Desde que Kowal publicó «Hacia las estrellas» hace ya unos años, he leído todas las novelas que ha sacado y algún que otro relato. Para mí se ha convertido en una autora confort, pues sé qué me voy a encontrar.

Quizá sus novelas no sean de 10, pero a mí me dan todo lo que pido: personajes interesantes, voces narrativas con textura y una ambientación interesante.

Y THE SPARE MAN no ha sido una excepción. Se trata de un misterio sobre varios asesinatos que se dan en un crucero espacial de camino a Marte y protagonizada por una pareja de recién casados. Tesla, la esposa, narra los hechos con cierto sarcasmo, aunque acabe en el centro de los sucesos.

A pesar de que a lo largo del libro muere una barbaridad de gente a manos de un asesino escurridizo, THE SPARE MAN es un libro ligero que me sacó de un bloqueo lector importante. Tiene un ritmo ágil, acción trepidante y bastante humor.

La única pega que le pongo es que sale demasiada persona rica, ya que es un crucero de lujo. No hay ninguna crítica sobre quién puede o no puede viajar a Marte, sino que se da por hecho que solo lo hacen las personas con gran poder adquisitivo.

En definitiva, te gustará si buscas:
-Una novela autoconclusiva que se lee bastante rápido.
-Un cozy mystery con un puntito trágico, porque casi muere hasta el apuntador.
-Una pareja en el centro de la narración donde ambos se quieren mucho y se compenetran muy bien.
-Representación disca en el futuro.
-Un perrete muy majo al que no le pasa nada.

[¡Gracias a Rebellion por el ejemplar en digital!]

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal is a science fiction novella that tells the story of a man sent on a mission to a distant planet. The novella explores themes of isolation, survival, and the human condition. While the plot is engaging, the writing style may not be for everyone, with some readers finding it slow-paced. Overall, The Spare Man is a decent read for fans of science fiction who enjoy character-driven stories.

This book makes it feel like you are entering a series mid-way without it actually being the case. I am torn between what I think of this style. On the one hand, I like building up the backstory and the surroundings without being handed over all the details in a straightforward manner - on the other, I felt like I might be missing a key piece to some puzzle.
Tesla Crane is an extremely rich and powerful person on the planet. She is therefore flying incognito on her honeymoon. They are flying in space when a server is found dead, and the last person caught on camera is Tesla's new husband.
Tesla suffers from constant pain, and that forms a chunk of the narrative. The other half, the relationship between her husband and her, seemed very familiar. It has been a while since I read other books by the author, but in this particular balance, the conversation is almost a repeat of the ones in the other books. When they are together, they do not seem like fresh new characters. This is probably one of my main reasons for rating it the way I am.
The murder mystery is complex, with many twists and turns, and the investigation is very painstakingly conducted while evading the many hurdles that are constantly making their way into the narrative. It was not something I suspected but was satisfied with as having made the most sense.
I would actually recommend this to people who have not read the author's books before because then even the personal part of the plot will feel as fresh as the murder mystery part.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

As a sci-fi fan, the description for The Spare Man stood out to me. A brilliant inventor on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner to Mars getting caught up in a murder mystery? Sounds fun.

The story follows Tesla Crane, a genius inventor and heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. Travelling incognito for some anonymity and free time with her new husband Shal, she's hoping it'll be a lovely break from her usual life. Then someone is murdered, and her new spouse becomes prime suspect number one after security has him fleeing the scene, even though he's chasing after the actual murderer.

Armed with banter, martinis, her small service dog Gimlet, and a powerful lawyer hours away on a very expensive speed dial, Tesla is determined to solve the crime to keep the real killer from striking again, so that the newlyweds can get back to doing what couples on honeymoon do.

Tesla, Shal, and Gimlet were just delightful characters. Yes, I include the dog in that. It's the perfect writing of an adorable little dog. The banter and humour between characters were fun throughout and gave us a couple very much in love whilst going through a stressful experience.

The murder mystery aspect remains a mystery for most of the book. There's little foreshadowing and very few hints. And the ones you do get quickly turn out to be false leads. The only one that remains consistent is that Shal might not be all that he seems, and you spent your time hoping that that isn't the case because Tesla seems to really love him.

Tesla's chronic pain, PTSD and the use of Gimlet as a service dog was dealt with nicely, adding some nice touches. Tesla can't go chasing after people, uses grounding techniques to calm herself down and she ramps up her pain meds to the point that she realises she either isn't thinking straight or can't keep going on as she has been. Mentions of how Gilmet can't be touched because she's on duty are a nice reminder that people really shouldn't be touching service dogs. Although Tesla does break that rule when necessary using Gimlet's cuteness to distract or get people to open up works almost every time.

