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zer0faults's review against another edition
5.0
I absolutely loved this book, even though I had so much trouble with the Lockstep system and the actual time in between each step and who was aging at whatever speed they were aging at comparatively. Luckily they often discuss the distance in time for people, so you aren't lost attempting to just do the math in your head. Also the fraction system being based on months seemed a real pain. I really don't get why it wasn't based on years considering you have weekly's, you could have had monthlys, and then represented the rest in yearly fractions instead of fractions of months. I guess since they typically stood awake for 1 month it works, but dividing locksteps by 12 seems bulky, especially in relation to other locksteps.
Moving on, I just finished reading a techno thriller not too long ago and was completely bored with most of the characters, but in love with the idea. I feel like Lockstep really captured both, though I did not feel like Toby was a typical 17 year old, he felt older or younger at every step, he didn't feel like a boy transitioning to a man, which you would expect for a story featuring a 17 year old. However I did love the main characters, that being Toby, Corva and their denner's. It was a great change to get attached to a character in a book again and worry about their safety page by page.
As for the Lockstep system, I thought this part was great, the idea that with a method of hibernation, interstellar travel could become a reality, all it would take is people synchronizing their worlds. The author being able to piece together that this would not only solve environmental, and resource issues, but also the more obvious time difference issue was great. This then feeding into the subplots of people losing others by falling out of their particular lockstep was great. I normally don't write reviews, but I felt like Lockstep deserved a special mention, perhaps because it really pulled me along through the chapters, perhaps because it brought me back to good characters, perhaps because my vision of denners are so adorable.
Moving on, I just finished reading a techno thriller not too long ago and was completely bored with most of the characters, but in love with the idea. I feel like Lockstep really captured both, though I did not feel like Toby was a typical 17 year old, he felt older or younger at every step, he didn't feel like a boy transitioning to a man, which you would expect for a story featuring a 17 year old. However I did love the main characters, that being Toby, Corva and their denner's. It was a great change to get attached to a character in a book again and worry about their safety page by page.
As for the Lockstep system, I thought this part was great, the idea that with a method of hibernation, interstellar travel could become a reality, all it would take is people synchronizing their worlds. The author being able to piece together that this would not only solve environmental, and resource issues, but also the more obvious time difference issue was great. This then feeding into the subplots of people losing others by falling out of their particular lockstep was great. I normally don't write reviews, but I felt like Lockstep deserved a special mention, perhaps because it really pulled me along through the chapters, perhaps because it brought me back to good characters, perhaps because my vision of denners are so adorable.
hiveretcafe's review against another edition
4.0
Review was originally posted on my blog, hiveretcafe
Thank you so much Goodreads and Tor Books for the ARC!
I do admit, I did not enjoy myself in the first 100 pages. I think it might be due to the fact that I am so used to reading YA and how they move so quickly that when I started this, I wasn't used to the pace of the book.
The really incredible thing about this book is the world building. The world is so intricate and complex and it's really evident that a lot of planning went into the creation of the world.
Basically, the Lockstep Empire is the name of the 360/1 lockstep, the original, that Toby's family rules over. The ratio is how many months the people spend frozen to the months they spend awake. So essentially the Lockstep Empire is asleep for thirty years and awake for one month. In this way, they are able to travel to the many planets within the empire in a supposed night's sleep. The amount of resources used from the planet is also less, as there are robots that work during the time that the world is asleep to gather resources.
Time passes slowly in the Lockstep Empire because they are asleep for so long and awake for a short amount of time. Though fourteen thousand years in real time have passed, only forty years have passed in the Lockstep Empire and thus, the original settlers of the Lockstep Empire have aged forty years.
There's a lot of info dumping in the beginning of the book because the world is so complicated and intricate. However, because the Toby has been out of it for fourteen thousand years, the world needs to be explained to him as well.
It got better halfway through the book because it is difficult to understand the world in the beginning and it takes some getting used to. Time is such a huge part of this book with the locksteps and the whole concept of it.
Here are some quotes that I loved from this book!
Thank you so much Goodreads and Tor Books for the ARC!
I do admit, I did not enjoy myself in the first 100 pages. I think it might be due to the fact that I am so used to reading YA and how they move so quickly that when I started this, I wasn't used to the pace of the book.
