bookafnd reviewed Macroscope by Piers Anthony
astrology nerds probably shouldn't write hard sci fi
2 stars
i did not enjoy this book, for the most part.
there's some cool stuff about it. i am a sucker for FTL travel and History of Galactic Civilization even when it's kinda silly.
the main part of the book that made me go "why though?" was the way that astrology is taken very seriously throughout the book (not by all the characters, but apparently by the author). the climax of the book involves some sort of bizarre psychological time travel with heavy astrological symbology, and it made very little sense to me
there's a part where the main character (who is a POC) thinks to himself that his disbelief in astrology is basically the same thing as his love interest being racist. which, uh, is all kinds of messed up
(for the record, she stops being racist at the end of the book, though it's not terribly convincing, …
i did not enjoy this book, for the most part.
there's some cool stuff about it. i am a sucker for FTL travel and History of Galactic Civilization even when it's kinda silly.
the main part of the book that made me go "why though?" was the way that astrology is taken very seriously throughout the book (not by all the characters, but apparently by the author). the climax of the book involves some sort of bizarre psychological time travel with heavy astrological symbology, and it made very little sense to me
there's a part where the main character (who is a POC) thinks to himself that his disbelief in astrology is basically the same thing as his love interest being racist. which, uh, is all kinds of messed up
(for the record, she stops being racist at the end of the book, though it's not terribly convincing, and neither is the supposed root cause of her racism)
overall it was one of those books where i could read a few pages and go "huh, ok, neat", and suddenly it would turn in to ten pages of "why is it like this, please stop"