A review by julieuh
Exordia by Seth Dickinson

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

hard science fiction must be the silliest and most fucked up genre. why did I spend so many hours trying to comprehend explanations of math theory of fictional physics? why was every dramatic end-of-the-world scene interrupted by explanations of the mechanics of alien spacecraft? why was it all so compelling??? if I had any idea of what I was getting into with this, I would never have picked it up - in particular, I thought this had been marketed as a standalone, but it is very clearly not! and now I have to wait for a sequel?? what the fuck, man!
also, Greg Bear's Eon is mentioned in the acknowledgements, which is a book that I have a lot of sentimental value attached to - it was my first hard sf and possibly my first adult sf and it definitely has had a major influence on my tastes in fiction - and the influence of Eon is apparent in Exordia, which feels like a nice callback in my own personal narrative (this is a joke about the influence of narratives within the universe of Exordia, which is a major motif of the novel. okay thanks bye!)