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A review by theaurochs
Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh
3.0
First, I want to say that I love Temi Oh's prose. It has a beautiful, lyrical quality to it that makes it a genuine delight to read sometimes. In matter of fact; I saw this book title on a shelf maybe a year ago, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Do You Dream of Terra-Two? It's enticing, alluring, full of promise and mysticism.
In a lot of ways then, it summarises the book itself. The larger story is also enticing, alluring, full of promise and mysticism. Ultimately though it fails to fulfil those promises; it asks many more questions than it answers, and is more concerned with dreams than with actualities. Maybe this is intentional! I'd wager it probably is. But by the end I was feeling a little worn out, and really hoped for some kind of revelation.
Unfortunately too, the substance does not live up to the style. The book is about a mission to the eponymous Terra-Two. In a not-too distant star system, the voyage will take 23 years subjective time. As such, a group of teenagers who have been training for this all their lives are sent, together with a couple of more experienced astronauts. As the book progresses, we encounter the inter-personal conflicts and inner struggles of this crew, and some of the challenges they face in the early part of the mission. It's a really cool concept, and I think it's definitely one that should continue to be explored- the real genuine concerns of long-term space journeys. Unfortunately this particular journey deflates the moment you look at it too sharply- there's far too many minor mishaps in the domain of physical laws, despite its desire to be presented as a hard-sci-fi. Orbital rendezvous does not, unfortunately, work like that.
And I know that they're only teenagers, but there's far too much disfunction in this crew for it ever really to work. People with serious mental disorders can't be allowed on delicate, high-profile, decades-long missions. I'm sorry, I know this unpleasant but it's the truth. But then we wouldn't have drama in the book, would we?
So ultimately- I really like Temi Oh's poetic writing style, and I'll read more of her work in the future for sure! This one just suffers from being unrealistic in too many ways to be satisfying.
In a lot of ways then, it summarises the book itself. The larger story is also enticing, alluring, full of promise and mysticism. Ultimately though it fails to fulfil those promises; it asks many more questions than it answers, and is more concerned with dreams than with actualities. Maybe this is intentional! I'd wager it probably is. But by the end I was feeling a little worn out, and really hoped for some kind of revelation.
Unfortunately too, the substance does not live up to the style. The book is about a mission to the eponymous Terra-Two. In a not-too distant star system, the voyage will take 23 years subjective time. As such, a group of teenagers who have been training for this all their lives are sent, together with a couple of more experienced astronauts. As the book progresses, we encounter the inter-personal conflicts and inner struggles of this crew, and some of the challenges they face in the early part of the mission. It's a really cool concept, and I think it's definitely one that should continue to be explored- the real genuine concerns of long-term space journeys. Unfortunately this particular journey deflates the moment you look at it too sharply- there's far too many minor mishaps in the domain of physical laws, despite its desire to be presented as a hard-sci-fi. Orbital rendezvous does not, unfortunately, work like that.
And I know that they're only teenagers, but there's far too much disfunction in this crew for it ever really to work. People with serious mental disorders can't be allowed on delicate, high-profile, decades-long missions. I'm sorry, I know this unpleasant but it's the truth. But then we wouldn't have drama in the book, would we?
So ultimately- I really like Temi Oh's poetic writing style, and I'll read more of her work in the future for sure! This one just suffers from being unrealistic in too many ways to be satisfying.