Tesla makes for a great main character and heroine. She gives us character traits that we don't often see in main characters. Smart, funny, and constantly masking the pain she is in physically and mentally to other people. As readers, though, we get to see it all. Tesla uses her brains, her privilege and her disabilities to protect the man she loves and track down the truth. Something the incompetent security officers seem incapable of doing.

I found this book really enjoyable. I had no idea who the killer was other than having some doubts that it could be Shal, but that wasn't anything concrete. I don't mind that there were few clues because it was quite nice having zero ideas who it was. And there was a lot of robotics talk and science fiction talk that was a delight to read. I'd be happy if we get to see more of these characters in the future.

If Poirot were a crip tech genius Paris Hilton travelling with a support dog and her handsome new spouse, and he got embroiled in a murder mystery on a luxury spaceship travelling to Mars. Cute, compelling, a lot of fun. Excellent audiobook. I love her dog so much. The dog love in this story is real.

This is a really enjoyable story. I loved the Lady Astronauts and I was so happy to see the audiobook. I bought a copy to finish listening to because I didn’t download it in time when it expired. I have already purchased a copy for my mum. I will hope for more as the perfect listen or travel read.

This was a wonderful Mystery / Science fiction story.

The characters were well developed, with the star being a service dog.

A thoroughly enjoyable Mystery/Whodunnit that kept me guessing until near the end of the story.

Kowal's Lady Astronaut series has been getting a lot of attention lately, but anything with a realistic near future or alternate present end of the world is very much off my list at the moment, and somehow plots in which humanity takes reasonably sensible and united action in the face of that just make it worse (I had my arguments with Stephenson's Seveneves at the time, but now it would be right out). This, though, seemed much more appealing, a murder mystery along the lines of The Thin Man, with cocktail-quaffing newlyweds' honeymoon interrupted by a murder – in space! Hell, it even has a very good dog, Gimlet the service Westie. A service dog being necessary because, since an initially unspecified incident, protagonist Tesla Crane has lived with chronic pain, something for which future technology has devised new treatments but not a total cure. Those treatments coming with their own downsides, because doesn't everything, and for me the most striking thing here was how well Kowal writes those trade-offs, and evokes the many and varied flavours of pain, as on one occasion when Tesla turns the suppressor down: "On the other side of a velvet wall, a cobweb of bright-red barbed wire waited along the sides of her spine."

This fits neatly with the classic detective models, too, where even the most flippant investigators would often have some damage derived from their backstory; think of Lord Peter Wimsey's PTSD, not that it was called that back then. Alas, not everything her convinced me in the same way. The treatment of gender has been advanced fairly uniformly from the current state of play, but somehow the end result wasn't quite convincing for me, with everyone specifying their pronouns at first introduction, yet the genderless likes of 'Mx' and 'spouse' still ubiquitous in a way which felt it slightly jarred with that. Not that this was a dealbreaker, and it may signify nothing more than my own devotion to Terra Ignota, with its brilliant treatment of this stuff. Even the use of a character with a comedy French accent (Lunar French, but still), while arguably at odds with this progressive mood, seemed like a reasonably harmless sop to the story's models without getting tangled up in anything genuinely nasty. The real problem, though, and like any comment on what is or isn't funny this is entirely subjective, is that if I'm reading something where the heiress-detective leads are meant to evoke Nick and Nora Charles, I expect zingers, and while the dialogue here is fine, it never gets past lively to actually making me laugh.

(Netgalley ARC)

When I read the blurb I thought about Nick&Nora, Asta and the 30s light mysteries.
i loved this author's storytelling and loved this mix of space opera and mystery, it well plotted and kept me hooked.
I read it as a sort mystery in the space and had a lot of fun.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

This book is so light and breezy, the closest equivalent I have is Georgette Heyer in space -- though I'm not sure this was the intended homage, I think it pretty accurately describes the tone and sets the right expectations for the entertainment value of the book. There are similarities with her other books -- I wonder if that's a case of write what you know? -- when you look at the relationship dynamics but that aside, it was a fun diversion.

Thanks to #Netgalley for an advanced copy of the book.

I did not finish this novel and got stuck at 8%. It's very well written but had to much space talk which I'm not familiar with. I just couldn't get into it. But would definitely recommend if you are heavily into scifi

'The Spare Man' is an entertaining and fast paced murder mystery. The setting on an intergalactic cruise ship is definitely a win. My biggest gripe is the characterization, although some interactions are well done. In the first half the main character is also very passive., which improves quite a bit in the second half.
There're also many mentions of alcohol as every chapter starts with a cocktail recipe, which I didn't appreciate.

