Published by Simon & Schuster/Saga Press on October 20, 2020

Machine is a space opera infused with a mystery. The setting — a hospital in space — is fresh, allowing Elizabeth Bear to breathe new life into familiar science fiction themes.

Brookllyn Jens is a human trauma doctor who zips around the galaxy in a super-fast medical vessel that is the spacefaring equivalent of an ambulance or rescue vehicle. One might expect most space accidents to end with a quick death but Jens tells us that she regularly saves lives. Perhaps ships are so rugged that they routinely sustain enough damage to need a tow and a doctor without coming apart. In any event, Jens’ anecdotal tales of lifesaving aren’t so important to the plot that the reader needs to buy into them.

Jens’ rescue vehicle is crewed by two other Terrans, a couple of aliens, and an autonomous Artificial Intelligence named Sally that runs the ship. The galaxy, it turns out, is a crowded place. Humans have taken their place with syster races and AIs in the Synarche. Conflict is largely avoided by “rightminding,” a form of education and brain tinkering that reduces aggression and inclines disparate beings toward cooperation.

A distress signal brings Jens to a generation ship that left Earth a long time ago. Jens finds a ship of methane breathers attached to the generation ship. There are life signs on both ships but no obvious activity. Jens investigates and discovers that the generation ship’s crew members are in cold storage. They are guarded by an AI who has occupied a peripheral in the shape of a female humanoid. The ship is also infested with mechanical blocks that seem to be eating the hull. The methane breathers are sound asleep in their own ship. All of this is ominous but Jens’ duty is to save life when she can so she brings some of the sleeping humans and aliens back to the hospital (Core General, much to the chagrin of the humanoid AI (whose name is Helen Alloy) who isn’t sure the rescuers can be trusted.

The rescue mission is plagued by technical glitches that Sally can’t explain. Back at Core General, even more glitches are occurring, perhaps as the result of sabotage. The hospital administrator, who happens to be a tree, wants Jens to investigate because (a) she has clearance to see medical files and (b) she used to be a cop. Jens discovers a mysterious wing in the hospital that nobody will talk about and wonders whether it is connected to the sabotage.

Getting to the bottom of the mystery is a long but pleasant walk. The reveal is a bit disappointing — it hinges on an overused science fiction theme, the kind that makes readers think “not another one of those stories” — but the mild disappointment is tempered by Bear’s ability to pull the reader into the story. The book is set in Bear’s White Space universe, a fully realized background that is interesting in itself, but the real fun is in Bear’s imaginative look at how a hospital designed as a space station might minister to the needs of various races that require different atmospheres and diets and gravitational settings to survive.

Agency is a popular theme in current science fiction — the notion that individuals have the power to make independent choices (actually, it’s always been a theme, but sf writers have only recently turned to the label “agency” to describe it). Jens felt she had no agency as a child. Her character development, as is customary in science fiction, focuses on her ability to find creative solutions to problems. One of her problems is unexplained pain that has gripped her throughout her life, pain she endures with the help of an exoskeleton that aids her movement. At more than one point in the novel, Jens thinks about surrendering to a pain-free existence, but in the science fiction tradition, sacrifice is the definition of heroism.

Bear’s aliens are assembled with the kind of convincing detail that makes it easy to suspend disbelief in their existence. Their conflicts, rightminding notwithstanding, add to the story’s interest. A number of action scenes contribute excitement to the story, but Machine doesn’t rely on the conventions of shoot-em-up science fiction. The story might have been a bit tighter — Jens’ struggles after the reveal go on a bit too long — but that’s a small complaint about a book that gives us another of Bear’s smart takes on the subgenre of space opera.

RECOMMENDED

This book ended up not really being my cup of tea. No offense to the author but I had a hard time making myself plod through it. The pacing seemed slow and it was overly wordy. It was a really a disappointing read. The premise was interesting and I really wanted to like it. You have your main character Dr. Llyn Jens starting the novel on a rescue mission on an old ship, Big Rock Candy Mountain, that has sent out a distress signal. They find a dead captain and the crew in crappy cryo containers. Things are moved to the space hospital where as the crew of the Big Rock Candy Mountain are "thawed" an infectious code spreads, shuts things down and infects others. Llyn attempts to figure out who is causing problems at the hospital. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book that I received from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Sci-fi, space and a mystery is pretty much guaranteed to pique my interest and that’s what this book did. Though it is a second in the series I managed to get through it without reading the first which I will go back and do at some point. It was my first read from the author and won’t be my last. I love a good and interesting story with well developed characters.

