Photo de l'auteur

Amy Thomson

Auteur de The Color of Distance

7+ oeuvres 875 utilisateurs 17 critiques 3 Favoris

Séries

Œuvres de Amy Thomson

The Color of Distance (1995) 382 exemplaires
Through Alien Eyes (1999) 187 exemplaires
Virtual Girl (1993) 174 exemplaires
Story Teller (2003) 128 exemplaires
Book 9781529113402 (2022) 2 exemplaires

Oeuvres associées

Magic: The Gathering Distant Planes (1996) — Contributeur — 66 exemplaires
Reload: Rethinking Women + Cyberculture (2002) — Contributeur — 43 exemplaires

Étiqueté

Partage des connaissances

Date de naissance
1958-10-28
Sexe
female
Nationalité
USA
Relations
Vick, Edd (husband)

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Critiques

Two points ruined for me what was otherwise a very good book.

The first wasn't a huge deal, but kind of irritated me throughout the novel. It's not really a spoiler to the story because it is mentioned a single time and never mentioned or addressed again, and it has little to do with the plot of the novel. The protagonist recalls the fact that she was gang raped by 5 older children when she was 8 years old. That's a rather huge bomb to drop and then do absolutely nothing with. I get that the author used it as a device to explain why she was scared of linking with the aliens or whatever, but it just felt wholly unnecessary and out of place in the story.

The second point, the thing that kind of ruined the whole book for me happens near the very end of the novel, and is a spoiler to how things turn out: She gets turned back into a human in the end. This just bums me out. The reason why this novel is interesting to me is her change, and the option to turn back to fully human is not even brought up a single time until the very end, and then it abruptly happens. She gives up mind/healing superpowers just so she can bang some dude and enjoy sitcoms again. I mean it's just lame. I couldn't even read the last chapter or so, I became so apathetic to the story at that point. Reading her alien friend likening humans having sex to their insane mind melding superpowers was just so freaking trite and annoying.
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Signalé
jedinat | 7 autres critiques | May 16, 2023 |
Early 90s sci-fi novel about a sentient android trying to survive in human society and understand her place in the world.

I picked up this book from a neighborhood free library because it looked like it would be amusingly cheesy 90s pulp, but it wasn't exactly what I expected. The author seemed to be making a serious effort to explore the challenges that an artificially-intelligent being might encounter, rather than just trying to create a "sexy robot girlfriend" fantasy. While this is a worthy endeavor in principle, it felt like the author's reach exceeded their grasp. The end result was that the work lost a lot of its potential camp value due to its serious tone, while remaining too lightweight to offer much in the way of literary merit.

One unusual thing about this book is the prominence given to homelessness in the story. The protagonist spends most of the plot as a homeless person, traveling from city to city, and the book goes into a lot of detail about what life on the streets is like, describing scenarios like sleeping in a shelter or having one's stuff stolen at a laundromat. These parts of the book feel much more realistic and grounded than the technological elements, but it seemed a bit odd to give these mundane details such prominence in the story.

In the end, this book didn't really offer any deep insights about its subject, while its entertainment value was severely limited by the workmanlike writing, unfocused plot, and flat characters. I didn't hate the book, but I can't really recommend it either.
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Signalé
gcthomas | Jun 6, 2021 |
This is a fantastic science fiction novel with a female protagonist.
 
Signalé
resoundingjoy | 7 autres critiques | Jan 1, 2021 |
The Color of Distance was one of the most compelling first contact stories I’ve come across. At first I was a bit skeptical, sure I would be getting a story that I’d seen a million times before. However, The Color of Distance won me over with it’s focus on characterization and underlying sense of optimism.

Juna is the only survivor of a crash landing of human surveyors on an uninhabitable world. Luckily for her she is found by three aliens who are able to keep her alive. However, she is now adrift and alone in a completely alien place and culture. Ani, one of the aliens who finds her, initially sees Juna as a burden and blames her for her mentor’s death.

The Color of Distance moves back and forth from Ani to Juna’s POV. At first this made the book hard to get into since you’re being plunged into an alien world through the perspective of an alien. There’s also quite a number of alien words that take a while to get used to. However, once I got through the first fifty pages, I was completely immersed and very glad that Thomson had chosen to show us both a human and an alien as our protagonists. The Color of Distance is a story about two groups and cultures coming into contact and trying to figure out a path for the future. For that story to work, you really need to see and understand both sides.

Characterization is what drives The Color of Distance. Both Ani (and the other aliens) and Juna change and grow throughout the course of the book. At first, neither really understands the other. Ani thinks of Juna as a “strange creature” and Juna seems to think of the aliens as something to be studied rather than people to relate to. Yet both come to learn more about each other, and it was wonderful to see a friendship grow between them.

There’s also a strong environmental theme to The Color of Distance. The Tendu (the alien species) live in a dense rain forest, and they are very concerned with keeping the natural environment and ecosystems in balance. I was pretty cynical of this at first, since “nature loving aliens” versus the “destructive and out of touch humans” is a story that I’ve seen before (ex. James Cameron’s Avatar). I predicted that when the humans showed up again, they’d start destroying the environment, there’d be a violent conflict, and Juna would have to chose sides! However, The Color of Distance preferred a more optimistic path. Juna and the other humans might not understand much at first, but they have good intentions and do seek to have a peaceful and prosperous relationship with the Tendu.

At first I was also a bit wary of how well the aliens would be pulled off, but I ended up being very impressed. The Tendu are sort of amphibians, similar to frogs, and their culture ties into their biology and life cycle. The most interesting thing is probably how their skin shifts colors according to their emotions. They are also able to produce patterns and symbols on their skin, which is the basis for their language. Thus, the method of communication also provides an obstacle the humans and Tendu most circumvent to understand one another.

I think The Color of Distance is a crucially unappreciated science fiction novel. It is one of the best first contact stories I’ve read, and it really deserves a wider audience. I’d suggest it for you if you like alien cultures, stories of survival and a sense of optimism in your science fiction.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
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Signalé
pwaites | 7 autres critiques | Mar 29, 2016 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
7
Aussi par
2
Membres
875
Popularité
#29,266
Évaluation
3.8
Critiques
17
ISBN
11
Langues
1
Favoris
3

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