Last But Not Least (But Not Best)

On a couple of occasions, I've written about how each month, Amazon offers a small selection of books free to Kindle users. On one occasion, I found the beginning of a decent trilogy. On another occasion, I found a pulpy-but-fun legal thriller. But I've also wasted my time on a predictable sci-fi novel. And I've mostly struck out again with The Last Dance, by Martin L. Shoemaker.

The Last Dance is a science fiction novel about an investigator sent to assess charges of mutiny aboard a transit ship on a loop between Earth and Mars. Park Yerim has considerable latitude in her investigation, being so far from contact with Earth. But the scope of her task keeps growing and growing, with everyone on the ship having their own strong opinions about the situation she's there to review.

There is a moderately interesting story at the heart of this book. If you like sci-fi, and you've ever gotten swept up in any Law & Order or CSI style "investigation procedural," this book will grab you. But the technique of telling that interesting story was too hit and miss for me.

The book is written in the first person... but the perspective character shifts throughout. Alternating chapters follow Park Yerim on her investigation. The intervening chapters shift focus to the people Yerim interviews, and their flashbacks (often to the quite distant past) mean to shed light on the investigation. Some chapters take mere minutes to read; others take more than an hour. (The longer stretches are actually better for getting into the head of a new character and engaging with their story.) But there are also some weird digressions, including a chapter written like a deposition transcript (that features a character telling a story in an unrealistic manner no one would actually use).

You don't start getting any answers for a long, long time. Shoemaker cheekily hides the nature of the investigation -- what was the mutiny? -- for quite a long time. And while pieces do slowly fall into place, the events you're "here to see" don't actually get revealed until almost three-quarters of the way through the novel.

Even with the strange technique and pacing, I still found myself intermittently drawn into The Last Dance, and I was probably on my way to recommending it... until the ending. Ultimately, the book lays out a Gordian Knot that's meant to be too complicated, too pregnant with consequence, for the main character to unravel. But what do you do with a Gordian Knot? You take out a sword and cut it. Which the main character essentially does, coming up with a solution that's too easy and too fast for all the lengthy preamble before it.

This is one of those stories where the journey is more satisfying (at times, anyway) than the destination. That might be enough for you, if you're looking to try a sci-fi author you probably haven't read before. But for me, I'd only give this book a C+.