I received this book for free in exchange for a review from NetGalley.

I really wanted to like this book. From the start the right elements were there, a funny but dependable main character, great supporting characters and great world building.

I felt the majority of the first half of the book was good, but there was too much info dumping and tangents (where the main character just starts talking about random topics) which interrupted the flow and pace of the plot.

At first, it helped me understand the setting and main character more, but at some point it just got so repetitive and irksome that I just ended up skipping it.

Then the mystery began and the main character started investigating it, but the way she went around it just plucked my nerves. It seemed like the main character wasn’t focused or even trying to crack the mystery but more focused on her space crew. It was super frustrating since I wanted more mystery solving and less moaning and groaning from the main character.

Additionally, this is the last thing that did me in, the more I learned about the main character, the more I disliked her. The way she interacted with the other crew that wasn’t “right-minded” really turned me off. She acted so high and mighty and so much superior just because of that. The more she looked down her nose at the other characters, the more I didn’t care what happened to her. I wanted to be on her side (and there should have been some fascinating discussions about this right minding process that didn’t happen enough in my opinion) but it just didn’t get better the more I trudged through.

Overall, I would still recommend this book to people who like more of the space opera side of this book and less of the mystery. I would still give this author a chance, but on another book outside of this series.

Machine (White Space, #2)
by Elizabeth Bear
I marveled at the expanse of the story, the expanse of detail, that Elizabeth Bear has placed in the book. What a great space adventure. She writes very open stories, that allow differences of aliens to show how people should respect others. Her love of machines and technology is evident. She is respectful of AI in a way few writers outside of Anne McCaffery has not at present written. Her love of adventure is evidence.

MACHINE is another engaging and entertaining space opera book from acclaimed author Elizabeth Bear. Set in the same fictional universe as her popular "White Space" series, this novel focuses on the adventures of Dr. Llyn Jens, a medical rescue specialist for the Synarche. The Synarche is a conglomeration of a vast array of sentient species that live and work together in a post-scarcity society thousands of years in the future.

Dr. Jens is part of a crew who goes out to intercept and render aid to space vessels in distress. But this story begins with a huge generation ship that is apparently operating on auto pilot and is also perhaps a few thousand years old. Once Jens and her crew get onboard, they begin to discover some unusual and distressing things about this ship and its crew in stasis --- not the least of which is a simple android tasked with caring for her sleeping crew, but she is also connected with a unknown and mysterious machine.

Once this android and its machine, along with the surviving crew is returned to the huge space station/city which serves as the main hospital for that section of the galaxy, then an escalating series of glitches and accidents begin to threaten all of the inhabitants of the station. Jens is tasked to work with various of her alien friends to try to halt the computer virus that spells disaster for the station and everyone aboard, along with battling the mysterious machine which has also gone berserk.

Bear is most adept at creating characters and dialogue who are humorous and strangely familiar in some ways to the readers' everyday experience --- even the aliens that are 10 feet tall and more like giant praying mantises than humans. A most thrilling and enjoyable read, and highly recommended!

Doctor Jens is a search and rescue (in space) doctor. Aided by tech, a sentient ship, and a small crew, her group answers distress calls. I liked the world (universe?) in this book - the aliens were very alien - from tiny insectoid creatures, nitrogen breathers, etc. I also liked how people are assisted by sentient AI. However, things start to go wrong after a rescue on a very old ship. Many ships are sent to help with the best of intentions, but things start to go wrong.

I haven't read the first book in this series (yet) but I think other than brief mentions, this story is completely different characters. I know it can be read as a stand alone without any problems.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy. I enjoyed it!

Buckle up, Space Cowgirls and Cowboys! Elizabeth Bear's newest galaxy-centric sci-fi fantasy is a nicely rendered, big issue packed, rollicking good ride! Filled with lots of technologically deep descriptions, as well as interesting Terran (and non-Terran) characters, this novel takes the reader into deep space while challenging them to consider BIG life questions and to think in equally BIG ways!

