Stirring the Past Into the Future: The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

My 2023 Hugo reading continues with The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal. What did I think?

I like the concept of this book, which you might call stirring the past into the future: pour a bit of the old Thin Man movies from the 1930's and 40's (married couple travels with their dog, drinking cocktails), but in space with a healthy splash of hard SF engineering--all served in a large glass of murder mystery. 

I was really enjoying it for the first hundred pages or so. I particularly enjoy that each chapter begins with a cocktail recipe (like Frank Herbert's epigraphs, but cocktails!). But then I just kind of ran out of steam. Maybe this book just isn't for me, but I found myself skimming the last half just to see who did it (and you do find out, so it is a classic murder mystery structure).

Also, some aspects of the book that bothered other people started to grate on me, too. The protagonist is a super wealthy inventor who gets out of several situations by almost literally (and maybe actually literally in at least one case) saying, "Do you know who I am?" She is similar to the protagonist of Kowal's first Lady Astronaut novel (which I really loved), although in this book the sexual innuendos are slightly less nerdy.

A deeper reason this didn't click for me is that aside from a few interesting ideas ideas (for example: stating one's preferred pronouns may become obvious in the future) and Kowal's care about the engineering and the cocktails, this future feels a little too familiar. It feels like a fun exercise (and it IS fun!), but I don't really feel like there's much to think about (unlike some Kowal's other work, which I found more philosophically engaging). This book is more what I call Engineers' SF than Big Ideas SF, albeit with the retro-futuristic murder mystery vibe.

So, it's not a bad book. It's fun enough. I'm a bit puzzled this was nominated for a Hugo, but then again, many of this year's nominees are more fun than usual, so maybe it does make sense. Ultimately I think for me this premise would be a good long short story or novella, but a murder mystery in space riffing off 90-year-old films for whatever reason doesn't hold my attention for a whole novel. I do want to try some of those cocktails, though.

See also my Goodreads review.