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3.88 AVERAGE


It had an interesting story and the sci-fi ideas were awesome. Even the main characters were interesting. But three parts of the book made it look kinda too much information for telling a good story. I think it would have been a better book without the second part and even with a shorter version of the last part.
I'm not saying that the second part was bad, it was a brilliant story. I liked it more than the first or last part. The second part itself was in a "really liked it" category. It gave more insight into the story but wasn't crucial to the main arc.
It just felt like at the end of the first part, I was told that "you know what, let's just start a whole new world building story", and then at the end of the second part, the same thing again. Let's pile up again the whole bunch of new sci-fi ideas. And that made it feel like three different stories. And the result was that the book had really good ideas, but I wasn't that much into the story itself.

I thought it was going to be harder to understand, but it wasn't! I didn't like the first part that much, I thought it was slow and that Larman complained way too much, which was understandable. The second part was much more interesting, though I have to said it took me a while to know what was going on because the whole thing was confusing (three people needed to have sex and have children... ok). The last part was my favorite, it was so much more interesting to get to know the life of people on the moon, and their customs and their lifestyle. Though I thought it was going to have a much more dramatic end, it didn't disappoint me.

Would have given it 5 stars if Asimov didn’t do his typical Asimov thing of making male characters be incredibly creepy towards female characters.

Filled with clever ideas but remains inconsequential to the sci-fi genre.

I loved the second section of this book. If the whole book was that, I would have given the book 5 stars. It was so creative and different - even 50 years after publication. The first section was necessary to fully feel the tension of the second section. The chapter structure was unique and kept me on my toes. 

But unfortunately the third section did not live up to the promise that the second gave us. It felt like the author ran out of ideas and just needed to tie up the story quickly.  All the creativity was spent on the environment and the actual story just felt flat. 

It's good, the world-building in the second part is very interesting. The concept is fine but I feel the story is just too short and I think the multiple awards it won including Hugo, Nebula and Locus put my expectations in the book way too high, plus it's Asimov who is very well-known for his science fiction novels.

I personally haven't delve into this book that much, the philosophy and what not, but maybe understanding and researching about it more might make me appreciate it more. Right now it's just 3.5 stars (rounded down to 3).
adventurous mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous challenging informative mysterious tense 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: No
challenging informative slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book is really science heavy. There is also this interesting focus on sex both as an act and as in gender dynamics. Some of the science was hard to get through though.