Astrid Hawk
This was my 2nd read - my first being shortly after discovering the TV show. For some reason I remembered not liking book 2 quite as much as book 1, but this time around I decided I liked it better.
Book 2 introduces 3 new narrator characters - Praxidike Meng, Roberta "Bobbie" Draper, and Chrisjen Avasarala - to join Holden in telling the story. Meng is a biologist living on Ganymede - he's devoted his whole life to the science of growing things to sustain ecological systems indoors on space stations and asteroids and moons. I remember finding his chapters boring last time -- and certainly at first they still were. As the book went on, though, I started appreciating and then being impressed by the way his scientific perspective and habit of seeing everything as a system allowed him to see the larger patterns hidden in even unfamiliar situations, so he was able to provide some insight (and in some cases solutions) in ways that Holden and his crew couldn't.
Avasarala is by far my favorite character, and on this re-read it really became clear to me how the show changed her from her original form. Book Avasarala is so much better than show Avasarala - in the book, she is FAR more foul-mouthed and incisive, and equally determined to win, but not to the extent that she's willing to backstab her allies or throw them under metaphorical busses to get what she wants. She's more likeable in the book, despite having a harsher demeanor. And frankly, her over-the-top use of foul language and her dry insults just made me smile. There is a lot more visible political maneuvering in this book than in Book 1, but Avasarala makes it just as fun as the space action.
Bobbie... actually might be my least-favorite character this time around, but she does serve an important role. It's through Bobbie, a patriotic Martian marine who is forcibly soft-retired and betrayed by the government/military she feels intense loyalty to, that we see a more realistic glimpse of what Earth has become. Non-Earthers look down on Earthers as lazy and useless, just living on government Basic assistance (the classic Conservative viewpoint today when it comes to imagining socialism and expanded welfare) - and Bobbie is no different until she ends up actually walking along the city streets and meeting people. The frequent descriptions of gun-cleaning, the Martian super-suit, her devotion to her identity as a marine... those bits I found tedious and could have done without.
And finally, there's of course Holden, who I still love as a character. This time around he's struggling with the accumulated effect of the horror and violence he saw and participated in in Book 1, and his fear is causing him to be someone he doesn't want to be. His process of figuring it out is maybe a bit abrupt, but it still continues to build depth to his character beyond the typical space-opera-ship-captain trope.
The stakes and intensity get high starting at about the 65-70% mark, and from there on out the book is hard to put down. Plenty of political back-stabbing, coalition-building, and entire fleets changing sides left and right. It took me almost a month to read the book this time around, but that's more to do with my reading habits than to do with the book itself. It's still engrossing, but right now I only get 20-30 minutes to read at a time, which makes it hard to really immerse in a story like the way this one requires. (Plus, I read this one in the beautiful hard-cover special edition format, which means I can't just pick the book up during the day when I get a free minute - all my reading time for this one is at night when I'm half falling asleep before I even start.). Despite the long reading time, I liked this one even better than Book 1 this time around, and I'm looking forward to finishing the whole series even if it's a month per book.
This was my 2nd read - my first being shortly after discovering the TV show. For some reason I remembered not liking book 2 quite as much as book 1, but this time around I decided I liked it better.
Book 2 introduces 3 new narrator characters - Praxidike Meng, Roberta "Bobbie" Draper, and Chrisjen Avasarala - to join Holden in telling the story. Meng is a biologist living on Ganymede - he's devoted his whole life to the science of growing things to sustain ecological systems indoors on space stations and asteroids and moons. I remember finding his chapters boring last time -- and certainly at first they still were. As the book went on, though, I started appreciating and then being impressed by the way his scientific perspective and habit of seeing everything as a system allowed him to see the larger patterns hidden in even unfamiliar situations, so he was able to provide some insight (and in some cases solutions) in ways that Holden and his crew couldn't.
Avasarala is by far my favorite character, and on this re-read it really became clear to me how the show changed her from her original form. Book Avasarala is so much better than show Avasarala - in the book, she is FAR more foul-mouthed and incisive, and equally determined to win, but not to the extent that she's willing to backstab her allies or throw them under metaphorical busses to get what she wants. She's more likeable in the book, despite having a harsher demeanor. And frankly, her over-the-top use of foul language and her dry insults just made me smile. There is a lot more visible political maneuvering in this book than in Book 1, but Avasarala makes it just as fun as the space action.
Bobbie... actually might be my least-favorite character this time around, but she does serve an important role. It's through Bobbie, a patriotic Martian marine who is forcibly soft-retired and betrayed by the government/military she feels intense loyalty to, that we see a more realistic glimpse of what Earth has become. Non-Earthers look down on Earthers as lazy and useless, just living on government Basic assistance (the classic Conservative viewpoint today when it comes to imagining socialism and expanded welfare) - and Bobbie is no different until she ends up actually walking along the city streets and meeting people. The frequent descriptions of gun-cleaning, the Martian super-suit, her devotion to her identity as a marine... those bits I found tedious and could have done without.
