I wanted to love this but just couldn't finish it

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thereadingchemist Avatar

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When I first read the synopsis for Vagabonds, I was immediately intrigued and knew that I needed to read this book. That being said, this book was so much of a let down, which is really frustrating.

Coming in at over 600 pages, this book is an absolute behemoth. Don't get me wrong, the prose is beautiful and the author describes scenes in painstaking detail. However, when it comes to sci-fi that takes on civil war between Earth and Mars, I expect epic battles and space exploration. That is NOT this book.

Instead, Vagabonds is a genre-bending novel that is essentially the anthropological study of the philosophy and politics of human civilization as it relates to both Earth and Mars. We see dichotomous civilizations and how the two must maintain the illusion of a utopia due to the fear of one becoming like the other. It is very timely considering our current political environment. While I can appreciate what the author is trying to do, this is not sci-fi exploration that I was hoping for.