In front of @wicho — January 3, 2023
Architects of Memory in front of Karen Osborne. Tor Books (September 8, 2020). 345 pages. English.
In this novel A humanity’s disastrous first contact with the Vai it leads to a war where we have everything to lose because alien technology gives us cool soups. But at the same time, the war against the Vai is what the greedy mega corporations that dominate everything and that they will stop at nothing to gain market share, stop fighting each other. More or less, because the technique of the Vai has a sweet tooth.
Ash, the protagonist, is part of the crew of the Twenty-Five, an Aurora recovery ship that works to clear everything that can be salvaged from a space battle. And perform that task stumbles upon something that will change her life and possibly that of humanity and the Vai. Even if she doesn’t know. Because of course Ash a anti-heroine who is in spite of herself moreover, she doesn’t even have citizen status since she is not by birth, and it’s complicated, to say the least, to earn that by working for Aurora or one of her competitors.
The rest of the Veinticico crew is the closest thing to a family right now, especially after the death of his partner in a mining accident some time ago. But as in all families, there are members with dark secrets in them.
space opera dystopian with a few script twists that aren’t really amazing and an alien species that we can’t understand and can’t understand us, which I might have enjoyed more if this book wasn’t actually half of it a whole novel ends – I suppose – of Engines of oblivion. So basically I’m under the impression that Architects of Memory It just didn’t take off or get anywhere because they cut it off before it ends. I think because I didn’t print 700 page books. Or what do I know
I don’t remember how I came across this novel – I think it was recommended by Amazon – but the truth is I kind of regret listening to it. I don’t like to leave books behind, but I admit I didn’t miss much on this one, though I persevered in the hope that things would get better. That’s not much. Although the worst part is that it is very disturbing to leave half measurements, so I suspect I’ll end up reading Engines of Oblivion. But I will too because when I read Agents of Dreamland I didn’t like it but when I finished reading Aluminum Foil Filethe trilogy of which it is part, everything fell into place.