And finally, there's of course Holden, who I still love as a character. This time around he's struggling with the accumulated effect of the horror and violence he saw and participated in in Book 1, and his fear is causing him to be someone he doesn't want to be. His process of figuring it out is maybe a bit abrupt, but it still continues to build depth to his character beyond the typical space-opera-ship-captain trope.
The stakes and intensity get high starting at about the 65-70% mark, and from there on out the book is hard to put down. Plenty of political back-stabbing, coalition-building, and entire fleets changing sides left and right. It took me almost a month to read the book this time around, but that's more to do with my reading habits than to do with the book itself. It's still engrossing, but right now I only get 20-30 minutes to read at a time, which makes it hard to really immerse in a story like the way this one requires. (Plus, I read this one in the beautiful hard-cover special edition format, which means I can't just pick the book up during the day when I get a free minute - all my reading time for this one is at night when I'm half falling asleep before I even start.). Despite the long reading time, I liked this one even better than Book 1 this time around, and I'm looking forward to finishing the whole series even if it's a month per book.
This was my 2nd read - my first being shortly after discovering the TV show. For some reason I remembered not liking book 2 quite as much as book 1, but this time around I decided I liked it better.
Book 2 introduces 3 new narrator characters - Praxidike Meng, Roberta "Bobbie" Draper, and Chrisjen Avasarala - to join Holden in telling the story. Meng is a biologist living on Ganymede - he's devoted his whole life to the science of growing things to sustain ecological systems indoors on space stations and asteroids and moons. I remember finding his chapters boring last time -- and certainly at first they still were. As the book went on, though, I started appreciating and then being impressed by the way his scientific perspective and habit of seeing everything as a system allowed him to see the larger patterns hidden in even unfamiliar situations, so he was able to provide some insight (and in some cases solutions) in ways that Holden and his crew couldn't.
Avasarala is by far my favorite character, and on this re-read it really became clear to me how the show changed her from her original form. Book Avasarala is so much better than show Avasarala - in the book, she is FAR more foul-mouthed and incisive, and equally determined to win, but not to the extent that she's willing to backstab her allies or throw them under metaphorical busses to get what she wants. She's more likeable in the book, despite having a harsher demeanor. And frankly, her over-the-top use of foul language and her dry insults just made me smile. There is a lot more visible political maneuvering in this book than in Book 1, but Avasarala makes it just as fun as the space action.
Bobbie... actually might be my least-favorite character this time around, but she does serve an important role. It's through Bobbie, a patriotic Martian marine who is forcibly soft-retired and betrayed by the government/military she feels intense loyalty to, that we see a more realistic glimpse of what Earth has become. Non-Earthers look down on Earthers as lazy and useless, just living on government Basic assistance (the classic Conservative viewpoint today when it comes to imagining socialism and expanded welfare) - and Bobbie is no different until she ends up actually walking along the city streets and meeting people. The frequent descriptions of gun-cleaning, the Martian super-suit, her devotion to her identity as a marine... those bits I found tedious and could have done without.
And finally, there's of course Holden, who I still love as a character. This time around he's struggling with the accumulated effect of the horror and violence he saw and participated in in Book 1, and his fear is causing him to be someone he doesn't want to be. His process of figuring it out is maybe a bit abrupt, but it still continues to build depth to his character beyond the typical space-opera-ship-captain trope.
The stakes and intensity get high starting at about the 65-70% mark, and from there on out the book is hard to put down. Plenty of political back-stabbing, coalition-building, and entire fleets changing sides left and right. It took me almost a month to read the book this time around, but that's more to do with my reading habits than to do with the book itself. It's still engrossing, but right now I only get 20-30 minutes to read at a time, which makes it hard to really immerse in a story like the way this one requires. (Plus, I read this one in the beautiful hard-cover special edition format, which means I can't just pick the book up during the day when I get a free minute - all my reading time for this one is at night when I'm half falling asleep before I even start.). Despite the long reading time, I liked this one even better than Book 1 this time around, and I'm looking forward to finishing the whole series even if it's a month per book.
This was my 2nd read - my first being shortly after discovering the TV show. For some reason I remembered not liking book 2 quite as much as book 1, but this time around I decided I liked it better.
