#the spare man

[asexualbookbird]

Have You Read My TBR? Round Ten!

This is one of @bigcats-birds-and-books favorite authors and she narrated A House With Good Bones so yes I am Interested and nothing is keeping me from reading this it just hasn't been The Right Time and okay yeah this is more to tell people This Author Exists than anything else

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 44 – The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

Alright, first full novel I’ve read entirely due to it getting a Hugo nomination. In retrospect that fact that there was absolutely no wait list for it at the library was perhaps a sign I should have paid attention to. I’m not sure it’s a bad book, exactly, but my god is it just chock full of little things that grated on me (which more or less tracks with my very vague memories of casually perusing The Calculating Stars when it first came out, so probably just a sign Kowal’s not for me, really.)

The story’s set in a fairly grounded space age future, on an ultra-lux cruise liner taking its passengers from Earth to Mars in speed and style. Tesla Crane, heiress, celebrity, and generally incredibly famous and unfathomably wealthy, has booked one of the nicest suites in the earth-gravity section of the ship under a false name to enjoy some anonymity on her much anticipated honeymoon cruise. Things of course take a drastic turn as a woman is murdered outside their sweet, and her spouse is framed for the crime. The shipboard security is obstructive and suspicious, bodies keep piling up, and it’s largely up to Tesla to solve the murder and clear his good name.

So first off – this is largely a style thing that grates on me far more than it should, and it probably effects my overall reading experience to an entirely unjustified degree, but – the standard etiquette in the story’s future is for everyone to use the gender neutral Mx. Using gendered terms like wife, husband, sir, m’am, or similar is also called out as being somewhere between archaic and offensively retrograde. Also, it is totally standard courtesy to list someone’s pronouns in any case where you’d their full name. In which case what is the point of taking so much care to be gender neutral of everything else. (In a sense this actually inspired worldbuilding, insofar as it’s exactly the sort of stupid language games high aristocracy or its equivalent tends to love, but the reading experience kind of grated).

The society’s generally very consciously progressive in a way that kind of calls attention to itself. It really wasn’t a surprise to see in the acknowledgement’s section that all the mentions of courtesy masks being a thing were edited in as covid happened. This is all mostly just background noise though, as far as narrative focus the only things that really occupy the story’s attention are its portrayal of disability and its bizarre class politics.

So, a key point of her backstory is that some years before the story, a lab disaster (during a demonstration of a personal assistance mech, which is actually some incredibly bitter dramatic irony I’m surprised the story doesn’t call any attention to?) killed six people and left Tesla with permanent spinal damage, chronic pain, and PTSD. Medical science doesn’t seem to have made many innovations on a cane or breathing exercises as far as mobility aids and PTSD treatment goes, but it does provide the absolutely incredible wish fulfillment device of a switch in your brain that lets you turn your pain sensitivity up or down at will. Tesla’s disability is a recurring thing throughout the book and generally the portrayal seemed fine to me? A couple conversations that bled into ‘giving the reader an important message’ territory, but only slightly and hardly the worst in the book.

The book’s attitude to class and wealth though, woof. Like, okay, the story is clearly a bit of a pastiche, a sanguine attitude to vast inequality and social hierarchy are necessary for the whole fantasy to work, but my god in that case please stop calling attention to it. The book so badly wants to simultaneously be progressive and have Tesla’s life be as maximally glamorous and exalted as possible that it gets twisted into this incredibly awkward spirals showing that she’s a good hyper-elite oligarch which really only call attention to the issue without doing anything to resolve it. Her internal monologue including some variation of the line ‘normally I hate just using money as a bludgeon to get what I want, but” happens a few too many times for it to not make un less likeable than an aristocrat who owns it.

Like, this is potentially uncharitable, but the book seems to take it as read that I find the idea of demanding to speak to a manager and having them grovel and apologize for how I’ve been disrespect far more alluring than I do? Not being that customer is a subject Tesla ruminates on at some length, and at the same time calling up her high priced lawyer and threatening to bury the whole cruise line in lawsuits while they rush to provide apology gifts is definitely portrayed as this thrilling power fantasy. It all left me actively rooting against her, at least a bit.