It took me a few chapters to get into "Machine" and to settle into Elizabeth Bear's writing rhythm, but once I did the author took me into a world distanced by both time and space from 2020...but surprisingly told a seriously thought-provoking story with lots of relevance to issues currently in the forefront of today's new!

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the author for allowing me to read an advanced digital copy of this second installment in the White Space series in exchange for a fair a d honest review.

#NetGalley
#Machine

Published on Tales to Tide You Over

When I chose this book, I only expected a fast-paced story with death-defying feats out in the vastness of the universe. A wild adventure filled with paramedics in space, dangerous artificial intelligences, and mysteries to solve.

Machine offers all that and more. It is a mix of space opera’s desperate rescues in near impossible situations and a philosophical examination of human and other cultures in the past and story present. This gives it both elements of Stardoc by S. L. Viehl and the culture clash found in City of Pearl by Karen Traviss. It’s not a quick read, but I had a lot of fun absorbing the story.

The world building unfolds through interactions between the characters and some flashbacks as well as in explaining the rules to the generation ship humans who left before humanity learned to clean up after itself. The multi-species civilization humans joined while the generation ship slowly moved out among the stars is founded on altruism rather than individualism. The definitions of personhood and value have also shifted in radical ways, especially considering the ship left before first contact.

You might imagine this results in several tense conversations, and there are more levels I will not mention, except to add it’s not a one-sided conversation. The world is complex and fascinating enough to make me want to check out the series it springs from, White Space. I don’t know whether this novel is intended to a standalone companion story with a favorite character for existing fans, a way to introduce new readers to the series, or a little of both, but I enjoyed what I saw. More than just that, though, it left me pondering questions the book raised.

Don’t think it’s all rumination, though. In fact, the characters rarely have time to contemplate everything going on around them. There’s the defrosting humans well past their time, AIs that aren’t as flawless as believed, giant bug monsters who are merely another sapient species, and interdepartmental politics, which only scratches the surface of what you’ll see.

The philosophy comes up within context and supports the growth of the characters rather than slowing the story. The same is true for character backstory and the universe they’re in. The information comes in dribbles at the right time rather than hard to swallow chunks, the sign of a good sociological science fiction work.

If you read yesterday’s post, you already know Dr. Brookllyn Jens, the protagonist, suffers from chronic pain. She uses a non-sapient exoskeleton along with medication to manage her symptoms, but that’s far from a cure or even total relief. She must work through her limitations and rise above the pain. Her portrayal matches my experience while her sophisticated support system enables her to contribute despite her condition.

Llyn is only one of a large, diverse cast, including the ambulance crew, some from the generation ship, and others back at Core General, the hospital. They each have recognizable characteristics having to do with their jobs, species, or attitudes such that I had no trouble keeping them apart whether human people or not, and whether organic or programmed.

Part of tracking the characters, though, comes from a well-seeded plot. I could see how some mysteries were unfolding before the characters did, but there was enough complexity to surprise me with a couple of reveals. What they uncover impacts the characters, especially Llyn, who has to re-examine the assumptions she’s worked under and decide how to react to the new discoveries. This is not a simple whodunit, but instead a nuanced situation where the clear path isn’t clear at all.

The clash between old and modern humans is a perfect example of this nuance. The differences are tackled head on, but in such a way to reveal Llyn’s biases even as she tries to prepare the rescued AI and its crew for current beliefs. While their modern civilization is advanced in many important elements, it’s the flaws that make for a deep description instead of a one-note ideal. Llyn does not always speak from a position of strength, even when she thinks she does.

The relationship between machine sapience and biological sapience is fascinating, especially in regard to treatment. The wounds might be different, but Core General does not distinguish between life began in primordial soup and that sprung from lines of code any more than it discriminates between crystalline methane breathers and organic oxygen breathers.

Ultimately, the story is about space paramedics who uncover mysteries where they expected a routine, if dangerous, search and rescue. The book stays true to this story even with all the soul searching and philosophies both personal and systemic. There’s a lot more meat on these bones than I’d expected, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I signed on for an adventure, and that’s what I got on more levels than expected.

P.S. I received this Advanced Readers’ Copy from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in response for an honest review.

I really liked most of this book. The mystery was good. The world building was great, I loved the details and I was able to immerse myself into it fairly easily. However, the characters drove me crazy at times. The MC, Dr. Jen, I found annoying once we hit the halfway point. I wanted to sympathize with her, but about halfway through, I found her to get more whiny and less rational.