Book 2 introduces 3 new narrator characters - Praxidike Meng, Roberta "Bobbie" Draper, and Chrisjen Avasarala - to join Holden in telling the story. Meng is a biologist living on Ganymede - he's devoted his whole life to the science of growing things to sustain ecological systems indoors on space stations and asteroids and moons. I remember finding his chapters boring last time -- and certainly at first they still were. As the book went on, though, I started appreciating and then being impressed by the way his scientific perspective and habit of seeing everything as a system allowed him to see the larger patterns hidden in even unfamiliar situations, so he was able to provide some insight (and in some cases solutions) in ways that Holden and his crew couldn't.
Avasarala is by far my favorite character, and on this re-read it really became clear to me how the show changed her from her original form. Book Avasarala is so much better than show Avasarala - in the book, she is FAR more foul-mouthed and incisive, and equally determined to win, but not to the extent that she's willing to backstab her allies or throw them under metaphorical busses to get what she wants. She's more likeable in the book, despite having a harsher demeanor. And frankly, her over-the-top use of foul language and her dry insults just made me smile. There is a lot more visible political maneuvering in this book than in Book 1, but Avasarala makes it just as fun as the space action.
Bobbie... actually might be my least-favorite character this time around, but she does serve an important role. It's through Bobbie, a patriotic Martian marine who is forcibly soft-retired and betrayed by the government/military she feels intense loyalty to, that we see a more realistic glimpse of what Earth has become. Non-Earthers look down on Earthers as lazy and useless, just living on government Basic assistance (the classic Conservative viewpoint today when it comes to imagining socialism and expanded welfare) - and Bobbie is no different until she ends up actually walking along the city streets and meeting people. The frequent descriptions of gun-cleaning, the Martian super-suit, her devotion to her identity as a marine... those bits I found tedious and could have done without.
And finally, there's of course Holden, who I still love as a character. This time around he's struggling with the accumulated effect of the horror and violence he saw and participated in in Book 1, and his fear is causing him to be someone he doesn't want to be. His process of figuring it out is maybe a bit abrupt, but it still continues to build depth to his character beyond the typical space-opera-ship-captain trope.
The stakes and intensity get high starting at about the 65-70% mark, and from there on out the book is hard to put down. Plenty of political back-stabbing, coalition-building, and entire fleets changing sides left and right. It took me almost a month to read the book this time around, but that's more to do with my reading habits than to do with the book itself. It's still engrossing, but right now I only get 20-30 minutes to read at a time, which makes it hard to really immerse in a story like the way this one requires. (Plus, I read this one in the beautiful hard-cover special edition format, which means I can't just pick the book up during the day when I get a free minute - all my reading time for this one is at night when I'm half falling asleep before I even start.). Despite the long reading time, I liked this one even better than Book 1 this time around, and I'm looking forward to finishing the whole series even if it's a month per book.
Added to listStrong Femalewith 24 books.
Added to listMagicwith 24 books.
Added to listFantasywith 76 books.
The rare 2nd book in a trilogy that is actually better than the 1st one! But ouch, that cliffhanger...
The rare 2nd book in a trilogy that is actually better than the 1st one! But ouch, that cliffhanger...
Added to listOwnedwith 52 books.
This was surprisingly good - not just for a debut, but in its own right. Lots of queer joy, equal or more queer angst, grief, and definitely a lot of love, learning, and growing.
Girls Girls Girls is semi-autobiographical, which is probably how Blanckensee is able to get inside her main character/narrator Hannah's head so well. The story follows Hannah and her girlfriend Sam, 2 18 year olds from Long Beach, NJ, who flee Long Beach just after their high school graduation for the lesbian promised land of San Francisco. When they get there, they discover a new freedom and their community - but also hardship in figuring out who they are, where they belong, and learning how to survive.
Unable to find jobs without having a place to live, and unable to afford a place to live without a steady well-paying job, they discover stripping. Sam takes to it like a moth to flame, but Hannah struggles with the taboo of it, with having to put on a mask and a different persona. Hannah is also struggling with her evolving sense of home - something we probably all experience the first time we leave our childhood homes, where you go through a phase of just not really belonging anywhere for awhile. At least, I certainly remember going through it when I made my own east-coast-to-west-coast move at the age of 22. Meanwhile, Sam wants to go out and meet other lesbians, make friends, grow in a different direction from Hannah.
Although I am not a lesbian woman, I'm not Jewish, and I'm a bit younger than Hannah (my first experience with San Franscisco was in 2000, and it was a typical tourist experience - definitely didn't involve the Tenderloin, stripping, sex, or drugs), there was a lot about her character that I deeply identified with. Her shyness. Her nameless fear of calling people she cares about, letting it get to the point of extreme awkwardness, making the situation worse when she doesn't call (I *still* struggle with this). At one point she says she wants so badly to fit in that she doesn't fit in - that's definitely me.
