Adam Goss's Reviews > Mirabile

It saddens me to give such a horribly low rating for this book. I absolutely loved the late Janet Kagan's Star Trek novel "Uhura's Song", and I thought I would love Janet Kagan's original work just as much.

I couldn't even get through the first chapter/story of this book.

I had high hopes for Mirabile, and not just because of Uhura's Song. The premise of Mirabile sounded enjoyable and the titles of the chapters/stories were amusing, a kind of humor that is right up my alley. But Ms. Kagan clearly has a love for exploring alien or foreign cultures to the point of full-on immersion. Now, I've had friends who just live for that sort of thing, but for me it becomes too much of a struggle to understand what's going on for me to actually, you know, ENJOY the story. With Uhura's Song, the exploration of the alien culture in that novel was done with a familiar viewpoint and reference, the established human (and Vulcan) Trek characters. We learned things about the aliens at the same time our heroes learned them. But with Mirabile, from the very first page the narrative throws around a LOT of words and odd points of view that left me mostly confused, and these were humans, not aliens! I had the same trouble with Frank Herbert's Dune. it's like suddenly being dropped into a college class in the middle of the semester, or into a foreign country without a guide, and being expected to follow and understand what's going on! That may be a fun time for other readers, but I guess I hate immersion narrative where nothing is explained. I read sci fi and fantasy to escape, and while I have nothing at all against a story that makes me think, I shouldn't have to think about every single sentence because the context is totally unclear and gets in the way of understanding and enjoying the plot, characters and themes. Sorry, Ms. Kagan.

And I suspect the same is true for her other original novel, Hellspark, which I started to read last year before I had to take a break from it. I'm going to try it again soon, but I am not sanguine about it.