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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I don't know where to begin with this book. It is amazing from beginning to end. Tchiakovsky has some truly brilliant ideas in this book that are so good I am surprised that they were not used extensively in SF books before (or at least more widely).
There is a lot that I could talk about. The characters were great, the science was interesting, and the plot had me intrigued. The political commentary was also really good and how everything had multiple layers. I found the whole thing to be great. I will say that if you don't like more science forward SF, this book might be a miss since there is a lot of talking about the Alien Biology but all in all I loved every second of this book.
My rating system
1 - Did not enjoy
2 - Not irredeemable but has too many flaws to say I enjoyed
3 - Enjoyed it
4 - Great book but didn't love it
5 - Amazing book
There is a lot that I could talk about. The characters were great, the science was interesting, and the plot had me intrigued. The political commentary was also really good and how everything had multiple layers. I found the whole thing to be great. I will say that if you don't like more science forward SF, this book might be a miss since there is a lot of talking about the Alien Biology but all in all I loved every second of this book.
My rating system
1 - Did not enjoy
2 - Not irredeemable but has too many flaws to say I enjoyed
3 - Enjoyed it
4 - Great book but didn't love it
5 - Amazing book
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
I wanted to enjoy this more than I did. Had the ingredients for an interesting science based anti-fascism message, but I struggled with the narrative style and none of the characters seemed exceptionally interesting.
adventurous
funny
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Fun, if sometimes very standard, SF. Works well as a prequel to Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was a very cool book with a conceptual focus on the development of socialism and structures of revolution.
It had an imaginative take on a 1984 style Socialist world dictatorship and how such a civilization might act if it became space-faring.
The book also had some cool deep dives into revolutionary theory.
Finally, it had a very interesting exploration of what evolution based on symbiosis might look like and how it could differ from a our competition focused evolution. The book drew some interesting if potentially trite comparisons between socialism and symbiosis.
It had an imaginative take on a 1984 style Socialist world dictatorship and how such a civilization might act if it became space-faring.
The book also had some cool deep dives into revolutionary theory.
Finally, it had a very interesting exploration of what evolution based on symbiosis might look like and how it could differ from a our competition focused evolution. The book drew some interesting if potentially trite comparisons between socialism and symbiosis.
This is just a lot of thoughts on academia, power, fighting power, misuse of science, overall fascism, but cobbled together to make a story about research on an alien world. No idea if I am actually enjoying it or not as it feels more like the author just wanted to make political points and while I agree with them, it is not the sort of book I thought I was picking up. It's more like commentary on real life disguised as a scifi book but in an obvious way.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dude does it again. what a fun concept well executed good politics and sharp prose. nothing to not like