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tarshka's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.0
It was a bit strange. I don't know really what I was expecting exactly, but it wasn't quite that. Even though the little description blurb give away far too much of the story.
samstrong's review against another edition
3.0
Quite fun with a lot of charm, but the entire plot hinges on people and their super-intelligent AI ships being pretty darned stupid.
As others have mentioned, there were a lot of errors in the text.
As others have mentioned, there were a lot of errors in the text.
futuregazer's review against another edition
2.0
I have had a hard time determining what to rate this book. On the one hand, I got very little actual enjoyment out of it, so normally that would be hands-down a one-star. On the other hand, it has a good premise, reasonable themes, and seems like it would have been a very good book if I had come across it in the second grade. Unfortunately, I have no idea what age level audience the piece was originally aimed at, and although all the parts are there that could make this a stellar novel, it is as if those parts were simply set in front of the reader in a pile and were never assembled. It was just the most.....milktoast version of Robinson Crusoe in space with AI personalities that I have ever encountered (yes, there are definitely more of this paradigm).
So, do I give it 2 stars because it had a good idea, but did not follow through with good execution? Maybe.....the other thing that leans me towards that is that this feels very much like a first novel, which gets credit where due in my estimation. Though....hmmmm.....apparently not according to goodreads publication years? Perhaps then a novel that was worked on early with others that got published before it. Anyway, my point is, it's not bad, just not good.
I suppose I should point out the other thing that makes me lean towards 1 star is the portrayal of the potentially interesting AI characters as entirely human. Not just human-ish, but with some unique features of their character that are hard to parse since they are AI, and not just human-like because they feel and therefore are like us. No, they are portrayed as humans. The AI ship with no hands is constantly touching, stroking, and rubbing fingers along the brains of the robots. They all blush. It takes me completely out of the story - for though the "fingers" are obviously analogy for the electronic interaction of systems; maintaining this analogy is distracting and leads to some foolishness at times. For instance, there is the analogy that the ship is speaking aloud to the robots. Yet, at one point, she "bypasses" the regular comms channel with the robots in order to be quiet, and analogously "speaks directly to them" instead. This makes no scientific sense, since any communication between them and the ship must be mediated by some sort of electromagnetic interaction. If it had been written as "she used an unusually low, hard to detect frequency", then that would have been fine. It is a small mistake, but only made because the characters are so drawn as human that the author forgets how they can and should be different, and that convenient analogies only work as long as they make sense. A similar thing happens when early on, the ship is unable to use sounds to speak to the robots, because the air in the ship is gone. Bravo. But, then later in the book, the ship is constantly "hearing" the burbles and beeps of the robots. Is this a mistake? Or are the burbles and beeps analogy for something other than sound that was not made entirely clear? Hearing all these things so often takes me out of the story, there is a lot of repetition of these actions, including the "blushing". And in the end, the characters, although lightly empathetic, are just too weak and undeveloped to make me really care about them.
Gah, it is that feeling of wanting to like something, and knowing you would if only a few of its basics were changed. But, I have no doubt that the author and writing will improve in time. The only way for that to happen is more books, so it is all to the reading community's benefit in the end I suppose!
So, do I give it 2 stars because it had a good idea, but did not follow through with good execution? Maybe.....the other thing that leans me towards that is that this feels very much like a first novel, which gets credit where due in my estimation. Though....hmmmm.....apparently not according to goodreads publication years? Perhaps then a novel that was worked on early with others that got published before it. Anyway, my point is, it's not bad, just not good.
I suppose I should point out the other thing that makes me lean towards 1 star is the portrayal of the potentially interesting AI characters as entirely human. Not just human-ish, but with some unique features of their character that are hard to parse since they are AI, and not just human-like because they feel and therefore are like us. No, they are portrayed as humans. The AI ship with no hands is constantly touching, stroking, and rubbing fingers along the brains of the robots. They all blush. It takes me completely out of the story - for though the "fingers" are obviously analogy for the electronic interaction of systems; maintaining this analogy is distracting and leads to some foolishness at times. For instance, there is the analogy that the ship is speaking aloud to the robots. Yet, at one point, she "bypasses" the regular comms channel with the robots in order to be quiet, and analogously "speaks directly to them" instead. This makes no scientific sense, since any communication between them and the ship must be mediated by some sort of electromagnetic interaction. If it had been written as "she used an unusually low, hard to detect frequency", then that would have been fine. It is a small mistake, but only made because the characters are so drawn as human that the author forgets how they can and should be different, and that convenient analogies only work as long as they make sense. A similar thing happens when early on, the ship is unable to use sounds to speak to the robots, because the air in the ship is gone. Bravo. But, then later in the book, the ship is constantly "hearing" the burbles and beeps of the robots. Is this a mistake? Or are the burbles and beeps analogy for something other than sound that was not made entirely clear? Hearing all these things so often takes me out of the story, there is a lot of repetition of these actions, including the "blushing". And in the end, the characters, although lightly empathetic, are just too weak and undeveloped to make me really care about them.
Gah, it is that feeling of wanting to like something, and knowing you would if only a few of its basics were changed. But, I have no doubt that the author and writing will improve in time. The only way for that to happen is more books, so it is all to the reading community's benefit in the end I suppose!
lauralh05's review against another edition
3.0
I wasn't sure about Serengeti at first. The characters seemed introduced in a forced manner, introduced by the ship AI in a way that seemed as though it was the ship's first mission with the crew yet it also seemed as though the ship already knew a lot about them. It felt odd.
