Cities In Flight

DNF, read to page 377. This omnibus edition allowed a seamless transition from book to book, and helped keep the entire “universe” fresh in the mind of the reader. The first two books, “They Shall Have Stars” and “A Life for the Stars” were very good and had both interesting plot developments and characters. But starting with the 3rd book, “Earthman, Come Home” some of that connection to the characters, and therefore the plot, suffered. It seemed more like a group of collected stories than a tale designed as one novel. (A later review of the book's contents confirmed that it was indeed several stories stitched together.) And the fate of a character from the earlier 2nd book seemed, well, unreasonable to say the least. Perhaps the author decided to replace the character with a new one, but (in my opinion) the transition could have been handled much more in line with the tone of the earlier books. I stopped reading part way through the 3rd book, and never did read the 4th book – mostly because of this change in tone and choppy plot. Probably my loss, but it is what it is. All in all, a decent read, especially for readers that enjoy “epic” tales of humanity's future.

Good ol' boy sci-fi, where the rich vastness of the universe is nonetheless incapable of dislodging the narrative from narrow-minded white American male-ness.

In this, Protagonist is a stowaway on a massive (Miyazaki-esque) flying city contraption; almost a proto-steampunk visual. Too bad the city feels about as diverse as Pittsburgh. (I say this with much love and respect for Pittsburgh.)