once again, all the data tells me i should’ve loved this. it’s about space, an all-consuming obsession presented as a moby dick retelling, a ragtag crew, and self-aware humor. i’m not sure why i stuck with this, perhaps i have a bit of the stubbornness of ahab in me. i think i landed on the prose being the cause of death. for 450 pages, it was a bit too much “[record scratch] yup, that's me. you're probably wondering how i got here”. i normally like that as a whole but it was an entire book of rambling thoughts, timeline whiplash without enough grounding, and peppering in of “i’m not gonna get technical but i’m gonna get technical. feel free to skip this part”. another huge problem with this for me was the absolutely constant sexual content; it was nonstop and incredibly gratuitous. it was like that one kid in school who figured out that dick jokes were funny and they beat it to death (no pun intended). with few exceptions, it didn’t add to the story and got absolutely exhausting halfway through. i never ever want to hear a sperm joke again, it was textbook dog with a bone (AGAIN NO PUN INTENDED. this is what happens after reading 450 pages of jokes like this. sigh).

in fairness, i have to give attention to a few profound emotional sections, the commentary on religion/faith in the context of space and monster hunting, marsh’s whole character evolution (greatly entertaining), and a good portrayal of A (who is carmen sandiego in my mind). but, much like the book’s use of the “needle in a haystack” analogy, coming across a strong section was… well… just that. and the ending was very abrupt for that much buildup; i’m not necessarily looking for more action, but more of how the characters dealt with the situation and the MC’s thoughts after the fact. it’s a shame because hall is objectively a good author and i do think the respective sections (comedy, heavier stuff, action, 4th wall breaks, etc) are written well. for me, i think it would’ve benefitted from being cut down by at least a third, tightened up a bit, had more variety in the humor content, and focused more on the characters themselves (taking sex out of it). I’s admiration with A’s motivations and characteristics were great, more of that would’ve been excellent.