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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
relaxing
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:
Complicated
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Really enjoyed this, especially the Para-universe part.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I imagine, when writing sci-fi, that it’s very hard to find a good balance between “science” and “fiction.” Suspension of disbelief is all well and good, but a solid foundation of “reality” is very important, in my opinion, for a truly great book.
“The Gods Themselves” does a noticeably good job of striking that balance, and the story that it brings along makes for a reasonably solid read. Unfortunately, there are enough missing pieces and unanswered questions that I wasn’t really satisfied at the end.
It’s the kind of book that you almost want to read twice, just to make sure you pick up on all the subtleties you may have missed the first time around, but that just doesn’t interest you enough to put in the effort. Which is too bad — all the parts are there, it just seems like they’re not quite tied up as nicely as they could be.
“The Gods Themselves” does a noticeably good job of striking that balance, and the story that it brings along makes for a reasonably solid read. Unfortunately, there are enough missing pieces and unanswered questions that I wasn’t really satisfied at the end.
It’s the kind of book that you almost want to read twice, just to make sure you pick up on all the subtleties you may have missed the first time around, but that just doesn’t interest you enough to put in the effort. Which is too bad — all the parts are there, it just seems like they’re not quite tied up as nicely as they could be.
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"There are no happy endings in history, only crisis points that pass."
This was a very interesting and (from what I can tell) extremely well-researched book coming from an incredibly intelligent author. It's my first experience with Asimov and definitely won't be the last. Even though I have no scientific background or ability myself, I find the limitlessness of science, the sheer enormity of it's positive and negative potential, and the way it intersects with human hubris to be endlessly fascinating, and clearly Asimov does, too. Really, at its core this book is about how human ambition and selfishness often impedes, and occasionally enables, scientific advancement, which was a really interesting (and unfortunately relevant) focus. I also found that the weirder this novel got (and, believe me, it got weird) the more I enjoyed it; with Part II 'The Gods Themselves' being easily the most engaging section for me personally, even though until the very end it had little to do with the main plot. Speaking of, I enjoyed the three section format of the novel a lot as it helped my TikTok brain get through this quicker (lol) and gave the novel a useful narrative structure. Back to Part II, though, I absolutely loved Asimov's depiction of an alien race so unlike humans not only physically but culturally and behaviourally. Their gender and sexual dynamics are different, engaging in "triads" where a masculine being births and parents the offspring. They're physically corporeal which manifests in extremely strange and fascinating ways, and they have intricate social customs and institutions that guide their behaviour unlike our own. This section also has a number of twists towards the end which I personally did not predict at all. I loved it.
The only reason this novel doesn't quite reach the 4-star threshold for me is that there's a lack of sentiment to this meditation on humanity which I found a bit disappointing. Despite the seeming high stakes of the impending Electron Pump crisis, everything felt so removed and theoretical that no strong emotional reaction was ever incited in me (which, now I think about it, was likely intentional as it can be related to the climate crisis... there's a lot to unpack there). I also couldn't help but notice that Asimov struggles to write realistic human interactions, which came through most strongly in the final part. You could argue that these people would plausibly wouldn't talk "normally" anyway, because they live in the future and they're all science geniuses, but I don't buy that, really. Strangely, the alien character of "Dua" in Part II was the closest this book came to a fully-formed, sympathetic character. Not to go psycho-analyst, but it may have something to do with the fact that Asimov, as far as I know, had very little human interaction himself given his agoraphobia... Either way, though, I still enjoyed this book a lot and I recommend reading if just for the bizarre alien section alone.
This was a very interesting and (from what I can tell) extremely well-researched book coming from an incredibly intelligent author. It's my first experience with Asimov and definitely won't be the last. Even though I have no scientific background or ability myself, I find the limitlessness of science, the sheer enormity of it's positive and negative potential, and the way it intersects with human hubris to be endlessly fascinating, and clearly Asimov does, too. Really, at its core this book is about how human ambition and selfishness often impedes, and occasionally enables, scientific advancement, which was a really interesting (and unfortunately relevant) focus. I also found that the weirder this novel got (and, believe me, it got weird) the more I enjoyed it; with Part II 'The Gods Themselves' being easily the most engaging section for me personally, even though until the very end it had little to do with the main plot. Speaking of, I enjoyed the three section format of the novel a lot as it helped my TikTok brain get through this quicker (lol) and gave the novel a useful narrative structure. Back to Part II, though, I absolutely loved Asimov's depiction of an alien race so unlike humans not only physically but culturally and behaviourally. Their gender and sexual dynamics are different, engaging in "triads" where a masculine being births and parents the offspring. They're physically corporeal which manifests in extremely strange and fascinating ways, and they have intricate social customs and institutions that guide their behaviour unlike our own. This section also has a number of twists towards the end which I personally did not predict at all. I loved it.
The only reason this novel doesn't quite reach the 4-star threshold for me is that there's a lack of sentiment to this meditation on humanity which I found a bit disappointing. Despite the seeming high stakes of the impending Electron Pump crisis, everything felt so removed and theoretical that no strong emotional reaction was ever incited in me (which, now I think about it, was likely intentional as it can be related to the climate crisis... there's a lot to unpack there). I also couldn't help but notice that Asimov struggles to write realistic human interactions, which came through most strongly in the final part. You could argue that these people would plausibly wouldn't talk "normally" anyway, because they live in the future and they're all science geniuses, but I don't buy that, really. Strangely, the alien character of "Dua" in Part II was the closest this book came to a fully-formed, sympathetic character. Not to go psycho-analyst, but it may have something to do with the fact that Asimov, as far as I know, had very little human interaction himself given his agoraphobia... Either way, though, I still enjoyed this book a lot and I recommend reading if just for the bizarre alien section alone.
challenging