Title: Winter's Orbit
Author: Everina Maxwell
Genre: Sci-fi, Romance
Format/Length: ebook, 384 pagesPublisher: Tor Books, 2021
My Rating: ★★
I picked up this book with little to no expectations. I read the summary and was interested right away. I didn't pay attention to the blurb comparing this book to two others. It wasn't relevant to me at the time since I haven’t read either of those books. The only thing I wanted from this book was enjoyment.
Hundreds of pages later I am sad to say that it did not deliver.
I guess I liked it enough to keep reading. I mean there were so many pages and I held on for so long. But that last 20% was almost painful.
My problem with this book is that it is just so middle of everything. In every respect this story, this entire book never varies. It doesn’t lean one way or the other, it never swerves. It doesn’t rock the boat. It’s just there. It’s just so.
It’s set in space, the world is nothing like our own, which could mean a lot of potential for world building. And while we do get some world building, it’s not really a lot. It’s more of a sprinkling. We are given just enough to understand that this world, this society, is not exactly the Earth we live in now. It seems like the sci fi aspect was used to prop up the arranged marriage trope. This makes sense since we are given just enough to understand why this arranged marriage has to happen.
The romance is okay. Again, we are given just enough to understand why these two people had to get married to one another, and why it had to happen so soon, and what the stakes might be. But again it’s just so okay.
After all those pages, all those words, I cannot understand why I should care whether or not they stay together.
For the treaty, sure. For the sake of diplomacy, okay. Maybe because they’re decent people who kinda sorta like one another, sure.
If the goal of the ending was to demonstrate that the couple chose to give the marriage a chance, see how it goes, date while being legally married as it were, I can see that. An ending like that does seem believable to me because it seems in character for both of them. It’s also hopeful.
But I take issue with the fact that after so many pages, there wasn’t enough to show us why and how these two people became interested in one another. Aside from the fact that they are bound by marriage and they find each other attractive enough to sleep together, I don’t get why I should care about them.
The thing is, there was very little interaction between Kiem and Jainan. If the point was to portray who they are as individuals, okay that was well done. I understand them individually.
But what about as a couple? I don’t get it.
Who are they when they are together?
These are two people in a high profile marriage. I assumed that would mean a lot of meeting and greeting types of things. Public appearances. Ceremonial nonsense that is going to be followed by the press, which means as a couple Kiem and Jainan have to keep up appearances.
There could have been something about gossip rags and then having to do damage control. Again, because this is supposedly a high profile marriage, and one of the pair has a reputation for being something like a party boy, that would make sense for the story. It would create a believable tension, give them a chance to work on something together. And while there was something to that effect; they did make appearances, they did have to be wary of the press, it was still so inconsequential. It didn’t give us more of Kiem and Jainan together. It didn’t give them opportunities to learn more about each other.
It didn’t give us anything fun.
I guess the mystery surrounding the death of Jainan’s previous partner - what he may or may not have been involved in - was something for Kiem and Jainan to work out together. But even then they did little working it out together.
The alternating POVs and Jainan’s personality gave them room to work out the mystery individually and presumably they’ll get together later to share data. But then they get thwarted by something or other so that just becomes another point where they did not communicate.
The best part of this book for me was that in Jaina’s POVs we are given enough foreshadowing to that “twist.” I thought the writing of those small details was successful. In that case, providing just enough detail, and not relying on flashbacks made the reveal later on more impactful.
I don’t like that the whole book felt like a trope bingo card. I don’t mind tropes. I’m not tired of cliches. But with this book I could not overlook that it seemed as if each story component was added just so a trope could be crossed off.
Overall, this whole thing was just a little of everything. A trope here plus a trope there, combined together and arranged just enough to please; probably someone like the publisher. But in doing all that and not more, it falls short of being enjoyable or exciting or invigorating or interesting.
