I hardly recall any sci-fi books I read that starts so good and finishes so unremarkable. But this is exactly how I felt when reading Kim Stanley Robinson's "Aurora".
Now I can understand why this novel had 3.7 rating in Goodreads (in my view less than 4 usually indicates really low quality, though even some with 4.25 rating can be really unremarkable).
Even name "Aurora" is kind of misleading because very few pages are dedicated to Aurora itself (Earth-size moon in Tau Ceti).
Most of the book is about how to get from Tau Ceti back to Earth. So many things make no sense, the most obvious one a "failure" to check Aurora for any biological activity. Wouldn't this be a number one priority when landing on a new planet?
What about medical progress in 26th century? The author imagines that by that time people are using 3D printers to print almost anything, including printers themselves, and re-create weather patterns found on Earth, but for some reason in medicine we are still cannot "cure" cancers?
What about people who were left in Tau Ceti to build the new settlement? They simply disappear from the novel, even though whether they have managed to survive for next 180 years (the time it took for a ship to come back to Earth) it would have been most relevant part of the story?
In sum, more asynchronous novel is hard to find.
posted by David Usharauli
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