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4.02 AVERAGE

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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3.5+
adventurous challenging medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous mysterious
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Fantastic! The sheer amount of detail in this book is definitely not for everybody. It makes for a good long term audiobook though.

It's my second listen through and I'm thoroughly enjoying it! On to the second one.

What a literal cliffhanger. And yes, I do mean literal in the sense that some characters are now dangling over a cliff.

I've heard lots of great things about this and the other book in the Commonwealth Saga, so I came into it with high expectations. It started off pretty slowly, with tons of disjointed characters, but eventually, some of them came together to contribute to the general plot. While the story itself was engaging, it took way too long to get started and there was just too much filler. It got to the point where the big reveals had less impact because I was annoyed at how long it took me to get to them.

My favorite parts were the Silfen paths even though Ozzie is one of my least favorite characters. I was also pretty annoyed by the Silfen. I'm not a fan of the mysterious, omnipotent aliens which seem like just a cheap plot device.

Not sure if I'll read the next book, even though I'm eager to know what happens. I don't think I can sit through another 1000+ pages of filler. I do want to find out if Tochee ever finds his way home though. He's my favorite.

Oh, what a tediously long book. And it ends on a cliffhanger! The good: interesting premises, great description, strong writing, plausible science. The bad -- ridiculously long with pointless endless digression, characters without much character or dimension, a huge amount of sexism, obliviousness to the reality that a lot of people aren't heterosexual, and said cliffhanger.

This is a really tough one to nail down. It's like it was a 700-page prologue, establishing a pretty big cast of characters and settings and background. Honestly, how much I like it will end up depending mostly on how much the sequel delivers. Bottom line: plodding at times, but intriguing concepts and exciting moments interspersed throughout.

Finished it a few minutes ago. My only reaction thusfar has been: "WTF WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME IT WAS A GODDAMNED SAGA."