An e-copy of the book has been provided by publisher, Penguin Random House, in exchange for an honest review.
“The people who leave always forget that the world doesn’t end once they’re gone.”
The story starts off on a small working planet. They get visited by people from wealthier planets from time to time to get their crops (or whatever goods it is they harvest or specialise in) bought. One night, something crashed on their planet–a boy. This boy changed the entire trajectory of the story and the book’s perspective starts to follow him. Divulging many lives and all that is involved within the story.
Science fiction is a bit of a tricky read for me due to the fact that they tend to info-dump you or, in this case, not at all. This was quite an easy read in that it didn’t give much information about the scientific aspect of the book–or was I lost and just didn’t get that it did? Anyway, the book primarily focused on the people of the story. Their relationships, the ideas behind their persons, and all there is to know to dive deep on this character’s psyche. And as much as this was the case, I did not, at all, connect with them.
There was so much more details that I wanted to understand. Simple yet important, as they are part of the story’s concept. It could be that I am not well acquainted with sci-fi that it slipped my head, these ‘could be given knowledge.’ But I still believe that it would’ve been a better idea to at least give information about these small points.
As a whole, I find the book fascinating. With its discussion on friendship, family, and loss. There was a true beauty to it despite the disconnect that I felt for it. I was entranced by the theme Jimenez used for the story–the multiple planets and time warps. The atmosphere was great and effective in isolating the integrity and personification of each characters. Most of all, I loved what the story wanted you to feel. That it reminds us that love is universal and home isn’t always the house we live in but the people we meet along the way of life.
It is quite unfortunate that this book didn’t work well for me as I would like it to, but I’m sure many will appreciate it.
