** 17th book of 2021: Sex, Politics, Apathy. **
I have a rule when it comes to scifi: if the main character starts talking esoteric politics while engaging in strange sex, I’m out.
House of Suns takes as its premise that humanity has spread through the galaxy, and planet-bound civilizations rise and fall in mere millennia. The only way to maintain civilization for longer periods of time is through clone family lines, known as shatterlings. These families roam the galaxy, fix stars with pseudo-dyson-spheres, trade with new civilizations, and meet for family reunions every 200,000 years or so. Family lines spend most of their time either in cryo or traveling at relativistic speeds, free to wander the galaxy, but clone club has two rules:
- No clone incest (clonecest?)
- Don’t be late for the family reunion.
This is all very well and good for hard-scifi, but I just didn’t care. It’s tough to relate to a clone rip van winkle who had a traumatic childhood. I love political stories, but I also didn’t care whether our main characters were late to the family reunion or if said family reunion blows up. So when they start the cuddles and the politics talk, it’s time to fall back on my scifi rules and DNF.