However, once we were past the first quarter of the book and focused on Serengeti and her TIGs, the flow seemed much better. Overall I did like the world and concept and enjoyed Serengeti.
However, once we were past the first quarter of the book and focused on Serengeti and her TIGs, the flow seemed much better. Overall I did like the world and concept and enjoyed Serengeti.
lexish's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
trike's review against another edition
1.0
There’s an old joke that goes, “The food here is terrible! And the portions are too small!”
Yeah, that.
This is basically Wall-E on a sentient spaceship. It is neither fish nor fowl, which is not a bad thing in and of itself, but it starts off as a rip-roaring Space Opera and then becomes an extended napfest as the titular AI goes to sleep and wakes up every few years. No idea what the point of that was, and the promises made in the first half are not kept in the second. Very dissatisfying. Hence the portions.
I was already struggling with the space battle parts, because the crew was ridiculously unprofessional and overly emo, so when they’re shunted offstage in favor of the little robot it was no big loss. But it makes me wonder why so much time was spent on them. The AIs run everything, making the humans superfluous supercargo. Why are they even on board? Serengeti tolerates them the way I tolerate my Chihuahua. He adds nothing to my life other than biting me, pooping on the floor and big vet bills. (I didn’t choose him, he was foisted upon me over my objections, but I don’t discard pets that are annoyingly inconvenient.) I certainly wouldn’t take him into battle with me, because he’d be worse than useless: he’d be a distraction that would get me killed. Same with the crew on this ship.
This is not well thought-out.
The robots are problematic, too. Tig (Wall-E) cannibalizes parts of the ship to build a girlfriend, Tilly. They later build another bot that they treat like a daughter. But if “building a bot” equates to parent/child then Tig and Tilly are... ew, ick. And it *is* a simplistic heterosexual relationship, something that is stressed over and over. Why? Why would robots fall into this biological, social paradigm? Why assign gender to them at all?
I looked at the author page here on Goodreads and the Twitter she links to is a repulsively racist pro-Trump MAGA rant. So that answers why the robots have a nuclear family against all reason, I guess. See for yourself: https://mobile.twitter.com/Rockwell_JB
Yeah, that.
This is basically Wall-E on a sentient spaceship. It is neither fish nor fowl, which is not a bad thing in and of itself, but it starts off as a rip-roaring Space Opera and then becomes an extended napfest as the titular AI goes to sleep and wakes up every few years. No idea what the point of that was, and the promises made in the first half are not kept in the second. Very dissatisfying. Hence the portions.
I was already struggling with the space battle parts, because the crew was ridiculously unprofessional and overly emo, so when they’re shunted offstage in favor of the little robot it was no big loss. But it makes me wonder why so much time was spent on them. The AIs run everything, making the humans superfluous supercargo. Why are they even on board? Serengeti tolerates them the way I tolerate my Chihuahua. He adds nothing to my life other than biting me, pooping on the floor and big vet bills. (I didn’t choose him, he was foisted upon me over my objections, but I don’t discard pets that are annoyingly inconvenient.) I certainly wouldn’t take him into battle with me, because he’d be worse than useless: he’d be a distraction that would get me killed. Same with the crew on this ship.
This is not well thought-out.
The robots are problematic, too. Tig (Wall-E) cannibalizes parts of the ship to build a girlfriend, Tilly. They later build another bot that they treat like a daughter. But if “building a bot” equates to parent/child then Tig and Tilly are... ew, ick. And it *is* a simplistic heterosexual relationship, something that is stressed over and over. Why? Why would robots fall into this biological, social paradigm? Why assign gender to them at all?
I looked at the author page here on Goodreads and the Twitter she links to is a repulsively racist pro-Trump MAGA rant. So that answers why the robots have a nuclear family against all reason, I guess. See for yourself: https://mobile.twitter.com/Rockwell_JB
kim_hoag's review against another edition
3.0
This is the beginning of the series that Hecate was the prequel for, but I liked the prequel better. While Hecate was about the captain, Henricksen, with the departed AI, Hecate, in the background, this is the opposite: the AI Serengeti is on her own while Henricksen remains in the background, though not fatally departed. The ship, it's AI, actually, is fighting to survive after being torn apart in battle. What is left of her crew is in stasis in the rescue pod but the damaged clamps can't release it. The scenario is an interesting one and plays with the question, what constitutes life. My problem with the book is one of language. I was disappointed in the too humanly way the AIs spoke of themselves and to each other. Would they use words that humans choose specifically because they are descriptive of a physical/ emotional state? For example, an image causes the AI to “shiver.” A robot “sobbed”. A robot's non-liquid eyes were “filled with curiosity and fear.” The youngest, procreated robot has to have a childish voice. It is one thing for AIs to discover they live and another to go the easiest route and anthropomorphize them. It is a good story but, for me, the author didn't go far enough in her exploration of AIs emerging as independent life forms. Heinlein handled it better in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, as did the more current author, Becky Chambers.
kfip's review against another edition
5.0
Loved it sooo much. Loved Serengeti and Tig. I raced through it having to know how all things worked out. Edge of the seat reading.
squirrelfish's review against another edition
5.0
An interesting story of AIs and robots and a shipwreck in space. The protagonist ship AI is a well formed character and her emotions are well communicated. The characters, human and not, are well distinguished, with full emotional lives. The plot is fairly simple, but the book is well-paced and satisfying. I'm looking forward to more from this author.
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