I wish I would have read her other series that was set in this world. I don't know if I would have understood certain things better, or if they aren't related at all, but at points I was confused. This has nothing to do with the writing and more to do with me and how I interpreted the story. One thing that was constantly getting on my nerves was the use of language in this world .It seemed like diar and ans (the words for day and year) were the only two words that had evolved from present day. There didn't seem to be any new slang or colloquialisms that had come from 600 ans in the future.

I probably would have rated this four stars if it weren't for the ending that seemed to both come too soon and be drawn out. There wasn't really a moment where I found myself surprised. It just seemed a bit anticlimactic to me. Overall, I liked the world but the rest didn't seem particularly unique.

Second novel in the White Space universe, Machine follows Dr. Llyn Jens, a doctor at a major medical base called Core General. Llyn (short for Brookllyn, a name gifted her by her old-fashioned parents) is a human syster (species) is descended from Terrans who survived what short-sighted humans had done to the earth. She lives with chronic pain, managed by her medical exo suit, which also lets her work in differing conditions. As Machine opens, Llyn and her colleague Tsosie are on a rescue mission to answer a distress signal from an aged Terran ox ship Big Rock Candy Mountain when they receive a distress signal from a methane breather ship I Bring Tidings from Afar. With pressure on to investigate Big Rock Llyn and her co-worker find something of a mystery- a long-dead captain, a huge crew in poorly designed cryo containers, and an archaic AI named Helen who is in a corporeal form. By the time they investigate Afar they find its shipmind is basically comatose and seems like it may have been infected by rogue code. The fact that it's been sending out "rescue me" packets is worrisome, as they, too, might be able to spread the virus. Things get weirder when back at Core Gen. It turns out one of the cryo containers is different from the others they have rescued. It looks more modern and the person it holds is, in some ways, far less damaged than the other Terrans. Upon waking the person up, Calliope Jones is identified as a Specialist First Rank. But medical scans reveal some rather interesting things about Calliope. This, along with a mysterious wing at Core Gen that Llyn has begun to question, sets Llyn on a collision course with a dark secret in the White Space world.

I really loved the first book in this series and enjoyed this book as well, though I found the pacing to be a bit slow at times. The mystery in this novel felt far less personal than did what had happened to Haimey Dz. Here things are broader in scope and deal with social injustices and inequity in healthcare that evidently still plague the world even in the far-flung future. Nevertheless, I really enjoy this series, and its skillfully built AIs and their personhood. Llyn is a fascinating character, a doctor who specializes in trauma but has handled her own by compartmentalizing and dissociation. (There is a classic "physician, heal thyself" scenario here...) Cheeirilaq, a character I enjoyed so much in Ancestral Night, was a prominent character here. (We also get to see more of Singer!) Helen, the archaic AI who is allowed to bring herself up to a new speed, was also a marvelous evolution. I'm fascinated by the species complexity and "bigness," for wont of a better word, of Bear's universe. I hope there will be more in the series?

And now for the audiobook. Sigh. The first novel in the series, Ancestral Night was marvelously read by Nneka Okoye, who conveyed Haimey Dz's confused memories and made me love Cheeirilaq's stridulations. While it's hardly surprising that we have a different narrator for a different protagonist, it is very clear that Adjoa Andoh did not listen to the first book and did not, therefore, absorb the established character name pronunciations, like that of Cheeirilaq. Further on the topic of pronunciation, there is also the pronunciation of the name Calliope, long-established anywhere that I have looked, as Ca-LYE-o-pee, and not Callie-ope. That might be a minor annoyance for a minor character but given Calliope's ultimate importance in this novel, the continual mispronunciation of a classical Greek name was more than a bit annoying- it was jarring. It's rare that I take issue with audiobook narration, but pronunciation, especially in series, is part of listening continuity. If there are further books in this series and we see Llyn, Helen, and Calliope, are we stuck with Callie-ope forever? *shivers* And how does no one in sound production and editing question pronunciation of classical names? Disappointing, I have to say.

I received a digital review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

I really enjoyed the first companion book in this series, ancestral night, and was looking forward to reading this.  This book is set in the same universe as the previous novel but follows a different character.  Dr. Jens works for an intergalactic hospital as a search and rescue specialist.  Her life turns upside down when a ship with a distress call turns out to be an ancient generation ship from Earth where all the crew has been cryogenically frozen and an insane shipmind is in charge.

