Sunshine

#379
Title: Sunshine
Author: Robin McKinley
Year: 2004
Publisher: Jove Books
405 pages

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I loved the story, I loved the progression of events, I loved the world-making. I loved the unseen aspects of this world that the characters referenced matter-of-factly and to which  the reader was not privy. This aspect reminded me of David Brin's Glory Season. Yet at many points, the narrative is so loosely woven that that plot falls right out of it. At the end, I was sure there was a sequel--I couldn't imagine that McKinley's editor would let her leave so many gaping holes. Alas, there is no sequel and none is planned. Threads that could have been looped back in are not, leaving the reader with the impression that McKinley is lazy, a cheater, or both. Characters and relationships that appeared to be important or to have greater significance are discarded, showing that they were just devices to advance the story and that the reader's investment was misplaced. This lack of even tidying up, much less resolving plot tensions, reeks of sloppiness and contempt for the reader, and dissuades me from reading McKinley again. If you choose to read Sunshine, enjoy it for what it is, but don't expect secondary plots to bear fruit, and don't interpret the mystery of it as skill--it's just imagination without adequate craft to make something elegant of the whole. What a shame.