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wolfshine's review
5.0
I’m not much on science fiction, but the premise of this book had me interested, and I am definitely glad I gave this book a chance.
It’s crazy wonderful in the ideas it presents because I found a lot of the time I was listening, I was pondering things about the ideas of the multiverse and parallel universe. In this audiobook, we are introduced to a group of scientists who have perfected traveling to other universes, ones that they call “beta lines” to see if and how it affects their own line, known as the “alpha” line, or so Mary believes. When she finds out the truth about the mission, that it’s all a design to steal weapons from the future, she is upset.
From there, things start to go downhill until she is the only one left alive on her mission. Alone in space, she comes to a startling realization and embraces it with open arms.
In a lot of ways, I love that the plot followed the scheme of the hero’s journey, but my favorite part about it was when it strayed. For instance, it is typical for the hero of the story to deny any darkness within them, but after her experience, Mary embraced it with open arms, becoming the future that she was shocked to find out was hers.
Very cool listen.
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
It’s crazy wonderful in the ideas it presents because I found a lot of the time I was listening, I was pondering things about the ideas of the multiverse and parallel universe. In this audiobook, we are introduced to a group of scientists who have perfected traveling to other universes, ones that they call “beta lines” to see if and how it affects their own line, known as the “alpha” line, or so Mary believes. When she finds out the truth about the mission, that it’s all a design to steal weapons from the future, she is upset.
From there, things start to go downhill until she is the only one left alive on her mission. Alone in space, she comes to a startling realization and embraces it with open arms.
In a lot of ways, I love that the plot followed the scheme of the hero’s journey, but my favorite part about it was when it strayed. For instance, it is typical for the hero of the story to deny any darkness within them, but after her experience, Mary embraced it with open arms, becoming the future that she was shocked to find out was hers.
Very cool listen.
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
hyperashley's review
5.0
Going into this book I was a little worried I wasn't going to like it. I thought it would be too science-y and it has a lot of mixed reviews on Goodreads. I am so glad I ignored all of those bad reviews and gave this gem a shot. I LOVED this book, it is one of my favorite sci-fi books that I have read to date. It was amazing and it didn't get too much into the details of all of the science stuff, which I liked because it would have flown right over my head if so. I'm not going to go into too much detail about things because I don't want to give any spoilers.
Mary along with a small crew of men and another woman are on the space station Janus. They are exploring events throughout history via time travel; when suddenly a mysterious creature starts showing up with them. A creature that has learned to time travel as well as they can. When the creature is provoked during one of their incursions it causes a multitude of problems for Mary and the rest of the crew.
I liked all of the characters even the "bad" ones. I really don't think there is enough good things to say about this book. I don't want to come off as a overzealous sales-woman but I really did enjoy this book. Even though there were so many good qualities of course there were a few things that I didn't like, not many though. There were a couple of moments that I felt the story was getting a little repetitive and kind of tedious. It made me feel like I was just waiting for something to happen and then something finally happened.
That plot twist about midway through was enough to make my jaw drop. I really did not see that coming, maybe I'm just not that observant but it was shocking to me. Then Mary meets Magus (Mags) and I was saddened when I thought she was going to kill Mags. I want my own Mags as a friend because who wouldn't want a talking worm, that happens to be a genius? Then shortly after that it got tedious again until the Xeno started showing up in timelines again.
At first I was confused about the beginning, mainly the first chapter because it didn't seem to fit with the rest of the book. The ending fixed that confusion though and made it clear why the book started at a point so much earlier than the rest of the book. I read some other reviews that said they felt like they were reading two different books and I didn't feel that way. Yes, the first half is completely different from the second half but it didn't feel like a different book, at least not to me.
I was wondering how it was all going to end and I couldn't think of a better way. Mags and Mary made a cute duo, I would miss human contact after awhile but at least she had someone to communicate with for the remainder of her life.