The positives of this book is that I loved the beginning and the setting.  I loved the idea of the space hospital and how it functioned.  I loved all the different species working together to save each other.  I thought the rescue missions were an interesting concept.  Dr. Jens was an overall cool character who happens to be in chronic pain.

Sadly, this book just didn't completely work for me.  While I liked Dr. Jens, she spent too much of the book blaming herself for things out of her control.  The elements I liked (frozen people, ship sabotage, Helen) turned out to not be the focus.  The "conspiracy subplot" for me turned out to be a) lackluster and b) very predictable.  I wanted more about the unfrozen people and Helen adjusting to the change of waking up far in the future.  I wanted more search and rescue missions.  And the ending and resolution was lame.  I wanted answers and focus on other things.

Cool elements and ideas but ultimately rather disappointed me.

So lastly . . .

Thank you Saga Press!

An ambulance from Core General is sent out to answer a distress signal. The distraction signal comes from a vessel that is docked on a lost generation ship. Centuries ago, the lost generation ship was sent out. This happened before humans had self control over their self-destruction impulses. Now humans have joined a multi-race, interstellar civilization called the Synarche. Dr. Brooklyn Jens finds the crew on the lost generation ship to be in cryogenic containers with Helen, a conscious android. Why? The docked ship crew are all comatose. What caused the comas? Then Jens is deputized and given the assignment to investigate the sabotage incidents at Core General. The incidents are destructive. Will Jens be able to find out why?

A space opera with action and surprising science that had me completely engrossed in the book. The mysteries are well written. While this is the second book of this series, I had no problem reading it as a stand alone. I must admit that I will go b going back to read the first book due to my own curiosity. This is definitely a must read for science fiction fans.

Doctor Brookllyn Jens loves her job. She’s a rescue worker who, like a daredevil, leaps through empty space from one ship to another to save people in need of rescue from the endless dangers of interstellar travel. Jens loves her job. It gives her a foundation to fall back on and something to believe in. But when Jens arrives at an ancient generation ship stranded far from where it should be and finds a much newer ship trapped along with it, she unwittingly unleashes a mystery that could affect everything she knows about her world and shake her faith in it to the core.

In her first White Space novel, Ancestral Night, Hugo Award-winning author Elizabeth Bear introduced readers to a universe in which faster-than-light travel is possible (by bending the laws of physics), and humanity lives side-by-side with many alien races, most of which differ significantly in form and culture from humans. Another element of the White Space universe is the fact of rightminding, in which people of all kinds voluntarily have a neural chip implanted to give them conscious control over their body’s hormones, and thus over their emotional responses. Don’t have time to panic in an emergency? No problem. Rightminding will let you overcome that panic in an instant.

It’s one solution to a host of problems, and it helps the denizens of the Synarche to work together for the benefit of all. But while it allows people like Jens, who suffers from chronic pain, to function for the greater good, rightminding creates its own problems, too. The first? What happens when someone is so ethical that the betterment of the majority comes at the expense of a minority? When resources are limited and citizens are expected to engage in government service to ‘earn their keep’, what happens when there are those who work their way through the loopholes in the system and end up legally harming others? And what happens in a universe where AI units, who have full citizenship, are faced with ethical conundrums that could destroy them no matter what they choose?

These sorts of quandaries fill the chapters of Machine without becoming dreary or preachy. Bear’s writing displays a quick sense of humor that draws the reader into the story and never talks down to them, even when she is explaining things like the effects of time dilation on a generation ship traveling at near-light speeds. Good science fiction does not require that the reader have a degree in the sciences, and Bear writes good science fiction. She even makes the idea of methane-based lifeforms sound perfectly plausible and logical.

But there are problems, too, and most of the have to do with rightminding, whose effects come into play when it comes to the book’s pacing and tension. Dr. Jens is a doctor surrounded by doctors and law enforcement officers who are doing their best to be Good and to help everyone, and part of that help is to remind people to take care of themselves. Which is no bad thing, unless you’re the character of a book where the tension is starting to build and intensify– right up to the moment when a helpful AI reminds you that it’s been a long time since you slept, and wouldn’t it be a good idea for you to go to bed? This is helpful when the characters need to maintain a clear head, but it brings the story to a halt while Jens trudges off to her room to get some sleep.

