Light from Other Stars

👍🏼Pick It: if you're looking for the softer, genre cousin to science fiction.
👎🏼Skip It: If you want the zip! and zing! of space and time travel.

I came for the sci-fi, I stayed for the writing. Swyler has the ability to scale a desaturated wisp to a blinding stadium of color.

The problem is, ALFOS is a mosh pit of the realistic (Challenger crash) and the fantastical.
Trying to guide readers through the “fi” of sci-fi, while maintaining the standard of prose was too daunting.

Swyler took 300 pages for the character narrative, slogging a 100-page plot through like a consequence.

I really hope Swyler's next work is grounded (literally) in what she does best: a feelings-forward, character-focused story.

I really liked the science parts of this book. Swyler always does such a lovely job creating an atmospheric feel with her writing, and this book is no exception. My only critique would be that this book, up until the last 20 or so pages, is just SAD. Nothing but bad things happen and it was hard to read sometimes, although the story was ultimately a rewarding one.