Science Fiction
About halfway through All those vanished engines and I’m still not entirely sure what kind of book it wants to be, which is not a complaint.
It has the shape of alternate history, obviously, but it keeps slipping sideways into family tension and something a bit stranger. I’m enjoying that slipperiness more than I expected. Still, I’m curious whether it settles into one mode later or keeps refusing to pick a lane. Some books do that badly. This one might be doing it on purpose.
It has the shape of alternate history, obviously, but it keeps slipping sideways into family tension and something a bit stranger. I’m enjoying that slipperiness more than I expected. Still, I’m curious whether it settles into one mode later or keeps refusing to pick a lane. Some books do that badly. This one might be doing it on purpose.
That kind of slipperiness can be a strength, but only if the book has enough confidence to carry it. Alternate history often gets treated like a puzzle box, when the better versions feel stranger and more human than tidy. I’m usually happiest when the family drama is doing real work rather than just decorating the premise. If the book keeps shifting, I’d want it to be because the shifts matter.