Another effect of rightminding on the story itself deals with the characters’ emotions which, thanks to their implants, are often deadened so they can deal with stressful situations without having to deal with adrenaline or pain. For Jens and the others, it’s a logical thing to do, and when presented through her eyes (and through that of the narrator of Ancestral Night), being able to artificially control their emotions is a blessing. But it effectively deadens their voices in many key points. Their hearts don’t race with fear, they aren’t ecstatic about a discovery, they don’t flirt with someone they find attractive. Rightminding might help Jens and the others get through tense situations, but it leaves them floundering when the bottom drops out from under them and all the rightminding in the universe can’t help them figure out what to do when they’ve lost faith in everything.

For all its ray guns, space battles, and bug-eyed aliens, science fiction has always been about people and the choices they make in extreme situations, and Machine, in spite of a few flaws, is first-rate science fiction. It tells a gripping story that’s hard to put down, and all the while it asks questions about who we are as humans and what we could become if we all worked together to overcome our greatest challenges. But it doesn’t forget that people are complicated beings, and even in the midst of a bright future, nothing is quite as shiny as it seems to be.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery/Saga Press for providing me with a free ebook in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion in any way.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review </I>.

So no one will ever be able to accuse me of not being completely honest, even with books I got for free to review after this. I feel bad because this is an ARC and so with those I really want to be able to give good to glowing reviews. I do hope the author never sees this review.

But this book is frankly unreadable and I, unfortunately, hated it almost from page one. All of my issues were with the writing itself, which I am really surprised by give that Bear is an award winning author.

First, I'm don't know why Bear chose to keep the language used in this book <I>exactly</I> the same as it is spoken today - right down to the idioms being used - EXCEPT for two words: day and year are now diar and ans. She makes it a big point that the characters would not be able to understand any people they found on this very old ship because the language has changed so much. However, for the reader the only change is those two incredibly distracting fake words that keep popping up.

Second, the book is endlessly repetitive. It is filled with lines like introducing the whole crew of six people and then a few pages later "There were just six of us - [lists 6 names]. The whole crew. Plus..." Why not only say there are only those people twice and then add a plus on to it and then list others who were also there? "Camphvis responded with the bubbling sound that her species used to indicate derisive laughter - which the senso translated into derisive laughter." There were also repeated scenes like the MC eating breakfast, going afterwards to talk to someone in another room, an then saying "I went to get [x] for breakfast," like she did not just have breakfast twenty minutes ago.

The third & forth points I'm going to write about together because they go hand in hand: world building via info dumps and poor pacing. The main character cannot get through an action as simple as walking from point A of a hallway to point B without info dumping on the reader. For every item of action that happens there is a two+ paragraph of lecture about whatever tangent the MC has been set off on by the action. To give you an idea, its like this: "The MC walked over to the table. This table was made of gloorp wood. [2 paragraphs about the woods on a plant she once wanted to visit, that isn't even where the wood was from." These constant interruptions to the story (the bones of which are intriguing and interesting) created an overall pace that felt like nothing was happening. At only the 10% mark I deeply wanted the main character to stop talking at me.

Each of these points may seem like minor nitpicks in and of themselves, but together they create a work that is hard pressed to present a single line that doesn't contain some kind of issue. All of this led me to the decision of not finishing the book. I got more than pages in, but I could no longer take it. I know some people will say, "well how can you review it then if you don't know the full story?" And I'll tell you how: all of these problems created a reading environment where I no longer cared about what happened in the story or to anyone involved. You can write the most brilliant story in the history of words and it still won't mean anything to the reader who simply does. not. care.

I wasn't really sure what to expect with this book and I'm honestly still not entirely sure what I got myself into, but I definitely enjoyed it. Before I get to the good stuff, I have one criticism - the pacing felt off. There were some lulls and then moments of frantic progress that I just wasn't sold on. Other than that, the book was fascinating. I hadn't read any of Bear's other work and want to say that this book stands alone perfectly well. There's plenty of world building to really make you feel like you're in this future civilization. I found the hospital setting (which is a chunk of the book) fascinating and really enjoyed all the different aliens/their physiologies. The methane species in particular were SO COOL and remarkably well conceived. This book had a number of different genres fused together, which worked for the most part. This is perfect for fans of thoughtful scifi that packs an adventure punch.

i thought this was a great sequel, i enjoyed Ms. Bear's writing and the way they created their characters. I look forward to more from this series.

