Not as good as The Martian. Also wildly different in just about every way possible. I mean, the details anyway. Seemed a lot shorter than it actually was. Part of that was I finished it off in a single sitting. Mostly it was just a contrast between The Martian taking place over weeks and months. While this story takes place over three days. Maybe four? It didn’t seem stretched out or anything. Just whenever I glanced at where I was in the book (thickness of pages before and after the page I was on) and went over the story so far, it just seemed to not match up. So… Good writing I guess? If I only think a few things happened but got two-thirds of the way through a novel and didn’t notice that means I enjoyed what I read.
My major complaint is that the main character is a personality type I really, really don’t like. Written well, but that just means that it was a very effective characterization I don’t like. A minor complaint is that I never really got a feel for how many people actually lived in the city on the moon. The characters sometimes act like it’s just a small town, but a lot of the background details and ways the place is described seems to indicate what I felt was a fairly large population. Hundreds at least. In a semi-related
The story description oversells things a bit, but not in a bad way? There is plenty of tension at various points in the story but I never really got a feeling of action or excitement. His writing style just doesn’t really do quick and energetic flow. Even the bits that were supposed to be split-second actions never really felt that way. At no point did I ever completely lose myself in the narrative to the point of deep immersion. Though I’m a bit odd for that, I’m sure other people have managed it.
So, to sum up: Good story. I kind of hated the main character. Enjoyed reading it but it isn’t going to be a read again for me.
The City of Doors 