Ancestral light by Elizabeth Bear

Disclosure, this book was sent for review, and Amazon links are affiliate links.

I grew up reading science fiction. Ursula K Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey, James Blish, Asimov, Heinlein. My favourites were books where the characters were as important as the environment – I loved the Dorsai books and everything by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Over the years I’ve drifted away from SF to fantasy and YA, but I still like to dabble every now and then.

I confess the cover for Ancestral Light almost put me off it completely. But I’d expressed an interest and was on the blog tour and had my fingers crossed that I wasn’t going to be bored silly by some over populated space opera laced with science references I didn’t have a clue about.

Then I read this tweet

If you like:

Dad jokes
Galaxy-spanning civilizations
Brain-hacking
Queer ladies with terrible taste in romantic partners
Dashing pilots
Dashing pirates
SPACE MANTIS COP
Snarky AIs
Big Not So Dumb Objects
Mysterious Aliens

This one is for you. https://t.co/fvYtwwl6wy

— Elizabeth Bear🌻 (@matociquala) March 6, 2019

and suddenly I couldn’t wait to get stuck in.

I am *loving* it so far.

I’m not done yet – the stinky head cold I’m suffering with means my eyes get tired really quickly, and this is a big book. So I’m reading a lot slower than I usually like to when I’m enjoying something, but hey, that means I get to savour it right? I can already tell that I’m going to be wandering off and finding everything else Elizabeth Bear has ever written, so that’s a pretty good sign.

What has hooked me? First off it’s the main characters. I love their voices, interaction, back story. I’m invested and have been since the first chapter. Then I’m intrigued by the galaxy building, complete with the historical overview notes. I like the little unfamiliar words dropped in to reinforce the distance from day to day – not so much that they jar, but enough to differentiate.

The pacing is good. We’ve got a lot of background to fill in, but the story is flowing along well as we learn. And I’m not even a little bit bored. So yup, definitely sold on this one. Check it out if SFF with character and humour is your kind of thing.

And don’t forget to have a look at the other blogs on the tour.

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