This is a standalone novel, the second set in the "White Space" universe of Bear's Ancestral Nights. There are some recurring characters, but no spoilers.

Dr. Brookllyn Jens is a rescue specialist on SPV I Race to Save the Living, better known by the shipmind's name, Sally. They operate out of Core General, a large, multispecies hospital, and have been dispatched to a site from which a distress signal has been received.

They arrive to find two ships, a centuries-old generation ship, and a current high-speed packet ship, SPV I Bring Tidings From Afar, shipmind name Afar, crewed by methane breathers. The generation ship, Big Rock Candy Mountain, is from Terra, and traveling at relativistic speeds really shouldn't have been able to get this far in the time since it left. Yet here it is. Nor should the packet ship have had any reason to dock with it--and yet here it is.

No one on either ship is responding to hails.

Jens and trauma specialist Paul Tsosie go aboard Big Rock Candy Mountain, and find silence, tinker toy-like bots, a golden-skinned fembot who says her name is Helen Alloy and who appears to be what's left of the shipmind, one dead captain, and the rest of the crew in cryo units.

On I Bring Tidings From Afar, they find the shipmind and his crew alive but, with the resources they have available, unreachable.

Something is very wrong here, and Jens, determined to rescue people and also having had a previous career as a cop, is determined to find out what.

Unfortumately, digging into that leads to alarming discoveries on Sally, and at Core General. Strange incidents of sabotage, a private ward which is apparently giving care not available to most of the Synarche's citizens, and strange malfunctions in the AI doctors and Core General's wheelmind, keep making the situation stranger and more dangerous. And why does there seem to be a connection between Big Rock Candy Mountain, and events on Core General? It makes no sense. It should be impossible.

And as the cryonics specialists (mostly of nonhuman species) start reviving some of the cryonically frozen crew of the generation ship, getting them acclimated also adds to the too many tasks Lyn Jens is trying to accomplish.

As she starts to discover what's at the root of the cascading emergencies, Jens starts to question her dedication to Core General, and her trust and confidence in her friends and colleagues.

It's a good mystery, and a good set of characters, in a setting reminiscent of but different from James White's much-loved Sector General stories.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley from the publisher via NetGalley, and am reviewing it voluntarily.

Part 2 in the White Space series. Takes place in the same universe as Ancestral Night, but not a direct sequel - a few of the characters from the first book appear briefly. An intriguing premise - a deep space medical rescue team answers a distress call to find an unusual alien vessel in stasis locked silently with a truly ancient - archaeologically ancient - vessel with no explanation for the situation. The story and mystery flow from one ship to the other and then far distant to a massive intergalactic medical facility. Along the way is an exploration of a good bit of philosophy in with the science and technology, unfortunately a little too much of all three at times as so much had to be talked about or explained or thought in Llyn's head and caused the story to drag. But there's lots of action in later chapters, so hang in there. And all will be explained, and if you're like me, you'll never see it coming. Very twisty narrative, so enjoy the ride.

Dr. Jens is a space rescue Doctor. A paramedic of the galactic if you will. She and her team who have an "ambulance" ship that's an AI called Sally get called to the sight of an extremely strange rescue where one ship has entwined with an exceedingly old vessel (one of the first human ventures into space apparently) both ships are now silent. An upon boarding Jens and her partner discover a strange machine seems to have infected them both.
So naturally they take the frozen survivors, the ship AI Helen and bits of the machine back to the extremely impressive space hospital and really that was a cool part of the story. Seeing how a hospital mission would work in space and support life and life-giving efforts for all these different forms of life.
The way the AI's were done were really cool too. They are accepted as life forms of their own even if there's a sense of ownership about them and some are deeply embedded in the hospitals life.
So with all the good where did the book let me down?
Jens is kind of a bore. Especially because I think there were several different characters you could have made the main better that would have tied better into the mystery as well because it just hangs out there until halfway through the book. Which made the end very action packed and fast and the conclusion was interesting I just felt like it needed better pacing because at that point there was little time to breath or take in some of the implications of what was happening.
So yeah, Machine was an interesting read for its sci-fi ideas... Which makes it hurt all the more it felt so flat.