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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
As a novel this has four big strikes against it: it's got a mary sue as the main character, the speculative part of the speculative fiction is bad, the author never really sells one of the central premises of the story, and some of the bad guys are bad for no good reason. Despite all of that, it's not bad as light reading, but it's not good either.
Point 1: the main character is a mary sue. He is good at everything he sets his mind to, is never wrong, and all the women love him (I'm serious, even a woman that is introduced in a secondary role briefly has a 'if only I were younger' moment when appraising our hero). His only flaws are imposed on him from outside (he has a memory gap, and that's about the only thing that causes him to make anything resembling a mistake).
Point 2: There is a character that is put on “ice” in 2066, wakes up in 2119, and is utterly surprised by self-driving cars and voice recognition software. This book was published in 2013. Alexa came out in 2014, but there was already solid progress on voice recognition in the mid-aughts. I have a friend who was working on voice recognition software in 2006. It wouldn’t have taken too much research in 2012 to realize that there would be solid voice recognition technology well before 2066.
Self driving cars are almost certainly going to be a thing in the real universe before 2066 as well, and that was also pretty clear back in 2012, but I’m willing to cut a little more slack here as it’s before Google and Tesla got involved and really started publicizing the technology. Still, if you’re going to write science-fiction then you should probably spend some time researching the science. I'm reasonably sure a google search back in 2012 would have turned up plenty of evidence that self-driving cars will pre-date 2066, and won't require a dedicated road system!
Point 3: A lot of the story hinges around the need to keep certain things secret, and the author never really presents a compelling case for keeping them secret. At the end of the book the characters all go "yeah, it sucks, but we understand why the secrets had to be kept," whereas I felt that keeping the secrets was still totally unnecessary, and that it would have been far better to more widely disseminate the information involved.
Point 4: I'm progressive, and I still found the portrayal of the evil corporation in the novel to be a bit over the top. Corporations do evil things, but not just for the sake of doing evil things.
It's still not bad adventure fiction set in the future, but I can't really recommend it.
Point 1: the main character is a mary sue. He is good at everything he sets his mind to, is never wrong, and all the women love him (I'm serious, even a woman that is introduced in a secondary role briefly has a 'if only I were younger' moment when appraising our hero). His only flaws are imposed on him from outside (he has a memory gap, and that's about the only thing that causes him to make anything resembling a mistake).
Point 2: There is a character that is put on “ice” in 2066, wakes up in 2119, and is utterly surprised by self-driving cars and voice recognition software. This book was published in 2013. Alexa came out in 2014, but there was already solid progress on voice recognition in the mid-aughts. I have a friend who was working on voice recognition software in 2006. It wouldn’t have taken too much research in 2012 to realize that there would be solid voice recognition technology well before 2066.
Self driving cars are almost certainly going to be a thing in the real universe before 2066 as well, and that was also pretty clear back in 2012, but I’m willing to cut a little more slack here as it’s before Google and Tesla got involved and really started publicizing the technology. Still, if you’re going to write science-fiction then you should probably spend some time researching the science. I'm reasonably sure a google search back in 2012 would have turned up plenty of evidence that self-driving cars will pre-date 2066, and won't require a dedicated road system!
Point 3: A lot of the story hinges around the need to keep certain things secret, and the author never really presents a compelling case for keeping them secret. At the end of the book the characters all go "yeah, it sucks, but we understand why the secrets had to be kept," whereas I felt that keeping the secrets was still totally unnecessary, and that it would have been far better to more widely disseminate the information involved.
Point 4: I'm progressive, and I still found the portrayal of the evil corporation in the novel to be a bit over the top. Corporations do evil things, but not just for the sake of doing evil things.
It's still not bad adventure fiction set in the future, but I can't really recommend it.
This book was one of the best "hard" sci-fi books I've read in a long time. Good characters (human and exosapiens), plot, and science. On to the next book in the series.
More than anything this novel felt like a confused introduction to a larger series. There's a lot going on in this book and nearly none of it is resolved at the end. This book is really just a set-up more stories, and as such is wholly unsatisfying.
Fire with Fire feels like a book where stuff just happens to our main character, Caine Riordan, and then he's really good at deducing what it all means. There are kind of bad guys, but also not really. The key reason for this is that there is no single story line that pulls through the whole book. There is a mystery right at the beginning, but it's not even close to the central mystery of the novel. There is no central mystery or question to this book, which severely limits the reader's ability to understand and sympathize with the characters.