The actual mystery itself honestly wasn’t much to write home about – a bit confused, red herring introduced blatantly and too late, the obviously suspicious and personally unlikable character was the villain – but in a similar vein it did seem…telling, that the guy who’d been positioned as the unlikable asshole oligarch in opposition to Crane was secretly a murderous gold-digging imposter all along! Also, the fact that this was proven by a photo showing the oligarch to have been a dog guy, and the imposter being quite literally the only character in the entire book who didn’t adore Tesla’s emotional support dog. Like, c’mon.

Speaking of the dog – the book had a few recurring beats which I’m sure I’m supposed to have found funny or endearing but just overstayed their welcome with me several times over. The entire cast’s brains leaking out whenever they saw Tesla’s westie like it was some sort of platonic ideal of canine cuteness was one of them, along with like, Tesla and her spouse making out at a moment’s notice because a plot point meant that their encrypted tele-chat required skin-to-skin contact, and the book doubling as a cocktail guide. All things that if I’d liked the book I could have easily overlooked, but as is were just extra straws on the proverbial camel’s back.

Anyway, yeah, didn’t work for me.

[whilereadingandwalking]

It was so lovely visiting Milwaukee last weekend. We have a special love for the beer Spotted Cow, which you can only buy in the state of Wisconsin! I spent a lovely afternoon drinking it with my Mary Robinette Kowal.

[haveyoureadthisscifibook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

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[torpublishinggroup]

We are in the midst of winter, and the holidays loom on the horizon, offering portents of fun times to come and the social obligation of procuring gifts for the loved ones in your life! Don’t worry. We’re here to give you book recommendations to help you take care of the second part, so you can get right to the holiday snacking and relaxing!

Take the quiz. Discover your perfect bookly gift.

[sophia-sol]

The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal

This is a murder mystery novel set in space in the future, but among other things the sheer quantity of classic cocktails all the characters drink made me wonder what was going on with its vibes, and the answer appears to be that the book is based on a 1960's movie. Which explains a lot, tbh.

It felt to me like it was trying to have 1960's mystery vibes while also updating its general social consciousness, but for me personally, the way this particular book did the mashup did not work. It gave me the feeling that it simultaneously wanted to be like, "I understand about prejudice and oppression and intersectionality!" and also "this is an unexamined power fantasy about being rich!" and the two did not mesh nicely with each other.

also….. the heroine is a tech billionaire named Tesla travelling to Mars. I couldn't help being reminded of a certain other billionaire in the news a lot these days.

Anyway, I didn't feel the worldbuilding was strong, and I didn't particularly like or care about any of the characters, and I wasn't intrigued by the murder mystery, so all together there wasn't a lot for me in this book.

Some readers may appreciate though that the main character is someone who lives with disabling chronic pain and PTSD, which are regularly kept at the forefront of her experience of life. However, she also has a service dog for her PTSD and the sheer quantity of time she spent releasing the dog to say hi to other people and get petted…. I think the dog spent more of the book off-duty than on. Not at all, from my understanding, the usual priorities of people with service dogs.

Overall, I expected better from this author given the other things I've read from her, and I'm not sure what happened here. Hopefully this is just an off book and not the beginning of a trend for her!

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Spare Man | Author: Mary Robinette Kowal | Publisher: Tor (2022)

[sonictoaster]

November is for sci-fi murder mysteries

[wearethekat]

November Book Reviews: The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

One of this year's new releases with a cool premise that I finally got around to reading. Millionaire inventor Tesla Crane is on her honeymoon cruise with her spouse, a retired investigator-- when he's suddenly arrested for a murder he didn't commit. Tesla has to find the real murderer, with the help of her strong-minded lawyer on speakerphone and her service dog, Gimlet.

The Spare Man is more mystery than science fiction, and it's definitely inspired by the trapped-on-train class of mysteries-- except here, it's a space pleasure cruise to Mars. The mystery is solid, if uninspiring, as is the characterization. The real star here is the portrayal of Tesla's disability-- she walks with a cane and suffers chronic pain after a lab accident. Tesla's narration is constantly conscious of her physical limits and the consequences if she exceeds it. Her futuristic pain management implant can help curb her pain-- but it's dangerous to use for long stretches of time, blunts her sense of touch, and makes it easy for her to accidentally harm herself.

