Journey Into Space review

[alobear]

Journey Into Space by Toby Litt is an odd book.  It passes through hundreds of years within the space of 240 pages, telling the story of a generational colony ship and the way its society changes over time, based on the actions and attitudes of its crew.  It is told in a reporting style, with few actual scenes between the characters, very little dialogue, and not much sense of a coherent plotline.  We are told what happens rather than being shown it, and the characters go by so quickly (being replaced by their descendants) that it's hard to get a real sense of any of them as people.  The narrative has some lovely description, and the overall progression is quite interesting in how the society devolves over time, but it's not exactly what I was expecting.