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slipperyjohn's review
A Whole Lot of Nothing
Halfway through the book and the main character has basically no agency. He only exists as a camera for the reader, a place to have the plot happen nearby. Every other character in the book is more interesting than he is, but none of them are particularly compelling either.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of the previous book, but at least that book had the draw of an incredibly fascinating and truly alien species to learn about. This book has none. Oh it goes on and on about all the various post human variants, but it’s all stuff we’ve seen before. Even then he constantly subverts any special attributes that these variants might have, repeatedly showing them to be ineffectual in circumstance after circumstance. Really what I get from this book, and the last, is that the author has a really low opinion of consciousness and sapience in general, but shows little to back it up.
if you can tolerate some exceedingly poor characterization in exchange for something fascinating to explore, pick up the previous book. Pass on this one.
Halfway through the book and the main character has basically no agency. He only exists as a camera for the reader, a place to have the plot happen nearby. Every other character in the book is more interesting than he is, but none of them are particularly compelling either.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of the previous book, but at least that book had the draw of an incredibly fascinating and truly alien species to learn about. This book has none. Oh it goes on and on about all the various post human variants, but it’s all stuff we’ve seen before. Even then he constantly subverts any special attributes that these variants might have, repeatedly showing them to be ineffectual in circumstance after circumstance. Really what I get from this book, and the last, is that the author has a really low opinion of consciousness and sapience in general, but shows little to back it up.
if you can tolerate some exceedingly poor characterization in exchange for something fascinating to explore, pick up the previous book. Pass on this one.
charlieglynn's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-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? It's complicated
3.25
fbk's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
4.0
tack's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Unlikeable and unknowledgeable main character that scrapes the surface of consciousness issues and saying something super interesting about them. Definitely not as fun of a mystery to parse as the first book, and I think it’s a bit of a miss in terms of story cohesion by the end, as well as my interest in learning the answers.
duncan_black's review
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
mebius's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
tomstbr's review
3.0
OK, so I see Watts has some faults. Namely, I never got a clear picture of the spaceship, Crown of Thorns. There is a rarely a clear sense of place and it can get confusing.
That said this was still a great read. I felt the characters were more relatable in this than Blindsight (but the bad guys, including Valerie and Bicams, just as unknowable). The thought provocation was fantastic, this time with Watts tackling free will as opposed to consciousness. It didn't work quite so well as in Blindsight, but to see everyone played off against each other as puppets was great. I'm sure I missed some deep philosophy and science so I will have to re-read. The addition of zombies was cool, the split between military zombies with a 'switch' and plain old viral zombies (leading the to the title, echopraxia, look it up). I was a bit disappointed in the ending though, because I just didn't understnad it. Probably my fault for reading to quickly. After some thought and forum discussion it makes more sense, though there a few interpretations you could have. Which of course makes it a richer experience.
So overall a great read but 3 stars because it didn't feel as polished and because it felt a lot more dense (in a meandering sense) than Blindsight.
That said this was still a great read. I felt the characters were more relatable in this than Blindsight (but the bad guys, including Valerie and Bicams, just as unknowable). The thought provocation was fantastic, this time with Watts tackling free will as opposed to consciousness. It didn't work quite so well as in Blindsight, but to see everyone played off against each other as puppets was great. I'm sure I missed some deep philosophy and science so I will have to re-read. The addition of zombies was cool, the split between military zombies with a 'switch' and plain old viral zombies (leading the to the title, echopraxia, look it up). I was a bit disappointed in the ending though, because I just didn't understnad it. Probably my fault for reading to quickly. After some thought and forum discussion it makes more sense, though there a few interpretations you could have. Which of course makes it a richer experience.
So overall a great read but 3 stars because it didn't feel as polished and because it felt a lot more dense (in a meandering sense) than Blindsight.
e_v_a__c's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
ash7898's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Idk, this book was too complex for me to rate it higher. It has some very interesting concepts and I'm sure reading the footnotes more thoroughly or even a re-read might make this much more enjoyable.