Cuba - Super Extra Grande - Yoss
I love his book. It's funny and witty, and Im absolutely in love with the universe it's set it. With 7 species all discovering FTL travel around the same sort of time and all of them heading out into the milky way to start exploring and colonising. The fact that FTL development was discovered as a breakthrough in isolation goes against what other authors do, where technology in general is hugely advanced at the same time. But what I love about Super Extra Grande is that it mirrors exploration from 300 plus years ago with the French, British, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish all building boats and exploring the world. They had abilities to travel faster than ever before, but communications hadn't developed at the same rate, to cover the new distances they could travel. This premis has really stuck with with me, more so than the other ideas in the book. I love the idea of FTL travel with out FTL communication, and it does occur in other books I've read. But in Super Extra Grande it's just so funny and so many people are just bumbling around the universe blindly.
It's only a fairly short novel, with only one thread, but that makes it a really enjoyable read, nothing heavy, just indulgent fun. I was quite worried about this book, as I'd read a couple of reviews mentioning how masoginistic Yoss is. And was put off early on in the story when one of the female aliens has 6 boobs. And I guess the main female characters are hopelessly in love with the main character, and obviously they have a three way relationship. So maybe the books isn't the best book for promoting strong female characters. But not every book has to do that either. Accept it for what it is, and what it isn't, and go along for the ride.
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