Book Review: The Lighthouse of Kuiper
A voice from the darkness promises utopia…whatever the cost. The line between life and death has never been thinner.
I’m a sucker for some space colony dystopia - I am steadily working my way through every sentence of The Expanse series - so The Lighthouse of Kuiper is right up my alley.
I have some minor quibbles such as some pronoun confusion (there’s one section where everyone has the same pronoun but no names are used; it’s confusing) and Tharsis’ constant whinging about how much more attractive Ibbie women are than Martian women so she has no chance of ever being loved.
It gets old.
It also doesn’t seem to serve any purpose for how often it’s brought up, except that every time a man even gives her a hug she goes weak at the knees for how starved of attention she is.
Those are quibbles, though. I did really enjoy this book. The only real problem it has is the problem a lot of science fiction stumbles into: too much information too soon.
The first few chapters are a massive historical/cultural/political/species-ical lesson on the human race as is in the entire galaxy and it’s overwhelming. I never did figure out the differences between the various types of humans, which Landlord went with which planet, or even really what the Landlords were. After a certain point, I just went along with what was happening at the moment.
Now, if you look at something like The Expanse, it’s historical/cultural/political/species-ical set up is just as complex, but the authors take their time rolling it out. We only know what we need to know right now, and they make good use of the characters to deliver this information without an info dump.
It’s a hard balance to strike, especially since this is part of a trilogy so Rensing will want to keep a few cards back for the later books, but I’d argue that a lot of the history readers are given isn’t actually valuable to the plot.
The universe that Rensing’s created is very complex - and very interesting. I’d love to have a slower, more concise walkthrough of the dynamics so I can properly understand it. Tharsis - as well as most of the side characters - shows a definite character arc throughout the book. Not necessarily a steady progression from one point to the other, but who among us doesn’t regress into bad habits now and then?
Lighthouse also doesn’t have a strict morality to it, which I found refreshing. Often in fantasy and sci-fi you get an almost preachy attitude about the sanctity of humanity and blah, blah, blah. Rensing’s humanity is as fucked up as the real humanity, which makes Lighthouse infinitely more relatable and believable.
She also doesn’t pull her punches - and they aren’t at all where you think they’ll be - so be prepared to walk away bloody. I’m definitely looking forward to the next two books and unravelling the mysteries I don’t quite understand.
