Machine

Written by Elizabeth Bear

Narrated by Adjoa Andoh

In this “spectacularly smart space opera” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) set in the same universe as the critically acclaimed White Space series and perfect for fans of Karen Traviss and Ada Hoffman, a space station begins to unravel when a routine search and rescue mission returns after going dangerously awry.

Meet Doctor Jens.

She hasn’t had a decent cup of coffee in fifteen years. Her workday begins when she jumps out of perfectly good space ships and continues with developing treatments for sick alien species she’s never seen before. She loves her life. Even without the coffee.

But Dr. Jens is about to discover an astonishing mystery: two ships, once ancient and one new, locked in a deadly embrace. The crew is suffering from an unknown ailment and the shipmind is trapped in an inadequate body, much of her memory pared away.

Unfortunately, Dr. Jens can’t resist a mystery and she begins doing some digging. She has no idea that she’s about to discover horrifying and life-changing truths.

Written in Elizabeth Bear’s signature “rollicking, suspenseful, and sentimental” (Publishers Weekly) style, Machine is a fresh and electrifying space opera that you won’t be able to put down.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Oct 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781797113647

Elizabeth Bear

Elizabeth Bear was born on the same day as Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, but in a different year. She is the Hugo, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial, Locus, and Astounding Award–winning author of dozens of novels and over a hundred short stories. She has spoken on futurism at Google, MIT, DARPA’s 100 Year Starship Project, and the White House, among others. Find her at www.elizabethbear.com.  

Reviews for Machine

[R Cambridge · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Procedurally, large organazinal future policy intervention. 7 7 7 7

[I C · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Funny and intellectually engaging. Really great read. Enjoyed the philosophical debates

[Stacey Richardson · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I imagine this is what a book written by someone without an internal monologue (or I guess with an intense personal vendetta against subtext) might be like. Or like being trapped inside the brain of a person who has a different ADHD from me.

Lots of monologuing/pontificating, very repetitive. Full of pace obliterating tangents that happen right in the middle of conversations between characters, action sequences, you name it.

Main character is constantly realizing things that were obvious for some time or even that had already been explicitly stated, which is weird because she’s the POV. The big mystery is basically idiot-plot, and has at least two false resolutions in fairly rapid succession before a final (unconvincing) fix. In need of a serious (!) edit. Narration is pretty good, though by the end I was listening at 2.5x to just try to get through it.

Still better than ancestral night.

[Paul H · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was definitely a slow burn that built up to a great ending! I'll admit that there were some times that I had trouble remembering who a character was from time to time, however I don't fault the author for that as I took a little while to finish this book.

If you are a fan of sci-fi, interesting mysteries and a tiny dab of bureaucratic bashing, grab this book today!

[Latrice K Springs · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

No. Sorry I was 46 minutes away from finish and just gave up. This sat with me like a wet sandwich ??‍♀️. Better editing. Like a 60% cut would have helped tremendously. Not so much scifi as just boring af story that droned on and on and on.

[Neil · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Much better than Ancestral Night. There was a story to dive into and mercifully none of the awkward sexual tension of lesbians chained together in a mattress; though Bear really does appear to have a penchant for interracial same-sex themes.

There were a few, "...Wait, wut?" moments where I had to go back to tie all of the tangents together sensibly, but by the end of the book I was looking forward to more of the Whitespace universe.