Review: Fault Tolerance

Fault Tolerance by Valerie Valdes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Part of this style of humour is generated from the absurd asides and random twists and I think it was done ok here but it's not that easy to pull off well and I think the series came with some awkward moments; sometimes it's a fine line between silly and stupid.

"I hate tech that’s indistinguishable from magic, she thought, pursing her lips like she’d sucked on a naranja agria."

However, I think Valdes' writing really excelled at emotional awareness, down to the micro details. I was regularly impressed by the use of subtle gestures and multi-layered emotional expression.

"The fish tank whirred, releasing a burst of bubbles like an underwater fart. Eva’s brain did the same, more or less."

The adventure ends with a big old "kum ba jah" moment that wraps up the series neatly and then briefly discusses what each of the individual characters think about the future.

Apart from a noticeable growth arc for the protagonist, each story is more or less the same adventure, so even though my typical preference is to binge-read through a series all in one go, for these books I'd actually recommend reading them one at a time as the mood for a comedic, soft scifi arises.

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