The really incredible thing about this book is the world building. The world is so intricate and complex and it's really evident that a lot of planning went into the creation of the world.
Basically, the Lockstep Empire is the name of the 360/1 lockstep, the original, that Toby's family rules over. The ratio is how many months the people spend frozen to the months they spend awake. So essentially the Lockstep Empire is asleep for thirty years and awake for one month. In this way, they are able to travel to the many planets within the empire in a supposed night's sleep. The amount of resources used from the planet is also less, as there are robots that work during the time that the world is asleep to gather resources.
Time passes slowly in the Lockstep Empire because they are asleep for so long and awake for a short amount of time. Though fourteen thousand years in real time have passed, only forty years have passed in the Lockstep Empire and thus, the original settlers of the Lockstep Empire have aged forty years.
There's a lot of info dumping in the beginning of the book because the world is so complicated and intricate. However, because the Toby has been out of it for fourteen thousand years, the world needs to be explained to him as well.
It got better halfway through the book because it is difficult to understand the world in the beginning and it takes some getting used to. Time is such a huge part of this book with the locksteps and the whole concept of it.
Here are some quotes that I loved from this book!
"The point is, time isn't the working out of a pre-designed destiny. Time is the possibility of surprise.
" The continent was a collision of lanterns, or a surf of glowing pearls hanging untroubled amid Wallop's storms. The cities' curving sides cradled the white of towers and the green of cultivated jungles that raveled them like verdigris staining a glass ball."
"Because it's ancient and ever-present at one and the same time. So amazingly, impossibly old, yet still here. Living in a lockstep is like hopping in a time machine and shooting back to the dawn of history while simultaneously being shot into the far future. It's that incredible age that everything has here - it's all preserved, the world as it was thousands of years ago."
branch_c's review against another edition
3.0
The interesting concept pulled me into this one, but I'm disappointed to say that it never entirely made sense to me. I mean, the explanation was there, but I wasn't convinced of the supposed advantages to the society that would make it workable. It seems to me that even if many of the real time societies failed, some would succeed, and as their technologies advanced far ahead of the intentionally stunted lockstep societies, the lockstep would simply fade in importance as a quaint antique experiment.
The writing itself was hit or miss for me: some passages were strikingly well done, but I wasn't wild about the overall YA-ish tone - that's not always a bad thing, but the awkward 17 year old protagonist Toby with the cute (though capable) animal sidekick was a bit much, and for me it made a slightly too jarring contrast with the hard SF concepts.
The initial delays in revealing information about the world seemed artificial, making these calculated choices by the author a bit too transparent. Likewise Toby's reluctance to tell the truth about himself or to confront his siblings were less than believable.
When Toby finally takes charge of the situation halfway through the book, things get more interesting, and the ending is not bad, although I never got a good sense of the characters of Toby's family. This was presumably somewhat intentional but it made it harder to see how Toby's relationship with them was developing.
Overall, I liked the book but never really got excited about it.
The writing itself was hit or miss for me: some passages were strikingly well done, but I wasn't wild about the overall YA-ish tone - that's not always a bad thing, but the awkward 17 year old protagonist Toby with the cute (though capable) animal sidekick was a bit much, and for me it made a slightly too jarring contrast with the hard SF concepts.
The initial delays in revealing information about the world seemed artificial, making these calculated choices by the author a bit too transparent. Likewise Toby's reluctance to tell the truth about himself or to confront his siblings were less than believable.
When Toby finally takes charge of the situation halfway through the book, things get more interesting, and the ending is not bad, although I never got a good sense of the characters of Toby's family. This was presumably somewhat intentional but it made it harder to see how Toby's relationship with them was developing.
Overall, I liked the book but never really got excited about it.
eososray's review against another edition
2.0
I liked the concept, I liked the references to the science fiction greats (Barsoom and the Robotic Laws) but the book was very immature. I hesitate to call it YA but it was definitely a teen hero, love interest, save the world type of book and not near dense enough to make it a great read.
lindaunconventionalbookworms's review against another edition
4.0
*I received a free ARC of Lockstep from Macmillan / Tor/Forge via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review*
The start of Lockstep is very slow, but once I got into the story, I was completely hooked!
