Shadows of Eternity

I reviewed this book for Nerds of a Feather:

http://www.nerds-feather.com/2021/12/dear-gregory-benford-kindly-stop-writing.html

(TL;DR this novel is a disgusting piece of rape apology that should never have been published)

I received a digital advanced reading copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I really wanted to like it. The cover caught my attention and then I read the description. A SETI library on the moon, messages from aliens, and artificial intelligences?! Count me in! Unfortunately, I was greatly disappointed, frustrated, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.

POSITIVES
The overall plot and various details were fascinating. Humans colonizing the moon and Mars, how they communicate with alien artificial intelligences and study messages from undiscovered alien societies, contact with intelligent aliens, intelligent planets, wormholes, etc. These things alone are what kept me reading.

However, the negatives almost made me quit halfway and, honestly, I probably should have.

NEGATIVES
[Trigger Warning: The following section contains references to events that may be traumatic to some readers.]

Small Issues
The overall pacing was slow and the timeline was confusing. I had no sense of how much time was passing within and between chapters. Subplots were never resolved and some characters were just never mentioned again. It actually felt like the second half was a new plot and should've been a separate book. The editing needs some work as well. Words were often misspelled and the same sentence, paragraph, and even an entire section popped up twice as if the author had decided to move it and forgot to delete it's original.

Writing Style
This is a hard science novel, which is completely fine. I can handle some hard science but the writing style was straight like reading a textbook. I'm sure there are numerous, amazing ideas and theories but they were written in a way that was difficult to understand. Environments were overly described and I often zoned out reading them. Overall, it felt pompous and pretentious. This writing style also made it extremely difficult to connect with the characters, especially the protagonist, Rachel. We were often told what she was seeing, doing, and feeling, but never felt as if we were experiencing it with her.

[Trigger Warning]

Sexism
Surprisingly, most of the sexism was directed towards men in this book. Men were often implied to be aggressive and unsafe for women. Women make plans for how to deal with men in bars and there's a type of human genetically created to be sexless, being described as safe for women to be around them. Related side note, the genetically altered people are said to generally prefer they/them pronouns but Rachel chooses not to respect that, referring to her specific higher ups as men due to their masculine appearance. Somewhat rude and bigoted.

Sexual Assault and Sexuality
This is my biggest problem with this novel. Whether or not it's just an issue of a man trying to write from a woman's perspective, there are things that happen in this book that are just unacceptable. Red flags went up when Rachel was kissed and groped against her will by a stranger and no one, not even herself, said or did anything about it, acting as if it was fine and normal and just a little embarrassing.

Blaring alarms went off not much later. While communicating with an alien AI using a full sensory “pod,” it demands sex in return for solar system saving information. Rachel refuses, her commanding officer tells her to do it anyway, she still refuses, tries to get the info again, and the AI basically rapes her. Her higher ups deny knowing this was going to happen and when she confronts the AI later, it tells her it was acceptable because she wanted it. Then Rachel feels guilty because she thinks she actually enjoyed it. There were no consequences or punishments. Besides getting the information they needed, the only other result was Earth media found out she was the first to have sex with an alien AI, leaving out it was technically rape. In the end, she doesn't even seem the least bit upset claiming this like it's some kind of accomplishment.

I believe in women having sexual freedom but after this disgusting, pointless rape subplot, the way Rachel's sexuality was written just made me uncomfortable. Rachel goes out looking for men to sleep with regularly, sleeps with a coworker, finds a future coworker attractive and she becomes “moist” while looking at him. She even fantasizes about sleeping with a bird-like alien to then become his lover in the end. Were any of these details really needed to build her character and drive this story? No.

Conclusion
All that said, I really do believe the bones of a really amazing story with amazing characters is here. It's just buried under subplots and details that are uncomfortable and not needed. Needless to say, I do not recommend this book and I hope the author might consider making a number of edits before it's officially released.

3.5

This sure feels like hard SF!

My first Benford. Want to thank Netgalley & Gallery Books for the ARC.

There's a lot of really cool ideas in this. I liked the concept of a world where extra-terrestial messages are so common that there's an entire library with the sole purpose of studying and exploring those messages. It's a neat idea explored competently here with some bonus AI stuff.

The concept of first contact is explored in this, in multiple ways. Different kinds of alien life and the way they may differ from humans on Earth. More than that, it also explores the Great Filter and the survival of species over vast amounts of time.

It has the usual caveats of hard SF, I suppose... Don't expect too much from the characters or some aspects of the story, but if you just want some solid hard SF adventure, you'll most likely get that!