Mindscape

I recently said in a review that I don't like posting negative reviews. Generally, I'll just skip them because for every book I don't like, there are others out there who do. It is my version of "it's not you, baby; it's me."

For Mindscape I feel compelled to write this negative review, if for no other reason to explore why I abandoned this book at 35%. I am certainly glad that I read Hairston's Redwood and Wildfire, which I adored, before this book because I might not have ever picked it up after this experience.

First of all, let me say people do like it: lots of people on Goodreads, in fact. Also, it has been nominated for and won awards, such as the PKD (nomination), Tiptree (nomination) and the Carl Brandon Parallax (won).

Some of the negative reviewers criticize the language and Hairston's use of Black English Vernacular in the "throwback" character, Lawanda. They say it is hard to read. I didn't mind that at all. In fact, she has some very interesting things to say about language and ethnicity. I underlined many of them. Here are some of Lawanda's best:

"Survival be havin' words to call home, havin' idioms and syntax to heal the Diaspora. In your cultural rhythm and rhyme, that's where the soul keep time" (loc.918).

"Just cuz we choose to reach back thru two hundred years and snatch wisdom offa the tongues of our ancestors, that don't mean we stuck on stupid!" (loc. 964)

"Look, ethnic throwbacks do culture not identity politics. We don't pull stock in color. Race is how the world see you, ethnicity is how you see yourself" (loc. 2127).

If the whole book had been Lawanda, the ambassador, trying to understand the other world of Los Santos, I would have probably liked the book.

But there are three worlds or locations and many characters. First, the three locations are too alien, and Hairston does not give the reader any aid in figuring them out. Because the viewpoints are first person and third limited, there's no consistent narrative voice helping us figure out the cultures. Since Hairston does not provide any explanation for the readers, we are just popping from location to location, lost and confused. Let me say: I don't mind a challenge. I was all ready to work this out; take my clues as they were dished out and figure out something.

But... Hairston gives me no motivation to do so. Along with all of this confusion, none of the point-of-view characters are relatable. Lawanda is the most likeable. Most of them are pretty detestable. No one seems very strong. They are all oppressed by their external problems or their internal demons.

And, nothing much is happening. The plot does not seem to be going forward at all. I think the ending will tell us why some people disappeared 25 years earlier, but I don't care about them or any other of the characters. Their lives and motivations are a mystery to me. Reading became a chore, so I decided I had to stop. This is unfortunate because I wanted to like this book as much as I did Redwood and Wildfire.