The events narrated in this book are tied by a Cord, the one that binds the earth to a space station in geostationary orbit. Along this Cord goes back and forth a space lift, carrying people, ideas, ways of life, war and peace. Many of the ideas in the book are excellent, and some parts of the narrative really enjoyable, like, for instance, the revolt of the inhabitants of the space station against the Marsites who have occupied it, reducing them to a kind of slaves. Others present interesting ideas and characters, but their inclusion in the Cord story seems a bit specious. The chosen narrative form then, which sees what are basically short stories tied together by tenuous threads trying to turn into a novel precisely because of the Cord, is unnerving. Too bad.

This title was a bit of a stretch for me to pick up, and the opening chapters set it up as more of a traditional science fiction novel. But as the novel progresses (or regresses) the story expands. The unique chronological structure drew me in, though there was so much more I would have liked to know. I would recommend for fans of Blake Crouch.

Like a novel where there are several points of view and several time periods? Well if you do, you will enjoy The Cord by Jim O’Loughlin. This science fiction novel is written like an historical fiction novel in reverse with each time period having only a couple of points of view. The story starts in the far future and then goes back in time, as if we were looking for clues telling us how we got to that point. The novel begins by showing how the Earth has created a space station attached to it via a cord, and travelers go up and down the cord for vacation or for full time living. In fact, the main protagonists are the Earth’s solutions to climate change via this station and we follow over arching situations rather than people. These innovations are quite interesting and keep us guessing. I also love the technology changes through time, blended into the narrative. This novel is not an action packed space opera for sure, but the world is easy to fall into with each added part. I believe that this novel would be an excellent candidate for taking each individual or time frame and doing a sequel. The main book can be used as a skeleton, and individuals/time frames can be expanded to be more books in a series. I wanted more from each small story included before it ended and went into the next. However I enjoyed this different way of storytelling. Thank you to NetGalley for a free ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Earth is connected to a space station by an elevator in this Sci Fi fantasy, The Cord by Jim O'Loughlin. The story is recounted from three different perspectives including a robot repairman, a teenaged girl and tour guide. It is told in reverse time and includes the discovery of a conspiracy and possible revolution. Whilst a most intriguing premise, the narrative unfortunately fails to engross or captivate the reader. Overall, a disappointing science fiction tale that warrants only a two star rating. With thanks to BHC Press and the author, for an uncorrected advanced reader copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given.

This is a decent sci-fi novel, essentially made up of three separate stories that kind of link together. The idea of a space station linked to Earth by a 'Cord' is quite clever, and the book actually has several clever and original ideas. However, for me it didn't fit together as well as I had hoped, but it is certainly worth a read, especially for fans of the sci-fi genre. 3.5 stars

This book revolves around a space station tied to Earth by a giant cord. So far, so good. What we've got here a individual stories that form a whole, not a novel in the conventional sense. What intrigued me was the 'gimmick' of the narrative: the story is told from the present to the past, not the (usual) other way round. Sadly, I couldn't identify with any of the characters and the short story-ish way the book's written made it hard to shape them into three-dimensional beings. But in the end, I had a good time reading The Cord--it was an interesting experience and I'm on the lookout for new releases by the author!

I enjoy each of the individual stories, but the way they were told threw me off a little. I liked the fact that the Cord ended up being for everyone and that most people got along. The journey that began the journey to the making of the Cord was full of struggle and dangers, because like all life not everyone in the story want the Cord to be about everyone, but because many people sacrifice, the dream of two men came true.
As I said before the telling of the story was a little different but the actual stories were very interesting and very much about the politics of today but in a more dire future, and the struggles are very unusual but are overcome by those who you would not expect to be heroes, but they are because even though they were afraid, they tried.

I want to thank BHC Press and NetGalley for an advance copy of this unusual story

The Cord has an incredibly promising idea, but the execution didn't work for me personally. This story takes place on a space station attached to Earth by a "cord" containing an elevator that goes from planet to station. Even though the title is The Cord, there's very little about the cord in the book itself; the title could also be a reference to the connections between the characters, but they aren't connected enough for such a deep literary device. The book is told backwards in time; it starts with Part III and goes to Part II, Part I, and Prologue. It's an interesting concept but not one I think works with this material. I wasn't engaged enough in each part to push through to the earlier parts. I read all of Part III and half of Part II before deciding not to finish.

Readers interested in low-stakes science fiction with interesting but not too deep characters would enjoy this novel.

A future story about a space elevator and how it connects not only to the Earth but 3 separate stories. The beginning is the end and the end is the beginning. I found this to be an overall cool book with the exception of the 3 stories not fully connecting. The author left much to the imagination and for the reader to fill in the blanks and make the connections. I enjoyed the idea and concept.

The Cord

[Blurb goes here]

I was some 30% into the book, when I decided I would be unable to go on. Nothing happens, really. Nothing. Repeating every few pages that kinetic energy from human movements is translated into energy for the space station, is not reason enough in itself for the reader to keep going all the way to the end. What happens in this first few chapters? Easy. A family goes to visit a space station. The father gets into an argument. The other guy beats him up. The family has to cut their trip short. That's it. Is there a bigger mystery in this first third of the book? No. We know that, for whatever reason, the people living on station don't want to be invaded by... some country? But really, we don't get to care enough for the two dimensional characters, to really care if they will be at any given time.

Thank you for the free copy!

The concept was good, but the shifting POV, while an interesting way to tell the story, felt uneven and did not always serve the narrative well.

Review of eBook

In a future time, a space station floats in low-Earth orbit some two hundred miles above its surface, tethered to the planet by the Cord. Known simply as Station, tourists and space explorers alike visit via the space elevator, bypassing the need for rockets.

