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black_cat_iiix's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Colonisation and Classism
Moderate: Kidnapping, Blood, Death, Gun violence, and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Confinement, and Genocide
Many sentient spiders and descriptions of spider anatomyyuripiano's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
This is easily, easily one of my favorite books of all time, no questions asked.
i don't think i can sing enough praises - i'm trying to come up with things to criticize, because every time i write a review here, i'm like "this book was okay!" and then i just bash the book to pieces, but...
the pacing is snappy, the characters are incredible, and the constant tension of feeling the three main points swirling like they're in a whirlpool and you're just waiting for them to converge is such a page turner!
i suppose, if i had to point something out, some metaphors and such were very spelled out... but, coming from the internal thoughts/point of view from the classicist a lot of the time, i felt that it was fine, and honestly, i didn't particularly feel like it was talking down to the reader either.
At the end of the day, it's an incredible read, and easily the first book i would recommend to someone. If this book were 2000 pages longer, it would be too short.
Graphic: Animal death, Xenophobia, and Violence
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Sexual content
nonesensed's review against another edition
- 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
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!
Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Violence
If you've got arachnophobia, this is not the book for you.mals_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
i liked this a lot more than i thought i would. read this for a book club and i’m not much of a deep space reader, but something about this book hooked me!
it isn’t overly explanatory in its technical jargon (which loses me) so it’s more reader-friendly than i expected imo!
i wish i liked the spider pov more than i did, but Holsten was the star of the show for me. i feel like he really embodied the reader — your average guy (a historian) with little technical knowledge or ability to keep the ship afloat just waking up every century show as more shit happens in their journey to rebuild humanity. very chill and fun
this is for you if you’re looking to dip your toe into a new & adventurous series set after the fall of humanity. maybe more factions later? 👀
Moderate: Violence and Animal death
Minor: Gun violence
amorphousbl0b's review against another edition
- 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
May cure your arachnophobia.
Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, and Xenophobia
maddie_can_read's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
I had a difficult time vibing with the writing style at first. I think it was a combination of it being written in third person but then also being kind omniscient narrator (like they knew everything about past humanity -
And I just could not connect with any of the characters until almost the half way point. I don't think the author is great at characterization.
I kept going because I liked the premise and I read all these reviews talking about how weird (in a good way) the book was and just thought I'd keep going and give it some more time.
And wow, I loved it when things got weird! Having the structure of the book set up the way it is
Lots of wtf moments
Graphic: War, Cursing, Religious bigotry, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, and Sexism
Moderate: Confinement, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Blood
Minor: Suicide, Sexual content, Excrement, and Slavery
SPIDERS, insectsseverin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: War, Genocide, and Violence
Moderate: Xenophobia
chelsea_nailpolishlover's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Listen I tried.. I really did. What sucks for me the most is I didn’t listen to my gut when I read the sample of this book before outright buying it and wasting my money of this trivial piece of work.
The actions against humans and animals and the way they are thought about in this book is quite frankly racists, ablest and annoyingly ageist. Ageist is the least of its problems though.
At first when the mfc was thinking disgusting thoughts and hints of racist thoughts about people, calling them animals and monkeys (and no I don’t mean the actual monkeys, saying they were less than etc. Incredibly speciesist, even against their own species. The egoistical aspersions of the person etc I thought I could look past it as a villain origin story, of a sociopathic individual and that it wouldn’t be a huge continuing aspect in the writing. Boy was I wrong.
Even the god damn spiders had the same thinking. The author (a man) really loved to pound out the grossest most stereotypical feminist propaganda imaginable. (And I’m a feminist). It was like they wanted to make a joke of women.
The crew part was the most interesting part of this book. But the writing was all over the place. You had no idea half the time of how much time had passed. Where they were currently. What they were actually doing. And it would jump from different POV’s almost every chapter. And then you would get back and generations had passed?!?!? How the fuck is anyone supposed to keep up with the story, the timeline, or learn about literally anything when we get 5 minute snippets of bullshit plot.
Let’s not even get to the impossibilities of the science fiction aspects of this book. Clearly the author has no idea how science works. Infecting a whole planet instead of injecting the monkeys? Let’s not forget the crystal 💀 and sending signals plz. I just couldn’t fkin do it anymore.
One of my last straws honestly was one of the characters calling people ret^rded. Along with the spiders becoming religious and basically becoming a cult for this god and wanting to destroy others if they didn’t believe the same. 👎🏻🙅🏻♀️
Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Animal death, Cursing, Racism, Death, Abandonment, Classism, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Ableism, War, Slavery, Murder, Animal cruelty, Blood, Confinement, Genocide, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism and Racism
nunchikoi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
A friend recommended this after I told him about my obsession with Monarch Butterfly migration in North America, who (fun fact) specifically don't fly over Lake Superior's entire diameter: scientists figure that they make a strange detours because of a mountain that might've been there ages ago.
Moderate: Violence and Death
Heavy-handed descriptions of spiders.etosaurus's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Violence, War, and Animal death
Minor: Genocide