Weight of the Heart

By: Rosa Montero, Lilit Žekulin Thwaites - translator

Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal

Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

Part human and part robot, private investigator Bruna Husky has been hired to locate a stolen diamond. But as Bruna's leads start to drop dead, her case becomes about much more than a stolen gem - and much more dangerous. Traversing the galaxy, Bruna races against the clock to uncover a nuclear power conspiracy that threatens all sentient beings.

Traveling from a distant planet populated by an extreme religious sect to landscapes destroyed by rising sea levels, Bruna tries to solve the puzzle of why so many people around her are suffering from toxic radiation. Meanwhile she must cope with a new love and the knowledge of when she will die, to the exact day. Designed for combat, Bruna can manipulate a plasma gun better than she can navigate matters of the heart.

This tale of romance, prejudice, and ecoterrorism makes clear that though the future might appear very different in many ways, history can't help but repeat itself.

©2015 Rosa Montero (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Translation © 2016 Lilit Žekulin Thwaites.

Weight of the Heart Bores into Your Heart and Mind

Rosa Montero’s Weight of the Heart is the second book in the Bruna Husky series, her first being Tears in Rain (reviewed in Tears in Rain by Rosa Montero – a thoughtful techno-detective noir novel review on Joe's GeekFest on Wordpress). The gist of what I’ve written there still applies. This is a creative brilliant story that takes Blade Runner (Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?) as its springboard. She continues to expand her gritty world building, characters, dialogue, and relationships. Indeed, this sequel improves on all of those. Our favorite replicant, Bruna, continues her penchant for being pulled into major scandals via innocent seeming projects. She’s tracking down a missing person and through her generous heart is thrown into a radioactive world when. So, all that was good from book one remains and only gets better.

Ms. Montero’s sequel matches the high hopes I had for this series. While it’s mostly moved on from its Blade Runner inspired beginnings, its dive into the characters and psyches that populate Bruna’s world only grows more intriguing. The narrative arc is never dull, the writing is ever brilliant and the space between words where we find ourselves and our own challenges taken up, broken apart, examined, and reconstituted allows fresh insight into perennial problems. Weight of the Heart does what the best of sci-fi has always done, it examines who we are and how we relate to one another all in the context of great story. Entertaining and challenging, with no need to compromise between one or the other.

Mary Robinette Kowal flawlessly narrates the audiobook. The introspective intimate moments seem to come from within you; the funny, odd-ball characters are portray as such, but not in a patronizing man. The rhythm of story, with her pacing and pauses, are spot on. Even as she performs passionately, she is clear and understandable. In short, her narration is all that you could desire.

I highly commend the work for your listening pleasure.

Full review at Joe's GeekFest on Wordpress

1 person found this helpful

Great listen

I loved the second in the series and how it covered so many of our failures to govern ourselves. As well as how often real's stories aren't always tied up in happy endings.

Solid Characters and Plot But Dwindles As it Ends

I enjoy the characters and the world built, the plot starts strong and has good qualities, but the apex of it all is just a little anticlimactic. Good followup to the first book, but the first story plot apex leaves a bigger impression.

interesting not earth shattering

The technology was interesting & creative.
The story dragged needed more pace & intensity action.