“Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling—and keep the real killer from striking again.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed a copy of this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: I’ve been waiting for the next book in the Lady Astronaut series to come out, looks like the 4th book, “The Martain Contengency”, has been pushed out to Jan 2024 now… Then I saw that Kowal was releasing this book and thought I would pick that up to tide me over. This book was okay but ultimately disappointing in many areas.

This book follows Tesla Crane (an inventor and heiress) and her husband, Shal (a former detective) on their honeymoon cruise between the Moon and Mars. Unfortunately, shortly into their honeymoon a woman on board the ship is murdered and Shal gets blamed. What follows is basically a who-dun-it mystery where the body count keeps increasing and the evidence keeps pointing more and more towards Tesla and her husband.

I think I will start with what I liked here. I enjoyed that Tesla has a cute service dog and that she is dealing both with PTSD (from a horrible accident) and chronic pain. This adds an intriguing dimension to the story and really helps you engage with Tesla and her struggles. I enjoyed the idea of a space cruise ship as well.

There was a lot more I didn’t like with this story. Tesla and Shal are very similar to Elma and Nathan from the Lady Astronaut series; their relationship dynamics are the same and they just felt like a repeat of characters we already know. The story doesn’t seem to have much of a point. I think it’s supposed to show how Tesla is rich but also sympathetic to the masses. However, she spends a lot of time being bossy and throwing her weight around which makes her unlikable. In the end, the story seems to be about how if you are rich and famous you can solve any problem. I didn’t really get it.

I also thought the plot was a bit silly. The big reveal about who was behind the murders felt very anti-climatic. I feel like this story had a lot of potential but just kind of fizzled out. This feels very much like an unfinished side project. I struggled to stay engaged in the story after the first few chapters and almost stopped reading it a few times.

My Summary (3/5): Overall there are some things about this story I liked but a lot more I didn’t like. In the end I waffled between 2 and 3 stars; I went up to 3 because I do like some of the elements that were added to Tesla’s character. Unfortunately, I thought the plot was anti-climatic and the characters felt like repeats of other characters. I still do plan on picking up the next Lady Astronaut book, but hope Kowal shows a bit more breadth to her writing in that book. This was fairly disappointing for me.

Review – The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal (3/5 stars)

Like this:

Related

Follow Hidden in Pages

Share this:

Like this:

Related

Follow Hidden in Pages