Here robot repairman Palik stumbles across a conspiracy, teen student Suha falls into the midst of an uprising, and tour guide Jarod endeavors to re-connect with his brother, Graeme, and his family.

The Station gathers visitors and personnel, keeping their secrets and slowly revealing their intertwined stories . . . all connected by Station and the Cord.

=========

The unfolding narrative in this futuristic tale is told from the present to the past, slowly revealing the interconnectedness of characters and events. Book III, “Leap Second,” focuses on tour guide Jarod and his relationship with Graeme, Imogen, and Ava who are tourists on Station. Book II, “Dead Zone,” tells the story of Station resident Suparman, his daughter, Suha, and Suha’s friend, Shi-Lu. Book I, “Mnemonic Device,” tells the story of robot repairman Palik, his wife, Sheila, and businessman Joshua. The Prologue recounts the adventure of Aditya and his family coming to Labicittá.

“The Cord” offers readers reasonably well-defined characters and a unique space station setting with the appropriate world-building; adding a conspiracy and revolution plot makes the narrative quite intriguing. But each section of the story seems to stand on its own, with limited connections to the other stories. The narrative’s over-arching tie . . . Station and the Cord that allows the space elevator to travel to and from Earth . . . doesn’t seem integral to the telling of the tale.

Readers may find the structure of the narrative impedes the successful telling of the tale. The individual stories focus on revealing the relationships of the characters; the rationale for the present-to-past structure of the narrative is unclear. Sadly, despite the promise of its premise, “The Cord” ends up being a bit of a disappointment.

Book received for free from NetGalley

Oh my goodness. This book was incredible and grabbed me in from the very first page. It went from the future to the past and I absolutely adored it. Would’ve been fine with a longer story. So glad I came across it.

I was initially very excited by the premise of The Cord. What's not to like about a futuristic space station, conspiracy, and revolution?

The first (or last, depending on how you look at it) section had some very unique and interesting technology—going beyond the titular space elevator.

Like most science fiction books, there are phrases, customs, and backstories that eventually are revealed. Unlike other books, the payoffs of these revelations are weak and fail to satisfy. Nothing is implied—there's just moments of overt exposition.

One of the oddest things about this book is its tics and gimmicks.
* The reverse chronology was an interesting concept that failed to deliver.
* One chapter is told entirely in a second person point of view.
* One character's name clearly was there to make a joke about superheroes of a distant past. In one instance, this character's name alternates between what it's established as and that of the man of steel—probably a typo.
* In the more futuristic portion of the book, random foreign words are thrown in. Initially, it seemed like a misprint. Later on, it just became a nuisance. I took a look at the author's blog—apparently this is supposed to represent imperfect automated translation between characters of different cultural backgrounds. In reality, it ends up feeling like a mistake.

My excitement died down as the book descended into loosely-connected stories from earlier in the timeline. The technology faded away and the story became increasingly more about the lives of the underdeveloped characters. By the final pages, I was reading solely to complete the book; my interest and joy had vanished.

I really wanted to like this book. I respect the author's ambition. Unfortunately, The Cord lacked the focus, world-building, and character development necessary to make this a worthwhile read.

The Cord
by Jim O'Loughlin
Science Fiction
#ARC #NetGalley

A space station attached to Earth by an elevator. Sounded very interesting.

WNF (Will Not Finish). At 26% I have given up. There's nothing here. It's a bunch of rambling about a family who is visiting the space station. There's no emotion and I don't care for the characters because they are generic and boring. There's really no plot besides 'thisandthatandhimandher'. That is how mashed up the reading is. Some parts are so jumbled you can't tell who is talking, and having to backtrack to figure it out is a waste of time.

There are supposed to be two other stories in this book that happened before this family visited, but I had to force myself to get through this 26%, so I will not make myself suffer any further.

0 Stars

I’m the first one to rate and review this book on GR and it’s going to be a something of a challenge. It’s also a book I should have done more research about going in, probably. Had I done said research, I would have discovered that the author is a professorial type whose prior output leaned heavily toward titles like Daily Life in Industrial United States and Last Caucus in Iowa. As juicy as a stone titles and not exactly the sort that promise a fun science fiction adventure.
And so, The Cord wasn’t what one might call fun. At least, not one I might. But the thing is, objectively it is good – intelligent, with plenty of interesting ideas and concepts crammed inside and reasonably well written, The Cord is a tale of the future told in separate interconnected tales led by a different protagonist each and done in reverse in three sections (last one first) leading up to the world where space colonization is a reality with a functional setup exists and is accessible via a space elevator and there’s also a more contentious faction of Mars colonists, Marsites.
It begins on a small island nation where the space elevator is set to be built with (what for me was) the most compelling tale of all the ones comprising this book. But because this novel works in reverse you won’t get there until the end.
All in all, the novel does work in its own way and quite intelligently, but it’s such a slog – a surprising amount of work for under 300 pages. Whatever excitement to be found in these pages is mostly muted and the author overpowers his narrative with simply too many ideas crammed into one book. His world building is fascinating and quite well crafted, but you never stay in one place long enough to really appreciate and the jumps in time, space and place are exhaustive and disorienting and don’t exactly serve the idea of a cohesive sum total.
There’s almost something of an academese treaty in this, it reads like an academically done science fiction, if that means something to you. I’m sure there’s a great deal of personal preference here, much as there’s in every review and I’m sure it might do different things for different readers, but this one wasn’t wowed. The thing is it’s difficult for me to fault an obviously intelligent work, especially being the first reviewer, and so in a feat on uncharacteristic generosity, I’m going to round up my rating of it. It doesn’t mean I enjoyed it all that, would necessarily recommend it or would want to read more by the author. It simply means I recognize the quality of this book and appreciate the fact that it might work for some. Thanks Netgalley.