Since I really enjoyed her Lady Astronaut books, not to mention this being a standalone, I was happy when my request for an ARC was granted - unfortunately, the book itself didn't quite live up to my expectations.

The basic premise of The Spare Man is that it's a murder mystery on a space cruise, with our protagonists forced (with various levels of willingness) into investigation - one of them (Tesla Crane) is a famous inventor, famous enough that she's taken on a fake identity to have any semblance of a normal honeymoon with her new husband. She's also dealing with the physical and mental aftermath of a serious accident, which continue to have an impact all the way through the book. When her two-dimensional husband is accused of murder, Tesla tries to find the real culprit, helped eventually by attempting to use the privilege of being famous.

The influences are clear, though the characterisation of the husband in particular just isn't strong enough for this book not just to be all about one character. There's a lot to like about this book in terms of having a main character with all sorts of flaws but then these get put to one side when it's not convenient for the plot - Tesla has a device implanted to manage her pain which she can handily turn up to 11 when needed, her service dog seems to spend as much time being used as a distraction as doing its job, and so on.

All in all, not the worst thing I've read this year and it wasn't a hardship to finish it, but decidedly unmemorable and I'd really hoped for more...

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, via Netgalley. This is my honest opinion of the book in question.

A murder mystery set on a space ship that follows Sham and Tesla who are on their honeymoon from Earth to Mars. When Sham is accused of murder, along with their service dog dog Gimlet they are hell bent on solving the murder and clearing Sham. Adored this book, particularly Gimlet and hope there is more to come.

I had such a good time with this book. I loved the setting (isolated closed circle mystery on a space ship!), the characters, and all the weird elements that have to be part of this because we're dealing with a murder in space. I really appreciated how much effort the author made to make sure the science part wasn't neglected; the frustration of Tesla's lawyer being on earth and the communication delay getting longer and longer was palpable, but it also made everything feel more real.

Tesla, Shal, and Gimlet were delightful, and I loved spending time with them. The banter and humor between characters was fun. However, I didn't feel like the murder mystery had enough foreshadowing so that readers could figure everything out on their own, which is usually part of the fun for me, but it could also be that I just wasn't smart enough for it.

There's a small learning curve at the beginning of the book where you need to get used to all of the terms and technology that exists in the book, but I thought the author did a good job of easing me into it without a lot of infodumping. I also appreciated the way she dealt with Tesla's chronic pain, including Gimlet, the adorable service dog. One thing I did notice is that even though Tesla makes it a point to mention that people shouldn't just touch her dog because she is on duty, she also sends Gimlet off to distract people with cuteness and pets ridiculously often. And I know Tesla and Shal were on their honeymoon, but there was a lot of making out considering how dire the situation was.

Incognito on the way from Earth to Mars for their honeymoon, Tesla, and Sham would like to do nothing more than spend time with each other in their magnificent suite. Then the blundering head of Security decides to pin a murder on Sham. What follows is a witty, fast paced, murder mystery romp around a luxury space liner. Thank you to Rebellion Publishers and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

As always, Mary Robinette Kowal utilises a wonderfully zippy writing style in The Spare Man - I was pulled through the plot, and as with every book of hers I have read, I was constantly itching to find out what happens next. However, also as with other works of hers, there were little aspects of the novel which I found a bit awkward - either a turn of phrase, or the interactions between the main couple (although these often made sense from a plot point of view here). That said, I greatly enjoyed this book - the mystery aspect wasn't the most complex, and the reveal is a bit rushed, but it's certainly a fun journey getting there. I appreciated the depictions of chronic illness and disability, and liked the addition of extra information on both the science and cocktail making at the end. A highly enjoyable book.

A famous inventor and her spouse, a retired detective, go on honeymoon on a spacecraft traveling between planets when someone is murdered and her spouse is arrested as the prime suspect.

This is the first murder mystery/thriller I've read that takes place in space and I must say it was a fun experience!

As for the good and the bad...
➕ Gimlet was seriously cute
➕ Already established relationship
➕ Good dose of humor throughout
➕ Kept me guessing
➕ Super cool 1930s vibe mixed with sci-fi
➕ I got so many cocktail tips omg
➖ Was a bit repetitive at times
➖ As a result also lost its pacing a bit from 20%-60% (wasn't too bad though)
➖ Many many names (that are also science fiction-y, so definitely take notes)
➖ I kept seeing a car in my head whenever I read our female lead's name (it's Tesla)
➖ Still don't know what a gamer's belly is

Worth noting as well is that our female lead is disabled (spinal injury, she also occasionally uses a cane) and also has PTSD - Gimlet is her service dog!

Overall 4/5⭐

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review