The start of Lockstep is very slow, but once I got into the story, I was completely hooked!
chelsea_jack's review against another edition
5.0
My thoughts:
I'm very picky about my science fiction. I think because I like my balance to be tilted towards the fiction and away from the science, slightly. I love stories about exploring new worlds, intergalactic trade routes, aliens, and scientific innovation that's had an impact on... life? What I don't like is when a book is heavily laden with scientific concepts - real or imagined - that dominate the action of the book. I want science, but I don't care so much about how that science works - I want to know what effect it has on the people and culture and plot of the book. Still with me?
Lockstep is on the edge of my kind of book, and this is why: the main idea has to do with people skipping along through time by hibernating while bots take care of primary industry and spaceships shuttle across great distances, then waking to take part in trade, in manufacturing and in all the necessary social work of living.
Now, the part where the book could have lost me is that Toby, our hero, has been asleep for 14 000 years, and so he could have been faced with an incredible amount of technological advancement, cultural change and generally woken up to a completely alien universe.
Fortunately this isn't the case. And exploring the whys and hows of that really sucked me into the story. Lockstep established a universe that I want to spend more time in. The implications of the technology of lockstepping are fascinating to me.
More intimately, I really loved Toby and felt for him. He had to face some extreme changes and I think he's in shock for the first portion of the book. The story really narrowly follows him, and whiel there's a range of secondary characters whose lives he touches, no one else really held my attention the way that Toby did.
Toby's brother being named Peter made me think of Ender's Game, and I think that does signal Toby's genius, aligning him with Ender.
Wrapping your mind around lockstep time does take some getting used to, but the benefits and drawbacks are clearly obvious. And I think that so much trickles down from this central idea - such a well-written book!
The story travels quite a bit, from Toby's small spaceship to large stations and planets of various kinds. There's a lot of variety and imagination in the settings, and each one was a vivid, intriguing enviroment, ripe for storytelling.
Bottom line:
I really loved this book. I devoured it, which is one of my highest compliments! This was an emotional journey about family and time. It grapples with politics and culture, and frankly, I look forward to reading it again.
5 stars
For fans of science fiction, clever heroes
**
Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
I'm very picky about my science fiction. I think because I like my balance to be tilted towards the fiction and away from the science, slightly. I love stories about exploring new worlds, intergalactic trade routes, aliens, and scientific innovation that's had an impact on... life? What I don't like is when a book is heavily laden with scientific concepts - real or imagined - that dominate the action of the book. I want science, but I don't care so much about how that science works - I want to know what effect it has on the people and culture and plot of the book. Still with me?
Lockstep is on the edge of my kind of book, and this is why: the main idea has to do with people skipping along through time by hibernating while bots take care of primary industry and spaceships shuttle across great distances, then waking to take part in trade, in manufacturing and in all the necessary social work of living.
Now, the part where the book could have lost me is that Toby, our hero, has been asleep for 14 000 years, and so he could have been faced with an incredible amount of technological advancement, cultural change and generally woken up to a completely alien universe.
Fortunately this isn't the case. And exploring the whys and hows of that really sucked me into the story. Lockstep established a universe that I want to spend more time in. The implications of the technology of lockstepping are fascinating to me.
More intimately, I really loved Toby and felt for him. He had to face some extreme changes and I think he's in shock for the first portion of the book. The story really narrowly follows him, and whiel there's a range of secondary characters whose lives he touches, no one else really held my attention the way that Toby did.
Toby's brother being named Peter made me think of Ender's Game, and I think that does signal Toby's genius, aligning him with Ender.
Wrapping your mind around lockstep time does take some getting used to, but the benefits and drawbacks are clearly obvious. And I think that so much trickles down from this central idea - such a well-written book!
The story travels quite a bit, from Toby's small spaceship to large stations and planets of various kinds. There's a lot of variety and imagination in the settings, and each one was a vivid, intriguing enviroment, ripe for storytelling.
Bottom line:
I really loved this book. I devoured it, which is one of my highest compliments! This was an emotional journey about family and time. It grapples with politics and culture, and frankly, I look forward to reading it again.
5 stars
For fans of science fiction, clever heroes
**
Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
carstensena's review against another edition
4.0
Incredible concept, good execution. Could have been edited down a bit, and I'm not sure why it wasn't published YA.
kblincoln's review against another edition
4.0
Don't be fooled by the Urban Fantasy-esque cover featuring a hero and a heroine likely to fall in love (they do) in an action-laden, straightforward plot where there's something valuable to get, or a person to save, or a place to get to (there is).
