narendrashdb10

A solid, enjoyable piece of science fiction. "Pushing Ice" follows the crew of a deep-space mining ship as they track an alien artifact out of the solar system and beyond. It grapples with many familiar themes--dissension among the crew; the hard struggle to survive far from home; encounters with hyper-advanced alien tech; first contact--but it does so with Reynold's signature mixture of hard sci-fi and interesting characters. Reynolds has become one of my favorite sci-fi writers, and while "Pushing Ice" isn't my favorite of his books (that honor would go to "Chasm City," although there are still a few books of his I've not yet read), it hits on all of his usual themes with relatively few misfires. The friendship/rivalry between Bella and Svetlana (the book's two protagonists) is handled well, and the Big Mystery of the alien artifact is sufficiently captivating. Veteran sci-fi readers will probably quickly pick up on the general direction the Big Mystery is going, but it remains interesting. This book evoked for me a lot of the wonder and (somewhat bittersweet) optimism that many Arthur C. Clarke novels do. The book's weaknesses don't detract much from the good parts. Character dialogue is a little stiff (it reads well, but often doesn't sound like something people would actually say in conversation); and even having finished the book I'm a little fuzzy on how parts of the Big Alien Mystery worked. Characters who have few facts to work with sometimes make improbable jumps to (correct) conclusions and explanations, which feels a little contrived. But none of these hurt my enjoyment of the book. If you like Reynolds' other books, you'll find "Pushing Ice" a fun read, although not quite on par with his best work. If you're looking for an engrossing sci-fi novel that visits a lot of classic sci-fi tropes without straying too far from believable science, you'll enjoy it as well. Definitely recommended.

2022-11-14 14:06