Polaaripyörre by Tiina Raevaara
I really enjoyed this book! I’m not a fan of generic “horror” or “thrillers,” but Raevaara’s “scientific thrillers” (this one and the previous Kaksoiskierre) have engaging characters and believable plot twists (believable both scientifically and ethically). Sometimes her characters do things that make me say “no way would anybody do that,” and the next day I read something similar about Elon Musk.
The science (even at the bleeding edge) is VERY believable, and the feeling of working in the labs her characters work in is very convincing. The boring stages, the exhaustion of workers doing mindless repetition, or even worse “mostly mindless repetition” that requires intense thought occasionally.
I don’t want to give too much away, but I LOVED the way she built, managed, and occasionally subverted expectations for the characters, especially the antagonists. This sometimes depends on character- and world-building from her previous novel. I couldn’t tell immediately how much was “planned in advance” when she wrote the earlier novel, but it always felt organic and meaningful.
Despite my intentions, I like the protagonist in both books, Erika, but I also like the world-building to create depth with the other characters in her world, especially when it doesn’t immediately pay off.
I said above that her plot twists are always scientifically believable. For me, that sometimes means that I think “Hmmm, that seems unlikely, but I’m no expert and I’m going to suspend disbelief rather than do the reading it would take for me to catch up.” The only author I can compare her “scientific thrillers” to is Michael Crichton. I find her books to be more enjoyable, and part of that is that I enjoy the way she undermines obvious superficial political or moral conclusions.
I tend to think and ponder more when I’m reading Finnish novels, and I really enjoyed thinking about this book while enjoying it.
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Interesting complexity