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Lightless The Lightless Trilogy CA Higgins Books

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Lightless The Lightless Trilogy CA Higgins Books

So. That was weird.

This book is oddly boring and somehow also won't let you go. I don't know why. Nothing is happening for 75% of the pages your read. Yet I found it hard to put down. Not because I particularly even cared for the characters. If I had to take a wild guess I'd say it was because I just wanted to know how it ended. The ending I'll admit, was pretty good.

(Possible minor spoilers ahead if you haven't read the blurb.) The first chapter, although absurdly long, was great. Althea's ship the Ananke, with it's three person crew, is boarded by subjects unknown for unknown reasons. They are tracked down and caught. But these are not your run of the mill space pirates, they are practiced con artists and thieves. So one of them breaks out, and conveniently, infects the ship with a virus that reeks all sorts of chaos onboard.

This begins 8 chapters of interrogations and Althea losing her mind over her infected ship. Cue sad song on the world's tiniest violin.

It just wasn't that interesting. Reading about how Althea can't find the virus or the virus is mutating or about how much she wishes Ida Stays would get off her ship just wasn't something I could bring myself to care about. The interrogations of the thief that was left behind weren't too bad, if only because Ivan is my kind of character. Liar. Thief. A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD: About 60% of the way through I started to realize that this was set in a kind of dystopian society ruled by what is known as the System. I don't know why it took me this long to realize it. The System was mentioned frequently along with the terrorist, the Mallt-y-nos, but it never seemed to step into dictatorship territory until the 60% mark. Mallt-y-nos actually really seemed like a terrorist, not a freedom fighter. To make matters interesting, the Ananke, Althea and the rest of the crew all work for the System. At which point for some reason, the book became immediately more interesting to me because we so rarely get to see a dystopian told from the POV of the dictators.

So it was a definite slow burn. This is probably one of the only books I've ever read that nearly bored me to death and made me want to read the sequel.

I have some fundamental disagreements with some of the conclusions that were drawn here. MORE MAJOR SPOILERS: A ship having AI does not make it alive. Althea seemed deranged to me to think of herself as it's mother. While I enjoyed the analogies to the ship being a child, throwing tantrums, feigning confidence, anything which can be "killed" by pulling a plug is not alive. I'm sorry. I just didn't buy it. Additionally, I thought Althea's reaction was utterly irrational for someone who's supposed to be a genius and an engineer. She's scared of the Ananke. She knows the Ananke can and has in fact killed humans. Yet she refuses to pull the plug. Because the Ananke is her "child". It was stupid. I'm also baffled by the Ananke's sense of loyalty to Mattie and Ivan. She cares nothing for human life but did everything in her power to save Ivan. Why? Because of loyalty to her "father"? What about being loyal to her mother? It just didn't make any sense and I really didn't like it.

Also: Ida's completely illogical jump to conclusions about who Mallt-y-nos must be. She's the most skilled interrogator in the world, but she couldn't spot that Constance Harper was a total liar? Someone who she herself said "was not a particularly skilled liar." It was sort of like the author just said, well now it's time for the mystery to be solved so I'll have Ida sit down, look at a document or two and solve the mystery! It was disappointing.. to say the least. What exactly was she trying to achieve by interrogating Ivan's mother and girlfriend? She didn't bother to hook them up to a lie detector. She barely gave them a passing glance. That whole segment seemed like a waste.

That being said- I think I saw that one of my GR buddies read both and said the sequel seemed like an improvement. So I actually might check it out in the future. This book gives you a lot to think about and I would recommend it to readers who don't mind a slow burn type of novel.


Tags : Amazon.com: Lightless (The Lightless Trilogy) (9780553394429): C.A. Higgins: Books,C.A. Higgins,Lightless (The Lightless Trilogy),Del Rey,0553394428,Detective and mystery fiction,Mystery fiction,Space travelers,Space travelers;Fiction.,Terrorists,Terrorists;Fiction.,Women engineers,Women engineers;Fiction.,AMERICAN FIRST NOVELISTS,AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY,Fiction,Fiction - Science Fiction,Fiction Action & Adventure,Fiction Science Fiction Action & Adventure,Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera,Fiction-Science Fiction,FictionAction & Adventure,FictionScience Fiction - Action & Adventure,FictionThrillers - Suspense,GENERAL,General Adult,Science Fiction,Science Fiction - Action & Adventure,Science Fiction - Space Opera,Thrillers - Suspense,United States

Lightless The Lightless Trilogy CA Higgins Books Reviews

New York Daily News describes the book as 'a sci-fi flavored with a hint of thriller'. I believe although such a description – having just finished the book – is fairly accurate I personally would re-phrase it as 'a thriller from a faraway future with coming of age science fiction twist', something that sets the anticipation better for a person considering picking up the book.

I assume this 'development' would take place in its entirety in the next two books of this trilogy, and therefore I am very pleased with the book in light of what is yet to come even though I was a bit confused and at times baffled by the ‘genre presented’, however, for someone looking for a pure science fiction novel where usually emphasis is given onto the technology and description of the future world / existence, the way I approached the book, this may be a bit slow burning beginning (of the development to come) to have to go through.

On the other hand, if one wants to learn and witness first-hand how one of the most startling yet intriguing discoveries may take place in the future, and experience its whole journey, and one would not mind the slower pace of the story telling (and the aforementioned genre-confusion at times), it may just be the book for such a one.