Mostly interesting for its nuanced portrayal of chronic pain. The mystery occupied an interesting genre-space between Golden Age and SF, but wasn't terribly compelling in and of itself.

[prosy-days]

June 22, 2023 - Day 3

There are quite a few chapters in The Spare Man and now I wanna try the all the different cocktails that are at the beginning of each one.

[lizabethstucker]

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

2 stars out of 5.

Couldn't get into this one at all despite it having all the elements I tend to like, particularly the Nick and Nora Charles vibe the main characters were giving me. It was very wooden, not engrossing at all. Barely kept my attention. I've enjoyed other books by this author, finding her writing to be strongly character driven, which I love. Frankly if I didn't know better, I would've guessed that this was a debut novel. Probably would've given Kowal a slightly higher rating if it had been.

Then there was Tesla. Unlike Nora Charles who was kind to everyone, no matter their place in life, Tesla had a bit of underlying entitlement that annoyed me every time it came up. Okay, you have more money and accompanying power than anyone else, but that's no excuse. That may also be an issue that dragged my enjoyment down. shrugs

As to the mystery itself, it was okay. Could've had tighter plotting, but I've read worse. I didn't find it that hard to guess what was going on pretty early on, but that doesn't necessarily hurt my opinion of a mystery, even one held in space. So I'll give that a pass.

My end thoughts? This really didn't need to be in space. Might've even worked better if it was on a ocean liner set in the 1920s, after the Great War, but before the buildup of things leading to World War II. Would I recommend it? Well, I wouldn't go out of my way to discourage anyone opting to read it, but this particular book wouldn't be one I would immediately think of to mention to friends.

[literary-illuminati]

It's also just kind of disorienting to go from

The Mountain in the Sea: the mere fact of owning a megacorporation is proof positive that this once in a generation genius is evil, as whatever her personal standards the logic of capitalism is such that subordinates and subsidiaries will cross them in pursuit and endless profit for her benefit

Even Though I Knew Thr End: the fact that Marlowe can throw around endless amounts of money despite doing nothing visible to acquire it, and lives in secluded luxury waited upon hand and foot by layers of servants, is an incredibly unsubtle way to signpost "THIS WOMAN IS A LITERAL ACTUAL DEMON"

To

The Spare Man: our heroine is a second generation telecom oligarch on an ultra-ultra-ultra lux honeymoon cruise, and the story is just resolutely not interested in exploring this one little bit.

[whilereadingandwalking]

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal is an absolute joy. In this space mystery, Tesla Crane is a famous inventor who's traveling undercover in order to better enjoy her honeymoon with new husband and retired detective, Shal. But when a murder occurs on the ship, and Shal is the one arrested by ship police, Tesla will do anything she has to do to get her husband back—including solve the whole damn thing herself.

From Tesla's absolutely precious service dog Gimlet to the twists and turns of a "closed-door" (I should say, closed-ship) murder mystery, this novel was hard to put down: fun, playful, sexy sci fi. Kowal's writing is excellent, bringing in great details—for example, Tesla's lawyer could only respond to situations on delay, which at turns was hilarious or suspenseful. And the disability representation was really good—Tesla deals with both PTSD and severe chronic pain, and uses implants and occasionally a cane to manage. So a great murder mystery, a well-written novel all around, and great disability rep to boot.

And then to cap it all off, I get to the back of the book and Kowal admits that the trivia contest in one of the chapters is playable! Infuriating. I haunted down all of the answers but still haven't been able to figure out the overarching theme despite spending way too much time working on it!

Content warnings for violence, alcoholism, panic attacks/PTSD, suicide, ableism.

[eyeheartboobiez]

happy father’s day to the amazing father of all eighteen of our children🥹 it was a hard birth, but anything for you kento🫶🏿

[hinamie]

7/3: pov u r nanami kento pleased that i managed to pull smth together in time for your bday