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nonesensed's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Humanity has decided on a grand experiment. Well, parts of humanity have. In a far flung future, scientists have found ways to not only terraform planets toward an Earth-like biom, they're considering experimenting with sapience. Where exactly goes the line between animal and "sentient being"? Cook up a nanovirus that will encourage rapid evolution toward cooperation and what humanity at this point in time perceive as intelligence, add a couple of monkeys, and sit back to watch it all evolve. That's the plan at least. Unlucky for the scientists, not all humans agree with playing with life in this way. The monkeys end up dead, the head scientist trapped in orbit around their planet, and the nanovirus finds a number of other hosts, with interesting results. Turns out a certain kind of spider works well with the programing - sort of.
What a ride! I flew through these 600 pages and each chapter was a delight of emotions and interesting ideas and scenarios. I'm usually character-focused when reading and thus I wasn't so sure how I'd get along with a book that spans uncountable generations of spiders. Turns out, I got along with it famously! Each chapter in the life of the evolving spiders drew me in, a complete story all on its own, and the parallel of humans and their evolution alongside of the spiders' (so to speak) was a wonderful contrast. And that ending! Five stars out of five, no notes.
Recommending this book to all science fiction fans who enjoy "what if these unlikely but interesting evolutionary and technological things were possible"-scenarios. Can't wait to read the next book in the series!
What a ride! I flew through these 600 pages and each chapter was a delight of emotions and interesting ideas and scenarios. I'm usually character-focused when reading and thus I wasn't so sure how I'd get along with a book that spans uncountable generations of spiders. Turns out, I got along with it famously! Each chapter in the life of the evolving spiders drew me in, a complete story all on its own, and the parallel of humans and their evolution alongside of the spiders' (so to speak) was a wonderful contrast. And that ending! Five stars out of five, no notes.
Recommending this book to all science fiction fans who enjoy "what if these unlikely but interesting evolutionary and technological things were possible"-scenarios. Can't wait to read the next book in the series!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Violence
If you've got arachnophobia, this is not the book for you.
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