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aan2328's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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? No
4.5
shards23's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-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? Yes
4.5
One of the best sci fi books I've ever read. Very unique concepts that feel almost believable as far as that goes for something set millions of years in the future.
richter10's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-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
3.5
erikinthedistrict's review
tense
slow-paced
3.5
Wild premise and interesting execution. A bit slow and would have liked more exploration of the universe instead of what was fundamentally a moderately boring plot
You can definitely see the influence this had on a lot of people, it felt like I was reading a Stellaris campaign for like half of it.
You can definitely see the influence this had on a lot of people, it felt like I was reading a Stellaris campaign for like half of it.
rajaxar1's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
allthingsnerdy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
being_b's review against another edition
3.0
I found myself skimming more and more as I read farther. The ideas were intriguing, but were bogged down by the Tines' World intrigue, politics, and endless walking through the underbrush.
gwenhwyfar's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Once again, I am starting this off by stating that my summary reviews are for my own memory-related purposes.
Okay, so a lot happens in this book. Huge in scale, lots of characters, some of whom you care quite a bit about, crazy concepts thrown at you including the universe being divided up into Zones of thought and alien politics.
So this was my summary for the first third of the book:
The Milky Way is divided up into 4 Zones of Thought that radiate outward, starting with the unthinking depths, the slow zone, then the beyond and the transcend. Wikipedia has a page on this book and you can read up on the zones without spoiling the plot, so I won't waste time here. Faster than light travel isn't possible in the slow zone, so most of life that we see and interact with, including humanity, is in the Beyond. Within the Transcend live "Powers" that have transcended from their mortal or artificial beginnings. The book starts off with human researchers looking for a how-to guide to transcend, essentially, and end up unleashing a very old and evil Power, heretoforth called the Perversion. (note- later called Blight). A human family and a bunch of other kids in cryo manage to escape but crash land on the planet of a dog-like people, which will eventually be called Tines. First contact goes extremely poorly, and only the kids, Johanna and Jefri survive. The narrative also introduces a few Tines as POV characters, mostly Peregrine and Lord Steel. The Tines are complicated, both politically and biologically. Johanna and Jefri end up getting taken by rival political factions. The Tines have sort of a shared consciousness thing going on, like one soul split up into up to 6 people. I'm going to mostly gloss over that, but experimentations are afoot. Johanna is taken to the Woodcarvers faction by Peregrine and his friend Scriber, Jefri with the Flenser faction headed by Mr Steel. Jefri has been able to visit the crash site a few times, and get a distress signal out. MEANWHILE. There's a Relay station for communications purposes kinda nearby, mostly populated with an insectoid type alien called Vrinimi. They pick up on the Perversion, although they initially underestimate the danger. The Perversion also catches the attention of another Power, this one benevolent (probably), heretoforth called Old One. Old One is trying to find out more about what the humans are up to, and wouldn't you just know that there's a human on Relay, named Ravna. Ravna is a main POV, we see a lot of her. To force an interaction with her, Old One cobbles together a new human from old parts named Pham Nuwen. Pham does seem to have memories from an earlier time, and he makes a random sexist comment that I'm having trouble disregarding. Anyhow Ravna recieves the distress signal from Jefri, and was in talks with a couple Skroderiders - described as small ornamental trees in a 6 wheel cart - named Blueshell and Greenstalk about using their ship - Out Of Band II, or OOB. The Perversion then starts making its moves on Old One and Relay, destroying both. Old One downloads as much as he can into Pham, rendering him unconscious. Ravna, Blueshell, Greenstalk and Pham making a very daring and exciting escape from the destruction of Relay and agree on the quest to go rescue Jefri.
Fwoof! I even managed to accidentally leave some things out there. A thing that may stop the Blight escaped with Johanna and Jefri's family and looks like this crazy mold on their crashed ship. Jefri is put with a group of 8 puppies who are extremely good with mathematics; they bond fiercely together and often become known as AmdiJefri. All throughout the book there are posts on the Net - a version of social media across the galaxy where things are distorted, not just through language translation, but through blatant lies and bad actors. Through these you got little epistolary sections that helped clear up what was going on in other places around the galaxy.
The events of the rest of the book are no less tense. It turns out the Skroderiders were uplifted by the Blight and this makes them vulnerable; once this revelation hits Pham acts like a total shitbag to the rest of the crew and nearly murders Blueshell and Greenstalk. A bunch of butterfly shaped dicks calling themselves the Alliance blame humanity for the release of the Blight and declare a pogrom against humanity. They attack Ravna's homeworld, Sjandra Kei, and, when there's a run in while getting emergency repairs at a place called Harmonious Repose (RIP) start chasing after Ravna and her crew. The refugees from Sjandra Kei also join the pursuit, and a third fleet that is being controlled by the Blight. And then there's everything happening on the Tines' World - Woodcarver has a traitor in her midst, Vendacious, who kills Scriber in a heart-wrenching scene. Johanna helps Woodcarver, Peregrine and another guy named Scrupilo learn how to build cannons and stuff so they can retake the starship. Mr Steel manipulates AmdiJefri and Ravna for his own weapon and fortification upgrades, including special radiojackets. Vendacious nearly leads Woodcarver to ruin, but Peregrine suspects the plot and stops Vendacious from murdering Johanna. Vendacious then gives away that Jefri is alive. The attack on starship hill coincides with the Arrival of Ravna and friends, because of course it does. There's a lot of very thrilling chaos and Blueshell has to sacrifice themself to rescue AmdiJefri, proving once again Pham could fuck off. The ultimate goal, however, was to get Pham to the mold on the space ship, where it combines with the godshatter of the Old One to cause a big wave of the slow zone to envelop all of the Blight, rendering them in a molasses like stasis, killing Pham in the process. Ravna is left of the Tines world with Johanna and Jefri and the 150 other children in cryosleep. Not a task I envy.