For more of my reviews visit: http://www.hyperashley.com/
Mary along with a small crew of men and another woman are on the space station Janus. They are exploring events throughout history via time travel; when suddenly a mysterious creature starts showing up with them. A creature that has learned to time travel as well as they can. When the creature is provoked during one of their incursions it causes a multitude of problems for Mary and the rest of the crew.
I liked all of the characters even the "bad" ones. I really don't think there is enough good things to say about this book. I don't want to come off as a overzealous sales-woman but I really did enjoy this book. Even though there were so many good qualities of course there were a few things that I didn't like, not many though. There were a couple of moments that I felt the story was getting a little repetitive and kind of tedious. It made me feel like I was just waiting for something to happen and then something finally happened.
That plot twist about midway through was enough to make my jaw drop. I really did not see that coming, maybe I'm just not that observant but it was shocking to me. Then Mary meets Magus (Mags) and I was saddened when I thought she was going to kill Mags. I want my own Mags as a friend because who wouldn't want a talking worm, that happens to be a genius? Then shortly after that it got tedious again until the Xeno started showing up in timelines again.
At first I was confused about the beginning, mainly the first chapter because it didn't seem to fit with the rest of the book. The ending fixed that confusion though and made it clear why the book started at a point so much earlier than the rest of the book. I read some other reviews that said they felt like they were reading two different books and I didn't feel that way. Yes, the first half is completely different from the second half but it didn't feel like a different book, at least not to me.
I was wondering how it was all going to end and I couldn't think of a better way. Mags and Mary made a cute duo, I would miss human contact after awhile but at least she had someone to communicate with for the remainder of her life.
For more of my reviews visit: http://www.hyperashley.com/
clyssandre's review
3.0
[I received this book from a GoodRead giveaway]
Rating: 3.5
I have never had such mixed feelings about a book.
First, the story of "The Line" is great. Just great. It's a fantastic new take on time travel and really well executed. The station in which the scientists are working looks really cool and different from the typical ice-cold design spaceship. It's a daring hard sci-fi novel with plenty of creative ideas. And once again, I really enjoy the plot. If I had to rate the story alone, it would be a 4.
However, the book suffers from a lack of polish in multiple aspect. First, the quality of the writing is irregular: while the second part is exciting, tense, and gripping, the first 100 pages are rather plain. All characters speak in a similar way and the narration fails to create a climax around important events. Second, the use of acronyms and army vocabulary made it hard to understand sometimes (I had to google many of them). Finally, I think a publisher/editor/proof-reader could have helped tremendously with the typography (font-size, justification of the text, typos, use of section break...) as well as some issues with the narrative development and character consistency.
"The Line" is not a perfect novel but I believe any Science-Fiction lover will enjoy it considering its great story and thought-provoking ending.
Rating: 3.5
I have never had such mixed feelings about a book.
First, the story of "The Line" is great. Just great. It's a fantastic new take on time travel and really well executed. The station in which the scientists are working looks really cool and different from the typical ice-cold design spaceship. It's a daring hard sci-fi novel with plenty of creative ideas. And once again, I really enjoy the plot. If I had to rate the story alone, it would be a 4.
However, the book suffers from a lack of polish in multiple aspect. First, the quality of the writing is irregular: while the second part is exciting, tense, and gripping, the first 100 pages are rather plain. All characters speak in a similar way and the narration fails to create a climax around important events. Second, the use of acronyms and army vocabulary made it hard to understand sometimes (I had to google many of them). Finally, I think a publisher/editor/proof-reader could have helped tremendously with the typography (font-size, justification of the text, typos, use of section break...) as well as some issues with the narrative development and character consistency.
"The Line" is not a perfect novel but I believe any Science-Fiction lover will enjoy it considering its great story and thought-provoking ending.
elden's review
4.0
I won this book on goodreads as a first reads giveaway. It is books like this that make me happy that I enter the giveaways on this site because I greatly enjoyed this book. In fact I ended up reading the majority of it in a single day. While it did not really go that deep into science, which I find usually backfires anyways, it had a great plot and told the story that it wanted to quite well. I would definitely read more books from this author again, and will definitely be looking out for William Galaini in the bookstore in the future.
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