Reviews - Polostan: Volume One of Bomb Light

255 reviews for:

Polostan: Volume One of Bomb Light

Neal Stephenson

3.67 AVERAGE

philibin's review against another edition

2.5

dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

(2.5 Stars)

Neal Stephenson is really good at detail and backstory. Although sometimes the main story suffers from it. This wasn't necessarily the case here. This story is interesting and the backstory really IS the story. However, I just didn't "love" it.

The Audiobook narration is superb, January LaVoy does an excellent job with this book.

The book is a pseudo alternate history, mixed with this oddly sexually fueled espionage and accidental spycraft. It was unnecessarily anachronistic, and while the plot did move along... it never seemed like there would be a final destination. Now, this is the first book in a series, but the build up for the entire book doesn't really seem to come together till the last few paragraphs, and that was just to make it a cliffhanger of an ending.

I couldn't tell if the author was going for something satirical, or was just being creepy.

With that being said, I am now invested in the main character, so I'll probably give the next book a shot when it comes out.

pshotts's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

tips2liveby's review against another edition

3.0

This is the first book in a new series, so I am going to chalk up all of the extraneous narrative to the fact that the author feels like he has to eatablish the characters and the background. But a lot of it seemed excessive and not necessary to the story.

This was not as action packed as I had hoped, and was a little tough to force myself to stick with it. There is a clear set up for future books in the series, but I'm not sure that I will be anxious to read them.

I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.