Note: this is a spoiler-free zone!

When I was younger, my main reading interest was science fiction. In the last couple of decades, I’ve been less successful in finding sci-fi that I wanted to read. I have a subscription to Locus to keep me up to date. In essence, most of the reviews convince me that the book under review is not for me. But, every so often, I pick up a couple of hints and take the plunge.

The first book I’ll mention is a Locus find: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite. This is a novella (101 pages) containing a comfy murder-mystery set in space.

The action takes place on an interstellar generation ship. One of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy Gentleman, wakes up in someone else’s body just as a murder takes place. The important detail is that the passengers can avail themselves of a storage facility for their minds between awakenings. However, it seems that not only has there been a physical murder, but also someone is deleting minds from the storage.

I say it’s a comfy story because it’s reminiscent of one of those TV mysteries where the violence is largely subdued and although a murder has occurred, people are polite, chilled, and going on with their regular lives. That’s the score here.

The writing is pitched well as it tells the story without too much unnecessary embellishment and presents the neat solution with confidence and style. In short, I liked it. However, while I knew beforehand it was a short read, near the end I was frustrated that there wasn’t more. Some of the ideas presented have great potential for lengthier, more detailed tales and I hope the author returns to the setting again. I would recommend this if you like short, straightforward stories and can handle a science-fiction setting.

That was the small read.

The big read is To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini. This is an 800+ page doorstop of a space opera novel. It’s at the opposite end of the scale to the small read. It didn’t come to my attention because of a Locus review. I saw it in a bookshop in London last year and liked what I saw.

The story revolves around a female character, Kira Navárez who finds an alien relic on an uncolonized planet and all that happens after that encounter. The mix includes aliens, battles, war, and politics. There’s also a love story or two and a veritable feast of future technology and cracking ideas, most of which are really cool and interesting. To put it another way, the book is packed with good stuff.

Another positive is that the main character is sympathetically drawn and believable, doesn’t totally hog the spotlight, and is aided by several good quality supporting members of the cast.

On the other side of the coin, while there’s no doubt this author can write beautifully, sometimes there was just too much description and a hint of repetition, none of which seemed to me to bring anything of great value to the story. Given the history of how the book was created (told in an afterword) I wonder if the editorial team were told to go easy on the writing. If so, that was a mistake.

It’s a good book, but not great. It cannot match Banks, but it suggests the author might achieve that in the future, if guided appropriately. It’s worth reading, especially if space opera is your thing.