This is so totally NOT a pick-up-escapist novel.
It's an exacting, deeply-thought out rumination on one possible future of humanity in space with slower-than-light travel.
The story loosely revolves around Toby McGonigal, a young man from future Earth who has been lost in space for 14,000 years, cryogenically frozen in a "cicada bed."
He awakes to a different world...but one that still contains his family. How is that possible? Well here's where it gets mega-complicated. Apparently multiple worlds, and different cities on different worlds, have evolved a system to compensate for vast distances between those worlds coupled with scant resources. The solution: Lockstep, where these cities agree to "winter over" in cryogenic sleep for set amounts of time, and then waken for a short period (a day or a month or a week.)
So I could jump in my spaceship, sleep for a year, and on the other side of the galaxy the outpost where I'm going also is asleep. For both of us the journey takes but one day in our experienced time. While we're sleeping, robots continue to mine resources and stockpile goods we'll need when we awake.
Imagine a whole series of galaxies like that. But, and here's where I had to expand the mental effort equivalent to 3 bars of chocolate for each couple of pages: the frequency of the lockstep of the main "empire" that Toby's family is controlling is only one of many Locksteps. Some "winter over" for a year, some less or more time.
You see what I mean about this being complicated? And of course Toby has to get to the planet where his mother is still sleeping, and navigate through armies trying to stop him, and figure out his place in the new world (there's a lot of figuring out and less of action until the end.)
Enjoyable in the theoretical sense, I actually really enjoyed the last third of the book more than the first two thirds because that is where Toby starts to "game" the system as well as finally deal with his family. There's a small romance in this, but I was disappointed by the flimsy character of the heroine, who had a tendency to spout off informative lectures just like all the other minor characters.
Interesting concept, but be prepared for an education rather than escapist fun.
This is so totally NOT a pick-up-escapist novel.
It's an exacting, deeply-thought out rumination on one possible future of humanity in space with slower-than-light travel.
The story loosely revolves around Toby McGonigal, a young man from future Earth who has been lost in space for 14,000 years, cryogenically frozen in a "cicada bed."
He awakes to a different world...but one that still contains his family. How is that possible? Well here's where it gets mega-complicated. Apparently multiple worlds, and different cities on different worlds, have evolved a system to compensate for vast distances between those worlds coupled with scant resources. The solution: Lockstep, where these cities agree to "winter over" in cryogenic sleep for set amounts of time, and then waken for a short period (a day or a month or a week.)
So I could jump in my spaceship, sleep for a year, and on the other side of the galaxy the outpost where I'm going also is asleep. For both of us the journey takes but one day in our experienced time. While we're sleeping, robots continue to mine resources and stockpile goods we'll need when we awake.
Imagine a whole series of galaxies like that. But, and here's where I had to expand the mental effort equivalent to 3 bars of chocolate for each couple of pages: the frequency of the lockstep of the main "empire" that Toby's family is controlling is only one of many Locksteps. Some "winter over" for a year, some less or more time.
You see what I mean about this being complicated? And of course Toby has to get to the planet where his mother is still sleeping, and navigate through armies trying to stop him, and figure out his place in the new world (there's a lot of figuring out and less of action until the end.)
Enjoyable in the theoretical sense, I actually really enjoyed the last third of the book more than the first two thirds because that is where Toby starts to "game" the system as well as finally deal with his family. There's a small romance in this, but I was disappointed by the flimsy character of the heroine, who had a tendency to spout off informative lectures just like all the other minor characters.
Interesting concept, but be prepared for an education rather than escapist fun.
me511kev's review against another edition
4.0
Good and entertaining read. It reminded me of Jupiter Ascending in certain respects, since Toby is suddenly thrust far into the future into a culture he knows nothing about where everybody is trying to take advantage of him. It did drag in the middle, but overall in moved pretty good. I really liked the lockstep concept... living a normal life span over 30 thousand years... that's pretty cool. I'm not sure what all the fuss is about with understanding the different lockstep combinations, come on people, we are talking about simple algebra... like from 8th grade!