Within the writing, be it over the space of a single scene or over the course of the whole book, I find that Gannon makes deliberately confusing cuts and jumps from one character's perspective to the next in order to have some sense of "what's happening here" and to keep the reader interested. This took me right out of the book, wondering whether I had missed something. I'd have to keep reading to finally see where this new perspective met up with the rest of the story.
While a bunch of the setup looks like it could lead to more interesting things, I finish this book fairly uninterested in the characters or their relationships, and the overall writing makes less interested still.
Fire with Fire feels like a book where stuff just happens to our main character, Caine Riordan, and then he's really good at deducing what it all means. There are kind of bad guys, but also not really. The key reason for this is that there is no single story line that pulls through the whole book. There is a mystery right at the beginning, but it's not even close to the central mystery of the novel. There is no central mystery or question to this book, which severely limits the reader's ability to understand and sympathize with the characters.
Within the writing, be it over the space of a single scene or over the course of the whole book, I find that Gannon makes deliberately confusing cuts and jumps from one character's perspective to the next in order to have some sense of "what's happening here" and to keep the reader interested. This took me right out of the book, wondering whether I had missed something. I'd have to keep reading to finally see where this new perspective met up with the rest of the story.
While a bunch of the setup looks like it could lead to more interesting things, I finish this book fairly uninterested in the characters or their relationships, and the overall writing makes less interested still.
This is the first book in a science fiction series that contains aliens, conspiracies, and military elements. I found it a mixed bag. At times, I was swept up by action sequences. At times, I was intrigued by the aliens and other aspects of the plot. Although the characterization lacked much nuance, I didn't object, being in the mood for a book with unambiguously good characters. Alas, however, there were times when I was put off by the tone, specifically by the way women were described and by the way men reacted to them. I expect there are large numbers of readers who wouldn't have been bothered by this at all, but it did bother me.
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Dropped it after reading two thirds.
The main hero is a cliche, the plot is still murky and the only female character is even more flat than the male ones.
The main hero is a cliche, the plot is still murky and the only female character is even more flat than the male ones.
What an odd book. I picked this up because Gannon keeps getting Nebula award nominations. I have zero idea why this book was nominated because it is objectively not that great.
From the too good protagonist, to the odd plot (it almost feels like two separate book ideas were combined into one after their first draft), to the horrible female character representations...
I did enjoy bits of this but I'm rounding down to 2 stars because of the undeserved hype.
From the too good protagonist, to the odd plot (it almost feels like two separate book ideas were combined into one after their first draft), to the horrible female character representations...
I did enjoy bits of this but I'm rounding down to 2 stars because of the undeserved hype.
This book seems to be ageing quickly, or perhaps it was created pre-aged. I actually had to check the initial publish date (2013) to be sure, since it seemed to be a creation of the 1980's. Despite being set in the 22nd century, auto-drive cars have only recently become a thing and gender bias is still a topic of concern/jokes. It just seems anachronistic. Even the military descriptions seem pulled from ten years ago, not 100 year in the future. Oh well.
As a thriller/mystery it works well. While I was frustrated with, what seemed like, manufactured mystery, the book's ending made the main characters' actions somewhat justified, and left me with a desire to continue reading. I won't be rushing to pick up the sequel, but it's on my list.
As a thriller/mystery it works well. While I was frustrated with, what seemed like, manufactured mystery, the book's ending made the main characters' actions somewhat justified, and left me with a desire to continue reading. I won't be rushing to pick up the sequel, but it's on my list.
Good new series. Interesting characters that are well developed. I still hate being left with a thousand questions. And the main characters a little to perfect. But I already started looking for details on the next book.
While I did like this book it was a bit of a slog to get through. It was clearly the setup for a series or a sequel, and the large amount of data dump felt more like work than an enjoyable reading experience. The main protagonist Caine was too good at everything, often taking me out of the story due to my rolling eyes. And the political situation of Earth seems way too close to today, or even outdated a bit. That being said there was an interesting mystery which remains unresolved by the end, and the aliens were pretty interesting too. My TBR pile is too big to spend more time on this bloated series however.
I think I was especially annoyed by the flaws in this book because I could see how with editing this could easily have been a super fun book I lost myself in. Instead I struggled to get through it and the plot points that interested me remained unresolved by the end.
I think I was especially annoyed by the flaws in this book because I could see how with editing this could easily have been a super fun book I lost myself in. Instead I struggled to get through it and the plot points that interested me remained unresolved by the end.