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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
PS: I read this because Outer Bounds was brilliant. This is no Outer Bounds, not even close.
Aside from a few slow parts this was a great read. I will be on the lookout for more Zero stories.
If i recall, i even grabbed the second book, tho this one was by far the best.
If you've had family in the military, this book may resonate more with you than i suspect it has with me, tho i have a pretty good empathic imagination.
The novel also benefits from POVs that are not human. The "outsider" perspective adds a lot to the narrative. Highly recommended! Read it!
Sci Fi is not my usual reading genre. Sci Fi movies and shows, sure. But for some reason, I'm not crazy about reading it. However, a couple of friends recommended this book and I wanted something different, so this is what I settled on. It wasn't my cup of tea, but I was enjoying it well enough. But somewhere around 25% I got really engrossed. I couldn't point to a particular plot point or scene that was the turning point, but I just suddenly wanted to know what happened to Joe next.
The biggest surprise of this book was how emotional I got at points. Sure, you want to cheer on the hero, but at some points, I was near tears. Others, I was frustrated with the characters obtuseness. And during the battle scenes near the end, I was so anxious, I needed a drink! King did a spectacular job of inserting those bits that really got to you in the story while building her characters and world.
I will say that my one complaint is I felt as though King took a page from George RR Martin's playbook and killed virtually every character she makes you care about. And the ones that didn't die, you suddenly hate. Okay, not all of them. But I'm left wondering if Libby is alive or dead and if it's really Maggie at the end or a Huouyt working under deep cover. (I might be the only one thinking that, but still.) It breaks my heart that Joe did everything he could to fight his prophecy and was left with no one and makes me feel like Libby should have KNOWN he wasn't able to fight. They were reading each other's eyes, right? Ugh. Yet somehow, I'm not sure that those things will even have a role in book 2, except as ghosts of psychological damage in Joe. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will most likely read the others in this series.
If i recall, i even grabbed the second book, tho this one was by far the best.
If you've had family in the military, this book may resonate more with you than i suspect it has with me, tho i have a pretty good empathic imagination.
OK, so this isn't a really bad book. There's a number of characters I kinda like and I hope at least some of them will stick around for the series. But oh god, seriously, being character driven doesn't mean you can use every trope of bad military SF and expect us to just smile and nod. King tries, she really does. Some of the stuff I hated through the first half of the book turned out to have a better justification than I was hoping for. The Stupid Evil aliens turned out to be more of the exception than the rule and it at least looks like their training methods are supposed to have been screwed up. Which is good, because they are. On the other hand, it's pretty obvious King has no clue what plasma actually is or does.
Also, the aliens are ridiculous. Giant invisible snakes with super poison, huge cat like creatures with invulnerable scales. and prophets that see the future because they live there.