Disappointment and Its Opposite

I was greatly looking forward to "We Are Satellites", by Sarah Pinsker, 2021, 418 pages, 113k words. I had really enjoyed her short story collection, reviewed here.

I wound up being very disappointed with the book. 2 main reasons:

1. There was way too much domestic fu, and it was boring. Too many conversations at the kitchen table, making supper, snuggling in bed.
2. I found the overall plot implausible. That a consumer device installation which involves brain surgery would not be totally vetted by the FDA I don't believe - or not yet anyway. Plus, the young male protagonist's inability to communicate his problems with the tech to anyone again just did not ring true to me.

Oh well, better luck next time.

I was pleasantly surprised by "Children of Time", by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2018, 591 pages, 160k words, and its sequel "Children of Ruin", 2019, 567 pages, 154k words. In the 1st 1, religious terrorists destroy most of a terraforming mission to another planet. But, uplift nano-machines survive & instead of working on monkeys, work on hunting spiders! Yay, intelligent spiders, FTW! Not for the arachnophobic, I guess.

Then in the sequel ... uplifted octopuses!!! What could be better? A very different model of mentation. Plus, bonus, intelligent slime molds, with atomic level storage replacing DNA! And they get to meet the Humans & spiders! And in the end ...

At times the narratives seems stretched out & disjointed, but, with action taking place over 1000s of years, this is probably appropriate. Again, a surprisingly enjoyable read.