Caliban's War
What a surprise.
I enjoyed the last one ok, but between the chaotic space zombie stuff and the prominent Men Writing [Fridged] Women stuff, I was really kind of perplexed about how much praise this series gets.
Starting this one, there’s a whole bunch of “full lips” and “coffee skin” going on, and one particularly egregious “ass” of a child “on the verge of womanhood”—ew—but as the book gets going, most of that stuff goes away, and what’s left is more than just a really fun and smart sci-fi adventure where even the space battles—for me, almost a guaranteed tune-out—were interesting, tense, and engaging. Two prominent perspective female characters—Bobbie and Avasarala—are well-rounded and compelling characters who feel like far more than “male writer tries to prove he can write badass women,” even though both are pretty badass. Naomi is so far still mostly “almond-eyed”-love-interest-on-a-pedestal, but I hear that eventually changes too.
At least once in this book, I said to myself “oh, I see where this is going,” and the author immediately called it out and subverted the trope, in a way that was refreshing and believable and not just overly-meta; a few more times I think a similar thing happened less explicitly. The plotting is intelligent and engaging, and the political intrigue of Avasarala’s arc is surprisingly fun.
In the end, the book is not without its flaws, but it’s much better than the first, and I’m really excited to pick up the next now.