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kcrouth's review against another edition
3.0
Finally made it through this one! Frustrated, I read a little about the book after finishing it. i think it is a cool and interesting thing they are doing with the story, but i could not get into it. The few characters that started to become interesting to me vanished as the narration moved on to something else. In great Gibson style, i was thrown into the deep end of context defined terminology to sort out, but that part i love. The 21st century parallels were very interesting, but I just wasn't able to latch on to this story.
tmathews0330's review against another edition
2.0
Some of the writing was interesting but mostly I found myself plowing through trying to get a point that I never found.
skycrane's review against another edition
1.0
This book was profoundly bizarre. It's a sort of interesting idea, but not particularly realistic. And then the story... it's never very strong to begin with, and at the end completely dissolves into soup. I read it 10 years ago, but I still strongly remember the sheer bafflement that came near the end, how it was like digging through nonsense. Maybe someday I'll read it again to see if I can get an idea of what the hell the authors were thinking, but I doubt it's worth the effort.
submachine's review against another edition
adventurous
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
amybraunauthor's review against another edition
3.0
DNF. I stopped about halfway through. I just can't do it. I get that this is an iconic steampunk novel and I get that it was meant to reflect the cultures of its time period and I get that it's written by two highly respected authors over an extensive period of time. That's why I'm giving it three stars, because I understand what it means to parts of the literary world. But I can't keep going. Maybe I'm being too liberal, since I can't tolerate the blatant racism and sexism from characters with virtually no redeeming qualities, but I'm also bored out of my mind. I'm not seeing a grand sweeping epic of steampunk, adventure, and excitement. If you asked me what the central plot was, all I would do was give you a blank look. There was potential for it in the first chapter, and I could have happily kept going with that. Sybil had so much potential, but then I got stuck with Mallory and it went downhill for me from there. To be clear, I'm not calling this a bad book. The language flows beautifully and the history and research is extremely well done, and the technology I saw was surprising. I liked some of the visuals and settings as well, which for a moment, transported me into a new world. But... I just can't get past the parts I didn't enjoy. I can only handle so much racism and sexism, even if I know it's part of history and being used as an element to immerse the reader in a time period. So this isn't for me, but it could be for other steampunk readers. There's a reason it's widely and generally respected, and if you think it's for you, then give it a chance.
vandermeer's review against another edition
1.0
Einfach nur schlecht. Schon der Anfang ist so irritierend, dass ich keine Lust mehr habe.
apas's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-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
2.75
I liked the premise, but the book was just too slow. And there wasn't a real gripping story there. Struggled to finish.
flygonjinn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Infidelity, Racism, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Colonisation
mnapoleon's review against another edition
2.0
Yet another book I started and was unable to finish. It was too dry for me. Normally I like historical fiction and I do like Sterling and Gibson. I just didn't like this.