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jacqueshol's review against another edition
4.0
Since I was listening to the audiobook and hadn't been travelling that much the past week, it took me several days to finish the book. While it wasn't too bad, it simply didn't grab me. This has been the case for the previous two books too.
I can't quite put my finger on it, but the storyline, while simple enough, just doesn't come together. The science is speculative but not terrible; the characters are all a bit vanilla but not totally unrelatable, so what actually bugs me remains a mystery. Perhaps it is the fact that the story seems to jump around a bit. There is some nice build-up in certain instances, and then it just fizzles out. In other instances, the storyline seemed to come out out of the blue, and I wasn't too sure how we got to where we are. I found this a big problem in the first two books of the series, and while it was prevalent in The Mission, it was less so.
SO, yeah, if you have a few hours to just chill, go ahead and read it. It won't be a total waste of your time. I will probably read the fourth book in the series, as it seems to be written progressively better as the series continues, albeit at a languid pace. I am a sucker for series.
I can't quite put my finger on it, but the storyline, while simple enough, just doesn't come together. The science is speculative but not terrible; the characters are all a bit vanilla but not totally unrelatable, so what actually bugs me remains a mystery. Perhaps it is the fact that the story seems to jump around a bit. There is some nice build-up in certain instances, and then it just fizzles out. In other instances, the storyline seemed to come out out of the blue, and I wasn't too sure how we got to where we are. I found this a big problem in the first two books of the series, and while it was prevalent in The Mission, it was less so.
SO, yeah, if you have a few hours to just chill, go ahead and read it. It won't be a total waste of your time. I will probably read the fourth book in the series, as it seems to be written progressively better as the series continues, albeit at a languid pace. I am a sucker for series.
nicki_in_nz's review
2.0
Only 2 stars for this, although it was more like a 2.5 star book.
I really enjoyed the first two in the series but this one was a bit of a mess. Far too many characters and substories going on and not much to keep you interested in most of them. It seemed too technical with very little on the two main characters, who were sidelined to a host of new characters who mostly died. It had also been a while since I read the first two books and I found the whole explanation of the 'good aliens', 'bad aliens', 'good and bad humans' poor and unclear. It all made for very muddled reading.
The editing was also poor - continuity mistakes and spelling errors and lots of missing line breaks where the story switched from one set of characters to another (which means you get caught out and confused for a second or two until you realise it's a different storyline). It felt as if it was written in a rush with no clear idea of what was to go in it, and then edited in a rush too. It either needed to be much shorter with the side stories cut, or much longer so you got more involved with each story.
I will read the next one but I hope it's better than this.
I really enjoyed the first two in the series but this one was a bit of a mess. Far too many characters and substories going on and not much to keep you interested in most of them. It seemed too technical with very little on the two main characters, who were sidelined to a host of new characters who mostly died. It had also been a while since I read the first two books and I found the whole explanation of the 'good aliens', 'bad aliens', 'good and bad humans' poor and unclear. It all made for very muddled reading.
The editing was also poor - continuity mistakes and spelling errors and lots of missing line breaks where the story switched from one set of characters to another (which means you get caught out and confused for a second or two until you realise it's a different storyline). It felt as if it was written in a rush with no clear idea of what was to go in it, and then edited in a rush too. It either needed to be much shorter with the side stories cut, or much longer so you got more involved with each story.
I will read the next one but I hope it's better than this.
diz_tn's review against another edition
1.0
Dnf. Couldn't follow anything because halt read first books.
staatz's review against another edition
3.0
Fun bit of conspiracy sci fi. A nicely detailed first contact story too. Think I'll move on to other things now though, had enough of one bit of conspiracy being heaped on top of the last.
tuftymctavish's review against another edition
3.0
Found this title a bit confusing and all over the place. Multiple strands of adventure, people flitting all over the place, different agencies all interfering with each other. It was a job keeping track of everything.
janolen's review
4.0
Really enjoyable read
I'm on my second read through having discovered later ones I've not read. So I do enjoy them, there is just something about the pacing that niggles
I'm on my second read through having discovered later ones I've not read. So I do enjoy them, there is just something about the pacing that niggles
lachesisreads's review against another edition
2.0
The pandemic theme makes this pretty grim reading (particularly when people around you are getting sick with influenza left and right). However, I felt that this volume lacked some of the appeal of the earlier books. The novelty of the alien theme has worn off by now, and instead of forwarding the overarching plot of the series, this book introduces a number of ultimately (probably) insignificant subplots that felt superfluous and really went nowhere. There were also a lot of "info-dump"-passages where the content of the previous books was repeated, which gets rather tedious after a while. I think a "what happened before" chapter at the beginning of the book would have been more reader-friendly than randomly interspersed repetitions, but that may be just me. All in all this book left me with the feeling that the publisher said to the authors, "we want to make this a 10 book series. Bulk it out more!", and that this one was added for, well, bulk.
In all it's still a fast read and pageturner, but I suspect you might skip this particular one without missing out much in the series as a whole.
In all it's still a fast read and pageturner, but I suspect you might skip this particular one without missing out much in the series as a whole.
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