I really liked the ending for this, it was wholly satisfying. I think that counts for a lot, what elevates it to 5 stars over 4.
Excellent novel.
Okay, so a lot happens in this book. Huge in scale, lots of characters, some of whom you care quite a bit about, crazy concepts thrown at you including the universe being divided up into Zones of thought and alien politics.
So this was my summary for the first third of the book:
The Milky Way is divided up into 4 Zones of Thought that radiate outward, starting with the unthinking depths, the slow zone, then the beyond and the transcend. Wikipedia has a page on this book and you can read up on the zones without spoiling the plot, so I won't waste time here. Faster than light travel isn't possible in the slow zone, so most of life that we see and interact with, including humanity, is in the Beyond. Within the Transcend live "Powers" that have transcended from their mortal or artificial beginnings. The book starts off with human researchers looking for a how-to guide to transcend, essentially, and end up unleashing a very old and evil Power, heretoforth called the Perversion. (note- later called Blight). A human family and a bunch of other kids in cryo manage to escape but crash land on the planet of a dog-like people, which will eventually be called Tines. First contact goes extremely poorly, and only the kids, Johanna and Jefri survive. The narrative also introduces a few Tines as POV characters, mostly Peregrine and Lord Steel. The Tines are complicated, both politically and biologically. Johanna and Jefri end up getting taken by rival political factions. The Tines have sort of a shared consciousness thing going on, like one soul split up into up to 6 people. I'm going to mostly gloss over that, but experimentations are afoot. Johanna is taken to the Woodcarvers faction by Peregrine and his friend Scriber, Jefri with the Flenser faction headed by Mr Steel. Jefri has been able to visit the crash site a few times, and get a distress signal out. MEANWHILE. There's a Relay station for communications purposes kinda nearby, mostly populated with an insectoid type alien called Vrinimi. They pick up on the Perversion, although they initially underestimate the danger. The Perversion also catches the attention of another Power, this one benevolent (probably), heretoforth called Old One. Old One is trying to find out more about what the humans are up to, and wouldn't you just know that there's a human on Relay, named Ravna. Ravna is a main POV, we see a lot of her. To force an interaction with her, Old One cobbles together a new human from old parts named Pham Nuwen. Pham does seem to have memories from an earlier time, and he makes a random sexist comment that I'm having trouble disregarding. Anyhow Ravna recieves the distress signal from Jefri, and was in talks with a couple Skroderiders - described as small ornamental trees in a 6 wheel cart - named Blueshell and Greenstalk about using their ship - Out Of Band II, or OOB. The Perversion then starts making its moves on Old One and Relay, destroying both. Old One downloads as much as he can into Pham, rendering him unconscious. Ravna, Blueshell, Greenstalk and Pham making a very daring and exciting escape from the destruction of Relay and agree on the quest to go rescue Jefri.
Fwoof! I even managed to accidentally leave some things out there. A thing that may stop the Blight escaped with Johanna and Jefri's family and looks like this crazy mold on their crashed ship. Jefri is put with a group of 8 puppies who are extremely good with mathematics; they bond fiercely together and often become known as AmdiJefri. All throughout the book there are posts on the Net - a version of social media across the galaxy where things are distorted, not just through language translation, but through blatant lies and bad actors. Through these you got little epistolary sections that helped clear up what was going on in other places around the galaxy.
The events of the rest of the book are no less tense. It turns out the Skroderiders were uplifted by the Blight and this makes them vulnerable; once this revelation hits Pham acts like a total shitbag to the rest of the crew and nearly murders Blueshell and Greenstalk. A bunch of butterfly shaped dicks calling themselves the Alliance blame humanity for the release of the Blight and declare a pogrom against humanity. They attack Ravna's homeworld, Sjandra Kei, and, when there's a run in while getting emergency repairs at a place called Harmonious Repose (RIP) start chasing after Ravna and her crew. The refugees from Sjandra Kei also join the pursuit, and a third fleet that is being controlled by the Blight. And then there's everything happening on the Tines' World - Woodcarver has a traitor in her midst, Vendacious, who kills Scriber in a heart-wrenching scene. Johanna helps Woodcarver, Peregrine and another guy named Scrupilo learn how to build cannons and stuff so they can retake the starship. Mr Steel manipulates AmdiJefri and Ravna for his own weapon and fortification upgrades, including special radiojackets. Vendacious nearly leads Woodcarver to ruin, but Peregrine suspects the plot and stops Vendacious from murdering Johanna. Vendacious then gives away that Jefri is alive. The attack on starship hill coincides with the Arrival of Ravna and friends, because of course it does. There's a lot of very thrilling chaos and Blueshell has to sacrifice themself to rescue AmdiJefri, proving once again Pham could fuck off. The ultimate goal, however, was to get Pham to the mold on the space ship, where it combines with the godshatter of the Old One to cause a big wave of the slow zone to envelop all of the Blight, rendering them in a molasses like stasis, killing Pham in the process. Ravna is left of the Tines world with Johanna and Jefri and the 150 other children in cryosleep. Not a task I envy.
I really liked the ending for this, it was wholly satisfying. I think that counts for a lot, what elevates it to 5 stars over 4.
Excellent novel.