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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
4 stars. There are a lot of cool ideas in this doorstopper, and the excellent plot strands intersect nicely. I particularly enjoyed the politics and anything involving the Prime aliens. There are a ton of details. These sometimes enhance the formidable world-building, but other times they are simply extraneous, and needlessly extend the book; this is particularly true of the physical descriptions. The book would have been stronger if it was a couple hundred pages shorter. The characters are merely competent. The conclusion was weak; even for a first book in a series I would have liked the plot to have a natural stopping point.
Many great books (Brave New World, 1984, etc.) developed fascinating worlds and characters in less than 300 pages. I can't abide books that spend 300 pages spewing descriptions of unconnected events. Exactly the same experience that I had with Way of Kings.
But, after 300 pages into the book, there was still no real plot. There was a description of an occluded star. And the good guys were going to build a ship to go see it. The even chose a captain! It takes me about a minute to read a page, so after six hours of reading rambling descriptions ... nothing really had happened.
If I wanted to read descriptions of neato sci-fi stuff, I'd just open up some RPG manuals from the '80s.
Didn't care reading many, many pages at a time that described the fauna of an alien planet... or how some new character is rich, vapid ... and you have no idea why they're even in the story. That happened a lot.
Not going to spend another 300 pages to get to the "good stuff".
This seems to be the problem with 1,000 page books. I don't want to spend 40 hours of reading unconnected, lengthy descriptions of unrelated events, places and characters before any semblance of a plot appears ... and maybe it never will.
But, after 300 pages into the book, there was still no real plot. There was a description of an occluded star. And the good guys were going to build a ship to go see it. The even chose a captain! It takes me about a minute to read a page, so after six hours of reading rambling descriptions ... nothing really had happened.
If I wanted to read descriptions of neato sci-fi stuff, I'd just open up some RPG manuals from the '80s.
Didn't care reading many, many pages at a time that described the fauna of an alien planet... or how some new character is rich, vapid ... and you have no idea why they're even in the story. That happened a lot.
Not going to spend another 300 pages to get to the "good stuff".
This seems to be the problem with 1,000 page books. I don't want to spend 40 hours of reading unconnected, lengthy descriptions of unrelated events, places and characters before any semblance of a plot appears ... and maybe it never will.
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
A hard sci-fi novel set in a technologically advanced future. The very well thought through world building explores social effects of two technologies: controlled artificial wormholes and rejuvenation. But there are many other interesting technologies - and those that have already started to emerge after the book was published are described in an eerily prescient way.
The book has the same sense of wonder and adventure as Ringworld and Rendezvous with Rama. And aliens are even more alien than in Children of Time.
Although the plot is engaging, characterization is less profound and less believable. I definitely enjoyed ideas and the story in this book more than its psychology.
The book has the same sense of wonder and adventure as Ringworld and Rendezvous with Rama. And aliens are even more alien than in Children of Time.
Although the plot is engaging, characterization is less profound and less believable. I definitely enjoyed ideas and the story in this book more than its psychology.
adventurous
mysterious
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:
Complicated
Por ahora es una novela magnífica, voy de cabeza a por la segunda parte :-)
Slow starting, huge cast of characters but epic and well written. Some characters are a bit stereotypical but necessary. I also think rejuvination would affect society a bit more strongly but perhaps that is a topic for another book.
3.5 stars
Cons:
- dense
- way too many POV characters and I couldn’t track of who was who, feel like I needed a reference chart
Pros:
- awesome world-building
- plot ticked along at a decent rate
Cons:
- dense
- way too many POV characters and I couldn’t track of who was who, feel like I needed a reference chart
Pros:
- awesome world-building
- plot ticked along at a decent rate
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No