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Arkhangelsk 2 = Narrators
While neither narrator, Anya or Maddie, is at all unreliable, Neither are they omniscient, and they do not initially see the forces acting within the colony. Did the reveal of these forces work for you? Did it seem natural, or forced? Too fast? Too slow?
Comments
Also on narration, I did like the way Maddie's "version" was presented mostly (entirely?) in report form back to Earth, while Anya's was just out there. And I thought the insertion of "ship's log" entries a nice touch, especially as it made you stop and work out which ship/voyage was in view and when the particular events took place.
I liked that we had two different perspectives on the meeting of the groups. It made the miscommunications and misunderstandings easier for the reader.
Anya came across as a bit naive. I'd have thought that someone in her experience, with her job, would be better attuned to the hidden agendas of Novayarkha. But then, she was placed in that position to some extent because of how she could have the wool pulled over her eyes.
I like the two distinctive voices and they were well-delivered in the audio version. The pacing was mostly fine. Overall rather liked the plot and the tensions between the crews. I suppose I thought that the episode of the exile being the wedge that would drive the two leads apart felt a bit forced (especially for Russians!) but I could get past that.
It seemed forced, and too slow. Reading this was like listening a really long and boring lecture without any break for any other kind of person to speak. Perfect reading for the institutional.
I also liked the roll out of the two factions through the two narrators. The pacing of it was fine for me. Anya felt like someone just going through the motions after some trauma so maybe that had an impact on her not "getting it" right away.
Yes, that's a good point. Her breakdown later in the book was heavily foreshadowed.