About 2/3rds of the way through the story, 6 months into her San Francisco life, Hannah gets abruptly pulled back to confront the life and people she left behind in Long Beach. It's certainly not a joyful time - but Blanckensee does a fantastic job of handling the grief and frustration and complex emotions in a way that makes the reader feel them through Hannah but doesn't get mired down in unnecessary angst and drama. Through the pain of it you can see and feel Hannah growing. Learning about herself, learning to reframe the world around her, and learning to accept and be brave. She's remarkably mature, and I wish my own introspection at age 18 had helped me figure things out like that. (Of course, I didn't have a Bubbe like Hannah's to guide me.)
The story ends after Hannah returns to San Francisco and commits to her life there. This isn't a love story - there's no heart-tugging reconciliation, girl-gets-girl-and-lives-happily-ever-after. But Hannah does find a semblance of acceptance and peace, and the story ends on a hopeful note, all the various character threads resolved, even though some are sad or frustrating resolutions. They feel like realistic resolutions. You get the sense that Hannah's life goes on after we stop looking in on her, and that she still has so much more to discover about herself, about being queer, about relationships.
What I love about the queer community is that they are (typically - no group is homogenous and the queer community is no exception) more open to alternative viewpoints and alternative ways of life. Less judging. I know, queer people can be just as exclusive and *phobic as non-queer people - but as a general rule I've found the queer community to be a safer place than any to experiment with who you are and then be who you are. Blanckensee's characters discover this, and I love that it comes through in the book.
This was surprisingly good - not just for a debut, but in its own right. Lots of queer joy, equal or more queer angst, grief, and definitely a lot of love, learning, and growing.
Girls Girls Girls is semi-autobiographical, which is probably how Blanckensee is able to get inside her main character/narrator Hannah's head so well. The story follows Hannah and her girlfriend Sam, 2 18 year olds from Long Beach, NJ, who flee Long Beach just after their high school graduation for the lesbian promised land of San Francisco. When they get there, they discover a new freedom and their community - but also hardship in figuring out who they are, where they belong, and learning how to survive.
Unable to find jobs without having a place to live, and unable to afford a place to live without a steady well-paying job, they discover stripping. Sam takes to it like a moth to flame, but Hannah struggles with the taboo of it, with having to put on a mask and a different persona. Hannah is also struggling with her evolving sense of home - something we probably all experience the first time we leave our childhood homes, where you go through a phase of just not really belonging anywhere for awhile. At least, I certainly remember going through it when I made my own east-coast-to-west-coast move at the age of 22. Meanwhile, Sam wants to go out and meet other lesbians, make friends, grow in a different direction from Hannah.
Although I am not a lesbian woman, I'm not Jewish, and I'm a bit younger than Hannah (my first experience with San Franscisco was in 2000, and it was a typical tourist experience - definitely didn't involve the Tenderloin, stripping, sex, or drugs), there was a lot about her character that I deeply identified with. Her shyness. Her nameless fear of calling people she cares about, letting it get to the point of extreme awkwardness, making the situation worse when she doesn't call (I *still* struggle with this). At one point she says she wants so badly to fit in that she doesn't fit in - that's definitely me.
About 2/3rds of the way through the story, 6 months into her San Francisco life, Hannah gets abruptly pulled back to confront the life and people she left behind in Long Beach. It's certainly not a joyful time - but Blanckensee does a fantastic job of handling the grief and frustration and complex emotions in a way that makes the reader feel them through Hannah but doesn't get mired down in unnecessary angst and drama. Through the pain of it you can see and feel Hannah growing. Learning about herself, learning to reframe the world around her, and learning to accept and be brave. She's remarkably mature, and I wish my own introspection at age 18 had helped me figure things out like that. (Of course, I didn't have a Bubbe like Hannah's to guide me.)
The story ends after Hannah returns to San Francisco and commits to her life there. This isn't a love story - there's no heart-tugging reconciliation, girl-gets-girl-and-lives-happily-ever-after. But Hannah does find a semblance of acceptance and peace, and the story ends on a hopeful note, all the various character threads resolved, even though some are sad or frustrating resolutions. They feel like realistic resolutions. You get the sense that Hannah's life goes on after we stop looking in on her, and that she still has so much more to discover about herself, about being queer, about relationships.
What I love about the queer community is that they are (typically - no group is homogenous and the queer community is no exception) more open to alternative viewpoints and alternative ways of life. Less judging. I know, queer people can be just as exclusive and *phobic as non-queer people - but as a general rule I've found the queer community to be a safer place than any to experiment with who you are and then be who you are. Blanckensee's characters discover this, and I love that it comes through in the book.
Added to listReviewedwith 46 books.