Should I written my review taking into account the book itself only, not thus thinking the bigger picture of the sequels, I would give it 4 stars, however, since I have a great anticipation of the development to come (hopefully I am not wrong about it) I will give it 5 stars and am going to buy the sequel as soon as possible!
Such a frustrating book--but still, worth reading. I wanted to give it higher marks; I really did. The writing is superb; the characters are wonderfully gray--but not as well developed as they should be--for that I blame the many alternating viewpoints, which really can't be helped, but should have been overcome. The writing *is* superb; unfortunately there are too many plot issues, and too many verbal and written anachronisms. The plot twists are either telegraphed, or the author makes the point of introducing the clues over and over, chapter after chapter. There's also a bit too much PFM science and technology.

But still, I found the thriller aspects of the story made for a page-turner, and I pretty much read through it in one day. I would not pay the full price (13.99 US), but if you can get a discount like I did via BookBub, well worth picking up.
I cannot believe all these stellar reviews for this book. It has to be the worst SF book I've read in decades. Stilted characters who have no common sense and flabbergasting anachronisms and inconsistencies throughout the book. It's centered around a whizz-bang "AI" computer - but the computer doesn't recognize human speech patterns and cannot speak? Really? I mean hello.... we already have Siri and Watson in this current day and age. Burglar/anarchists break into the ship like walking through a screen door and there is no explanation of how they pulled this off? Then they are captured and put in cells and an escape occurs because one bad guy had "lock-picking tools" in his boot. Really? A 22nd Century state of the art space ship is using Kwikset locks on the holding cells? And later there's a shoot-out and the writer describes the damage from a lead slug to one character's head? So they're using Saturday night specials to rob an interstellar spaceship? I just could not believe how bad this book is - to the point, where I was thinking I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!! This might be suitable for a nine-year-old, but no serious reader of SF should waste money on this book.
So. That was weird.

This book is oddly boring and somehow also won't let you go. I don't know why. Nothing is happening for 75% of the pages your read. Yet I found it hard to put down. Not because I particularly even cared for the characters. If I had to take a wild guess I'd say it was because I just wanted to know how it ended. The ending I'll admit, was pretty good.

(Possible minor spoilers ahead if you haven't read the blurb.) The first chapter, although absurdly long, was great. Althea's ship the Ananke, with it's three person crew, is boarded by subjects unknown for unknown reasons. They are tracked down and caught. But these are not your run of the mill space pirates, they are practiced con artists and thieves. So one of them breaks out, and conveniently, infects the ship with a virus that reeks all sorts of chaos onboard.

This begins 8 chapters of interrogations and Althea losing her mind over her infected ship. Cue sad song on the world's tiniest violin.

It just wasn't that interesting. Reading about how Althea can't find the virus or the virus is mutating or about how much she wishes Ida Stays would get off her ship just wasn't something I could bring myself to care about. The interrogations of the thief that was left behind weren't too bad, if only because Ivan is my kind of character. Liar. Thief. A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD About 60% of the way through I started to realize that this was set in a kind of dystopian society ruled by what is known as the System. I don't know why it took me this long to realize it. The System was mentioned frequently along with the terrorist, the Mallt-y-nos, but it never seemed to step into dictatorship territory until the 60% mark. Mallt-y-nos actually really seemed like a terrorist, not a freedom fighter. To make matters interesting, the Ananke, Althea and the rest of the crew all work for the System. At which point for some reason, the book became immediately more interesting to me because we so rarely get to see a dystopian told from the POV of the dictators.

So it was a definite slow burn. This is probably one of the only books I've ever read that nearly bored me to death and made me want to read the sequel.

I have some fundamental disagreements with some of the conclusions that were drawn here. MORE MAJOR SPOILERS A ship having AI does not make it alive. Althea seemed deranged to me to think of herself as it's mother. While I enjoyed the analogies to the ship being a child, throwing tantrums, feigning confidence, anything which can be "killed" by pulling a plug is not alive. I'm sorry. I just didn't buy it. Additionally, I thought Althea's reaction was utterly irrational for someone who's supposed to be a genius and an engineer. She's scared of the Ananke. She knows the Ananke can and has in fact killed humans. Yet she refuses to pull the plug. Because the Ananke is her "child". It was stupid. I'm also baffled by the Ananke's sense of loyalty to Mattie and Ivan. She cares nothing for human life but did everything in her power to save Ivan. Why? Because of loyalty to her "father"? What about being loyal to her mother? It just didn't make any sense and I really didn't like it.

Also Ida's completely illogical jump to conclusions about who Mallt-y-nos must be. She's the most skilled interrogator in the world, but she couldn't spot that Constance Harper was a total liar? Someone who she herself said "was not a particularly skilled liar." It was sort of like the author just said, well now it's time for the mystery to be solved so I'll have Ida sit down, look at a document or two and solve the mystery! It was disappointing.. to say the least. What exactly was she trying to achieve by interrogating Ivan's mother and girlfriend? She didn't bother to hook them up to a lie detector. She barely gave them a passing glance. That whole segment seemed like a waste.

That being said- I think I saw that one of my GR buddies read both and said the sequel seemed like an improvement. So I actually might check it out in the future. This book gives you a lot to think about and I would recommend it to readers who don't mind a slow burn type of novel.