Singer Distance

Singer Distance by Ethan Chatagnier: my overall impression is that this is a literary novel focused on relationships, life journeys, and the distance between people. The premise is that of a sci-fi alternative history, in which beings on Mars begin communicating with Earth via giant glowing glyphs reflecting complex equations. A ragtag band of graduate students sets out to solve the equation, and the plot ensues. The prose is elevated beyond most books I read, sometimes almost attaining a level of word-craft worthy of being called poetry. It is hard science fiction in that it has lots of references to math and physics, etc. but I never found these elements to be overwhelming. Despite Mars, aliens, etc. being a prominent aspect of the book, it's not a sci-fi adventure/thriller in the sense of Star Wars/Trek, etc. It's really about the humans, not the Martians. In this sense it reminds me a tiny bit of Station Eleven, wherein the big sci-fi event, though important, is really a device for a meditation upon humanity in the form of a story, not the principle focus of the work itself. A couple aspects of the plot confused me. This may be due to me missing something in the audiobook (I do not love the narrator's performance...) and some characters seemed underdeveloped (who exactly is Otis again?) but nevertheless I am thinking this book is ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

So it makes me extremely sad to have to do this, but unfortunately this book is the very first one I have EVER decided to DNF (at 76% - page 213) & after skimming to the end, my rating would have to be about 2.75 out of 5 stars. Please understand that I do not believe this to be a "bad" book, there were a lot of interesting and thought provoking quotes and ideas, but overall I just (personally) found it to be incredibly boring! That being said one person's 2 star book could be 5 stars for another, and that's okay! The premise was promising, but sadly, for me, the execution was just not what I was hoping for.

Gosh but I wish this book had been able to live up to what it was trying to do. I can see it, can almost smell it, tbh, but DAMN does it not follow through. 
Pros: the language is really genuinely lovely. The narrator???s voice isn???t DISTINCT, but it???s quite lovely regardless. The author certainly knows how to paint images, and string them together in a way that makes for lovely reading. I got to hand that to them. 
I???ve also got to hand to them the concept behind this novel. While the idea of communicating with aliens isn???t a new one, I kind of liked the spin presented in this book: pre-radio, using Earth???s surface like a giant signboard to talk to the aliens living on another planet who happen to communicate in a similar way. It actually makes a certain kind of sense, though the environmental damage is staggering (and is briefly touched upon in the novel). 
What I DIDN???T entirely like about this novel was it felt so navel-gazey in an almost self-indulgent way. I liked the attempt to explore the concepts of distance - not just between planets, but between people, and between the self and memory. It also attempts to tackle the concepts of wonder and awe and curiosity, All interesting, of course, but there???s a meandering feel to the plot that feels like the long road trips that are described in the first and latter third: like blank spaces between origin and destination. The plot, such as it is, consists of all these musings and ideas but they aren???t held together by, you know, ACTUAL PLOT. 
Another thing that???s unfortunate about this novel is how the female characters get lost in all that navel-gazing. At a certain point I found myself wishing that this story was being narrated by one of the female characters instead; maybe then there???d be a bit more dimension and depth to this book than the narrator was providing. 
And then there???s the ending. Gosh, but that ending landed about as well as an untrained person trying to imitate Simone Biles and just. Failing utterly. I can see where it???s trying to go, I can see what it???s trying to do given everything that came before it, but it plopped right into the middle of a cliche and I was reading that last line going: ???That???s it? THAT???S IT?!??? Honestly disappointing. 
Overall, this is a novel that has Ambitions, I guess, and tries to get there with truly lovely language that???s quite pleasant to read, but damn does it get lost on the way - and, worse, that ending does NOT stick the landing. YMMV I guess, but I???m largely disappointed by this.