In Ascension by Martin MacInnis-A Booker Prize Longlist Review
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- Опубликовано: 13 янв 2025
- 5 Booker books down (not 4 like I say in the video 🙄)!!! I enjoyed this book overall, but I still think I have a lot to unpack with it. I’m curious to know what your thoughts are on this ambitious literary sci-fi novel in the comments.
In general, how is the Booker longlist treating you? Any hits, any misses?
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That was a fantastic synopsis... and I really appreciated and could relate to your reactions, including about not being sure how you felt about it. I also felt the same- although I enjoyed this book, I'm thinking that it was a bit over-hyped? My expectations may have been set too high before I started reading it.
Thank you! I agree about it being a bit over-hyped. I enjoyed my overall reading experience but now that you mention it, I think I went into it expecting something different from what it actually delivered. It still worked for me, but in a different way. Curious to think about how we would have felt if we went into it completely blind!!!
Hi Gretchen. Still waiting on getting this book in the mail. It’s being sent all the way from London. For some reason, it was hard to get. 🌸
Bummer!!!! Hope it gets to you soon!
I really liked this book. I would never have given a second look if it hadn’t been nominated, so I’m glad it was. I don’t think it was great enough to win, but it was still a pretty great book.
I agree! Sci-Fi is not something I typically gravitate toward but I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked it. I would love to find some more literary sci-fi books like it to help me get more into the genre. Thanks for watching!
That was an excellent description of the book. When I finished it, I felt the same as you do now. And since then it has somewhat faded from my memory - whereas with some others, my appreciation has grown over time. At this point, I do not expect it to make my personal short list. It left me feeling a bit cold.
I’m curious to see if the same thing happens to me. I definitely have magpie tendencies and easily get distracted by shiny new books. I’m really looking forward to getting a few more books under my belt so i can start to think about my shortlist predictions. That’s always so much fun!
Thanks for this review 🌸
Thanks for watching!
Great review, I hadn’t really given this book much thought (partly because ‘This Other Eden’ is still my favorite so far), but the way you described how conflicted it left you makes me want to give it a go. Sounds like it’s definitely an experience (potentially good or bad).
An ‘experience’ is a great way to describe it! I’m still simmering on how I feel but I guess any book that can stick with me like this has done something right. 😂
In my opinion, the Booker nomination for this novel is a big misunderstanding. I have read a lot of science fiction, then I moved on to more literary fiction, but I'm still partial to good science fiction. However, this is neither good science fiction nor particularly literary. It's a standard exposition-heavy narrative with very little literary quality, which relies on tropes that are mostly familiar from movies like Interstellar or Contact.
I have heard this a lot from others that have read In Ascension as well. Personally, I have never read Contact or even watched the movie, but what little I do know about it, I can definitely understand why many are finding In Ascension to be derivative and mediocre. One positive that I have taken away from this book is that it has definitely made me want to read more science fiction in the future. If anything, perhaps this book making the list will get more people interested in the genre and inspire us to read the sci-fi pioneers. Do you have any other suggestions for someone new to the genre?