{"id":6000,"date":"2011-09-09T12:19:19","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T18:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=6000"},"modified":"2011-09-09T15:00:06","modified_gmt":"2011-09-09T21:00:06","slug":"skye-object-3270a-by-linda-nagata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/skye-object-3270a-by-linda-nagata\/","title":{"rendered":"Skye Object 3270a by Linda Nagata"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It’s not easy being a teenager in the orbital colony of Silk–especially\u00a0when all the\u00a0adults are functionally immortal and anyone under one hundred is considered\u00a0an adolescent.\u00a0 To make\u00a0matters worse, Skye fell to the city in an escape pod when she was just a baby, with no idea who she is, where she’s from, or how long she was drifting in space.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fortunately, she’s a tough girl with several close friends and\u00a0a determined spirit.\u00a0 One way or another, she’ll find out where she’s from–and whether there are any of her people still out there.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.\u00a0 It combined the best of both science fiction and young adult: likeable teenage characters struggling\u00a0to\u00a0find their place in\u00a0a high-tech alien world.\u00a0 In particular, I found it fascinating how the widespread\u00a0nanotech shaped both the society and the universe.<\/p>\n

But the story isn’t about the\u00a0technology, it’s about the characters, their adventures, and the friendships that form between them.\u00a0 This was what really made the story come alive for me.\u00a0 There’s a small amount of wish fulfillment, which may or may not be your thing, but overall I found the characters to be both believable and likeable.\u00a0 It was a lot of fun to watch them grow and learn together.<\/p>\n

At times, though, it felt as if the characters weren’t challenged enough.\u00a0 The\u00a0friendship and relationship issues were well done, but it wasn’t until the end that they started to have any significant try-fail (or try-almost fail)\u00a0cycles in their adventures.\u00a0 Also, while the ending was quite satisfying, it was also a little abrupt.<\/p>\n

Those didn’t detract much from the rest of the story, though.\u00a0 Overall, I thought it was a very satisfying read–the sort of book I wish I’d found when I was twelve or thirteen.\u00a0 If I wasn’t already hooked on science fiction by that age, I have the feeling that this book would have turned me into a lifelong fan.<\/p>\n

As a footnote, I’d like to add that this is EXACTLY the kind of book that indie publishing was made for.\u00a0 It’s a great story, but the science-fictional\u00a0setting is so unconventional that most publishers wouldn’t take a chance on it.\u00a0 Even houses like Tor and Baen are focusing more on sub-genres like urban fantasy and military sf, which both have large, proven readerships.\u00a0 For something that’s a little more niche or experimental, it’s good to see that there’s still a way to get it out to readers who would love it.<\/p>\n

So yeah–if you like young adult books and you’re not turned off by space elevators, nanobots, or alien planets, you should totally try out this book.\u00a0 I think it will surprise you just how much you enjoy it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s not easy being a teenager in the orbital colony of Silk–especially\u00a0when all the\u00a0adults are functionally immortal and anyone under one hundred is considered\u00a0an adolescent.\u00a0 To make\u00a0matters worse, Skye fell to the city in an escape pod when she was just a baby, with no idea who she is, where she’s from, or how long… Continue reading Skye Object 3270a by Linda Nagata<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[112,193,515,222,529,615,623,99,624,280],"class_list":["post-6000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-character","tag-conflict","tag-ebooks","tag-endings","tag-indie-publishing","tag-indie-reviews","tag-nanotech","tag-science-fiction","tag-try-fail-cycles","tag-young-adult","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-1yM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6000"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6040,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6000\/revisions\/6040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}