#RRSciFiMonth: The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Random House (January 2015)
Author Info: merumsal.wordpress.com
Wendy’s Rating: 2 of 5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
My love for the previous book, The Best of All Possible Worlds, prompted me to pick this up the moment I could. I enjoyed the up close and personal feel the book gave me, while it quietly detailed the struggles of a few survivors of a horrific planetary genocide.
Now, the Sadiri people have settled in and a lot of politics come into play. A lot of politics that made this book a significant struggle for me. The machinations seem to be leading somewhere interesting, but never quite solidify into anything that I could aptly describe.
The story is meant to centre on Rafi, the nephew of Grace Delarua whose father used his psychic abilities to abuse his wife. With his father locked away, the government now wants to monitor Rafi closely to ensure he does not use his own abilities for evil as well. Again, a lot of potential with this story, especially as he seemingly becomes wrapped up in the political aspects (sort of), travels to new worlds, and meets new people.
Along the way, Rafi plays a gravity-defying game called Wall Running that is a bit reminiscent of Ender’s Game. With all the politics and uprisings and, well, the title of the book, I thought the game would play a bigger part. I also hoped to see and understand a lot more about the mind ships that were vaguely introduced in the previous book. But all of these ideas, while fascinating–as is the world building–just never quite pay off. Where I was so firmly connected with Delarua and Dllenahkh, I felt nothing for Rafi and his friends. It certainly didn’t help that the story jumped from point of view to point of view. One particular character gets a first person point of view that ought to have been significant, save for the fact that I could not figure out which character it was until well into the book.
I do appreciate Lord’s prose and attention to detail, but I couldn’t handle the meandering nature of this story.
The BiblioSanctum 
I’m sorry it was a little more difficult for you. You know I’m mixed with Sci-fi even if some are a good surprised in the end, so not sure about this one.
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OK, I’m sorry this didn’t work for you. 😦 It’s always disappointing when a book doesn’t live up to expectations, but even more so if you really enjoyed the predecessor.
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Sounds like this has all of the ingredients of a good book. It’s a shame that it wasn’t, but I understand what you mean. Sometimes I just can’t feel anything for the characters.
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Aaaah, yeees exactly. I just finished reading and writing about this, so I went out into the world to see if other people felt similarly. And you certainly did. I made the Ender’s comparison as well, and kept thinking the Wall game was going to be more important. I kept thinking a lot of things were going to be more important, but as you put it, they just never paid off. So many cool ideas, but I could have used a different packaging, and I really really needed some help keeping track of all the politics. I haven’t read Best of All Possible Worlds, however. Did reading that help clarify anything?
(Oh and in case you’re interested, my writings on the book are here: http://www.bookpunks.com/galaxy-game-karen-lord/)
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As you said in your review, this story was so very unfocused. And there were far too many characters. The endearing characters that I fell in love with in Best was sorely missing here.
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