We are doomed! And… damn, she's hot!

 

Cool cover Edition.

Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi

I was having a little trouble while rating this book, considering it is a flawed first book or considering the enjoyment I´ve got from it, it changed from moment to moment. In the end, ratings are more about the enjoyment, what I am? An art critic? Nah. So be it, enjoy things as they come, because flaws or not, they are enjoyable indeed.

It seems the book being also Romance took some people by surprise, including me, but I just went with the flow. I am not very enthusiastic about Romance, but I imagine this flavor was a good one for me? It also took some people by surprise how little science fiction this book has (according to some valid comments), but I also don’t mind, and how do you quantify that stuff? I leave those debates to wiser people. What I can say is that some surprises or disappointments are more related to expectations and I like to be surprised, so this also plays favorably to me. It is different for everybody. So… if you need to consider, this book juggles with different genres.

I had the thought, that more than Romance, this book is big in desire and I am not knowledgeable enough to state that is something different or a part of it, doesn’t really matter. Maybe that is why I could get along in the book so nicely, as much as I feel kind of awkward to Romance I do get desire (my black heart is human… -ish, you know?) and its ups and downs, the sea of emotions it glides with. But it isn’t only the desire for someone else, but for life, belonging, a future, acknowledgement, fulfillment, health. And that´s why it felt so rich for me, behind all the damn-she-is-hot in the most inappropriate moments, there is an unrelenting desire for life splashing it all, or at least that is what I felt about it. I am very aware about projecting yourself, but hey… that is what we do to make books ours as readers sometimes. Or it´s just me going along smoothly with it. Anyhoo!

Random mumbling.

I had a couple of bumps. Spoilers ahead. The first one was the Slip – Ovie relationship, I guess I am not so open-minded, but some interactions felt icky (the ones that weren’t passing as a woman and her pet dog), and I didn’t get the whole thing about the true self showing in regards of Ovie, like his true self was a dog/wolf and its becoming to the surface too thanks to the ship? And then… Slip wanting to form a family with Ovie and I just thought: please adopt, don’t buy! And afterwards just… nooooooooo, that feels so wrong, but hey, maybe it´s just me and I need to consume more hunky werewolf media (ok, no).

The other one is something I missed. I thought very cool, Slip being her true self on the surface too, but I didn’t get why she wasn’t invited into the kumbaya trippy moment towards the end, when memories were shared. Slip felt like a very important person in all the relationships to be slipped. Maybe it was a pun. Maybe it was an intimate memory with Tev and was subsequently censored. 

Now, about the flaws of the book. Leaving aside the hard/fantasy science classification debate, it felt underdeveloped and it is a shame because the whole reality mechanic was interesting and I kept expecting the link between the day-to-day events, like engines, travel, concrete tech on one side, and trippy make-believe manipulation on the other, to be really explained, the we-just-crochet-it-to-reality didn’t cover it. The whole worldbuilding was lacking, not because it must always be completely covered, but because it was a key part of the plot, mystery and big reveal.

A couple of details here and there needed more work and editing, like the whole scene with the kid in the scrapyard was so weird, it came out preachy and very nonsensically forced.

And remember kids, if you are in an open relationship, it is a good idea to be honest about it when flirting with someone. Honesty is hot, you know? But I don’t think it was a flaw of the book, it was just a flawed character, making things a mess in the story. At least, I saw it that way.

End of Spoilers

At moments, it felt like the space opera was more a romantic drama with a certain spacey flavor. Some people could be disappointed, hell… I would be disappointed in other similar situations, but not this time because it worked well for me. Misgivings aside, the narration is very fluid, the characters are a charming mess and all the having-the-hots-at-every-awkward-moment was very entertaining.

The more serious themes were cool too. I liked very much the handling of Alana´s sickness, it is so important to acknowledge disability/chronical illness and how some people live with it. My only issue is that it relied too much in the-pain-makes-me-feel-alive thingy, which I view as problematic.

And then...

Overall, the book has a very needed representation, it was a fun and enjoyable experience.