Hello Lovelies,
I received Lightspeed Frontier : Kicking the Future in exchange for some exposure on social media and an honest review. This book was received along with several others as part of a summer reading drive for my kids several years ago.
Genre:
Sci-Fi/ Comedy
Synopsis
Lightspeed Frontier: Kicking the Future is a comedy science fiction novel by Adam Corres, unlike anything else ever written in the genre. It is a book of intensive imagination, idea-fuelled wit, fascinating scientific thought, occasional parody and there are lines in here you can’t help quoting. This novel has been released alongside Lightspeed Frontier the video game, by Vid Rijavec and Philip Devine, developed at Crowdwork Studios and published by Riveted Games.
My Take
Ya’ll, I did not even know what to make about this book. I started it back in April, 2019 and DNF’ed it because I just couldn’t get into it at the time. It is definitely a book you have to be in the right mood to read. I picked it up the second time just after New Years because one of my family members asked about it and I felt guilty that I never finished it. It was better, but it was still remarkably slow reading for such a small book.
It is really hard to quite pin down exactly what my issue is with the story. I think, in part, because it is exactly as the description says “unlike anything else ever written in the genre”. And hey. so was Firefly once and a lot of people didn’t get that and I hate them all for it. (J/K)
I can totally see this developing a cult following just like Firefly. Mind you, I am not really comparing it to Firefly because I am a total Firefly Fangirl for Life and this was just… meh? I mean, I finished it and I don’t regret finishing it so it gets 3 stars. It was well written, no major plotholes, the grammar was pretentious at times, but well done. The world-building is excellent and if even half of that went into the game, then I imagine the game would be quite fun.
I think one of the elements I struggle with is the way in which the “story” is told. During the story, I was very annoyed because we kept jumping from character to character and yet most of these characters didn’t ever connect, and the few that did didn’t do so until about halfway through the story. In a way, looking back, it kind of reminds me of a first-person shooter where you meet a lot of different characters, sometimes more than once, and get different bits of story that help with worldbuilding but the only thing that really ties them all together is you. Except this didn’t play out as a choose your own adventure novel and that is the only time in which I can recall that this style of character hopping with little to nothing except the worlds to tie them together has ever really happened in books. Maybe it is wildly innovative and a way to pull gamers back into reading. Maybe the game and the book work better as a package deal. Not sure.
For me, it missed the mark.
If you find this review has piqued your interest, then be sure to take a look inside!
Until next time,
Keep Reading!