it felt like it was the initial idea that the setting formed around.
The strengths were the worldbuilding and the formal language that made everything feel retro-futuristic.
The primary weakness, in my view, was that a good mystery often involves a unique or creative "perfect crime". In order to write a perfect crime, you have to work within the rules of the real world. If your perfect crime involves a creative interpretation of a fictional world, the rules you yourself made, it feels less clever. As an example, there's a reveal that a suspect had a creative way of riding the train. This didn't really feel like anything to me because the author hadn't previously established how people normally ride space trains.
There wasn't a lot to the love story, but I am guessing it will build in later installments.
I liked it and thought it was very funny that "conservative" is a swear.
This is a fun sci-fi detective story placed far enough ahead that we’ve reverted to the sensibilities of 1800s England. That wasn’t my cup of tea (which they love) but the environment and story were amazing. I wish the detective was the narrator throughout (like the first chapter) but not doing so helps keep us in the dark much like her assistant ex girlfriend.
Well written and quite enjoyable. However the journey might be more enjoyable than the destination but I would absolutely read the sequel.
